A few days ago I had hiked in the Rockies in the Indian Peaks Park up to the Blue Lakes. It was more of a walk than a hike.

Now we were headed to the Rocky Mountain National Park for four days of camping and backpacking. The Rockies themselves span thousands of miles in the US and Canada, and the Rocky Mountain National Park itself covers just a small portion of it. The majesty and grandeur of the Rockies is hard to describe in words, our brains haven't evolved to comprehend such magnitudes.

Our first stop was Estes Park. Located at the foothills of the Rockies this is a resort town, surreal and beautiful with large lakes and flanked by mountains, like all resort towns.

We camped for two nights, once in Moraine Park and once in Aspenglen. Compared to other campgrounds I’ve seen, both of these are extremely secluded and quiet. Near Moraine Park we saw a deer, a marmot, a herd of turkeys, and a big moose.

Located in different parts of the park, these parks are very spread out, so much so that Aspenglen does not even look like a campground, it’s just a piece of land cleared of any trees and shrubs by the river. At a distance, there was an unpopulated amphitheater, which looked completely out of place, a post-apocalyptic structure whose purpose seemed lost with time.

We got sandwiches to eat at for dinner and some warm beer to have by the fireside. The mountains get eerily quiet when it starts getting dark. Every single evening it would rain, and then all would become quite. The only sounds would be the sounds of water running at a distance or of winds flapping our tents. There is nothing like a night in the outdoors to forget about all your troubles and your daily tinkerings, out there all our minor quibbles seem unnecessary and redundant.