Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park: The Essential Guide

If you are planning a trip to RMNP, you need to buy this book. This might be the most detailed book I have ever read on any subject. Not only does he cover the trails, but the author also covers everything from hiking etiquette to how to be a good steward of the environment.The book is well organized, with a comprehensive introduction which covers everything from the ecosystems of RMNP, times to go to the park, wildlife, etc. There is then a whole section covering the various trailheads and how to get to them. Then, when the book gets into the trails themselves, they are organized by difficulty level - ranging from accessible to strenuous. Each trail is then described in detail, including landmarks that you'll see along the way, best time of the day to hike that particular trail, distance, possible wildlife, trail conditions and more. He also shows elevation start and gain along with difficulty ratings.We initially bought the hard copy book prior to our trip, which we used to plan out our hikes. Then, just before leaving, we also bought the kindle version so that we could have the book with us on the trail on our phone without having to take the relatively heavy hard copy book with us.

I have a lot of books like this for RMNP but this is one of my favorites. It's an excellent resource for planning hikes and the author is highly qualified to share the trail data. Definitely a book to keep on your shelves.

This is one of the best books, for all levels, about hiking in RMNP. I almost didn’t buy this book because I thought it just a collection of information available on the internet. Boy was I wrongThe level of detail is astounding. Elevation profiles, distances, the authors insights, all of it is just amazing. Clearly the author went through a lot of time, effort, and energy to put this book together and it showsStunning photographs, fantastic details. I’ve been lucky to hike RMNP for the past few years and in the short time I’ve had this book my entire perspective on the park has changed. I’ve uncovered new hikes I didn’t previously know about — cannot say enough about this wonderful guideHats off to the author for all his amazing work

I wanted to take a trip to the Rockies and this is the book that I planned my whole trip with. Very comprehensive book. Eric knows the Rocky Mountain's like the back of his hand. He live in Estes and has a great shop there also. The one nice thing about the book is that it is broken down by the level of the trails. It worked out great for me. Also love all the photos that Eric took for this book. The book is thick but for a beginner hiker out in the Rockies this is what I wanted. I will be using this book for many years.

I can honestly state that this is the absolute best hiking guide I've ever read for Rocky Mountain National Park. Stensland has done an outstanding job creating a useful and easy to read guide that is organized by hike difficulty. This makes it easy to match your ability and available time to the appropriate hike in the park. The commentary and descriptions of the trail, scenery, landmarks, etc., are especially helpful. Further, Stensland is an excellent landscape photographer (full disclosure, I have several of his works on my office walls) and he illustrates his guide with his photos. I've been to RMNP many times over the last 30 years, and will be heading there again this July with this guide at the ready to point me to new hikes.

The book is great knowing everything about the hikes and for planning purposes. The only thing I wish it had was some opinion as to which hikes are the best, can’t miss hikes in the park. The descriptions are very neutral, so it’s hard to tell which hikes are the very best. Update: the book proves very useful. After being there, the book missing a few things. First, how does the author not include hiking Mt. Ida??? Websites rave about this hike as the best in the park. - and it’s true!!! Second, there should be better descriptions of the extent to rock scrambling and better words of cautions so that hikers don’t bite off more than they can chew.

While living in Colorado, RMNP is just a short drive away. However, the park is so massive (as it should be), that there is really no way to know where to go for what hikes. I really like how the author goes into great detail of the levels of each hike. So if you are looking for a 14er, he has that. If you are looking for something easier for the kids or those not adapted to the altitude, he has that too. This is a great addition if you are looking for that perfect hike or awesome picture area.I was not aware there was a "pocket sized" book however until we stopped at one of the ranger stations. I would have rather had that for ease and packability in the backpack. Either way, no loss of stars for my lack of research.

We love, love, loved this book. It described the Rocky Mountain National Park hikes perfectly and thoroughly. There were also many organized ways to use this book to reference hikes (ex: by trailhead, difficulty level, etc.). I highly recommend. It's a little heavy but we just took iphone pics of the hikes we planned to take each day to reference on the trails.