Telling People to Take a Hike Since 1998
There are not many things I would consider being good at, but walking is one of them, specifically hiking in the mountains. In the late 90’s, my wife Kay and I moved back to Estes Park with our two children working as resident managers of a local lodge. We would often be asked by visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park, “What’s a good trail to hike?” It was a favorite question. |
How it began At the time, there was only one hiking guide book available for Rocky, a very good one and very complete, a little too complete for someone visiting for just a few days. So in 1998, I designed a pocket-sized book of 24 trails, which I had printed at a local print shop, and began to wholesale it around town. It sold for $4.95, and still does. Over 100,00 have sold. |
From 24 to 79
In the years after, I continued hiking and photographing the many gorgeous trails of the Park and found myself with a pretty good collection. So in 2014, I created a website with about 60 trails, called rockymountaindayhikes.com. That trail list has now grown to 79 hikes from short trails to challenging hikes, giving visitors to Rocky Mountain National Park a very complete list of hikes to choose from. The website received over 40.5k page views over the last year alone. The site provides Rocky Mountain National Park Information and updates, trail specific weather forecasts, a wildflower guide, videos, and much more. |
Reaching the RMNP hikers
In 2021, I started publishing an annual, free magazine, Hike Rocky, and a monthly e-newsletter, a resource for Rocky Mountain National Park. With 60,000 copies distributed annually to over 150 locations, the print magazine provides trail information with QR code links to the website, and informative articles. The monthly e-newsletter provides the 500+ subscribers with seasonal trail information, stories and adventure articles, science research and other current issues occurring in the Park. |
Hike Rocky Print Magazine has quickly become the go-to visitor guide for all things Rocky Mountain National Park. With the Trail Guide for RMNP along with the Hike Rocky archives of articles, rockymountaindayhikes.com is now the most comprehensive website around specifically focused on Rocky Mountain National Park.
Supported by our Supporting Partners, Rocky Mountain Day Hikes has continued to provide the best information for Rocky Mountain National Park visitors for over a quarter century. Take a look at our Media Kit and find out how you can partner with us.