By Gary Frederick, Conservation Chair, Raritan Valley Group
These are perilous times for our national parks. Although the parks logged more than 331 million visits in 2024, President Trump’s administration has cut the National Park Service (NPS) staff by about 24% nationwide, according to the National Parks Conservation Association. The administration is also threatening to raise entrance fees for about 14 million foreign tourists to help make up for the budgetary shortfall, and while the NPS budget dropped from $3.28 billion in fiscal year 2025 to $3.12 billion in fiscal year 2026 (under the “One Big Beautiful Bill”), Trump still wants to claw back an additional $900 million from 2026 NPS funding.
It was against this backdrop that I and two friends traveled in late June to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado for a week of hiking on its mountainous and picturesque trails. We expected to see dirty restrooms, understaffed visitor centers, and poorly maintained trails. Instead, we saw a valiant business-as-usual attempt to keep the park functioning, even though volunteer numbers were down and staff were cut by about 5%. At various parks throughout the country, custodial staff have been eliminated. Their duties cleaning restrooms and hauling trash have now been taken over by the remaining, overworked employees. I suspect the same has happened at Rocky Mountain. That is not a sustainable situation, and stressed-out staff are under additional pressure to retire or resign.
Breathtaking Beauty
Against this challenging backdrop, the breathtaking beauty of Rocky Mountain National Park remains. One of its four main visitor centers, the Alpine Visitor Center, is reachable along the Trail Ridge Road, which slices through the park for 48 miles, soaring to an elevation of 12,183 feet. The visitor center itself is completely covered in snow during winter. When we arrived in late June, it had been open for two weeks, and we witnessed an excited group of boys and girls being sworn in as new Junior Rangers. I hiked up another 300 feet to a 360-degree lookout. From that spot, I could see snow-capped mountains in the distance but also saw at the lookout an explosion of wildflowers that bloom for just 6-12 weeks of the year before withering away, the ground becoming covered by many feet of snow.
The hiking was spectacular. After allowing a day to acclimate to the high altitude, we hiked miles through verdant forests, past pristine lakes at 10,000 feet or higher, and along raging streams and frothy waterfalls bursting with snowmelt. A ranger said we came at the best time of the year. Of all our hikes, my favorite was to Mills Lake. We got an early, 6:30 a.m. start to beat the crowds and get a much-prized parking spot at the trailhead. Rated as moderate, the hike is about 5 miles and rises 700 feet to an elevation of 9,240 feet. At just under a mile from the trailhead, we passed Alberta Falls, an arching 30-foot waterfall raining down on Glacier Creek. From there we continued several miles to Glacier Gorge and on to Mills Lake, a subalpine lake nestled among thick forests and treeless mountain peaks. It was early morning when we arrived, and we were among a handful of visitors perched on rocks around the lake. For a while, we had it all to ourselves—the lake, its crisp air, a few birds, and mirror reflections of trees and mountains in the clear, still water. It was the perfect spot for photography and a breakfast of trail mix and nut bars.
We had other memorable hikes during the week, such as a journey to Emerald Lake, where we walked through melting snows to get to the pristine waters, and a scramble up boulders to Bridal Veil Falls after walking miles through a mix of wildflower-laden meadows and deep forests. We even encountered elk in the most unexpected places. There were bulls with majestic antlers grazing just feet off the hiking trails and cows (female elks) on the streets of Estes Park, where elk are numerous and walk unfazed among tourists on sidewalks and roadways.
Looking back on the week, we had a great experience at the park, despite the budget cuts and staff shortages. The rangers and volunteers who keep our parks open and safe are doing an incredible job. They deserve our gratitude in these tough times.
