The hike to Bridal Veil Falls begins from the Cow Creek Trailhead, located near the northeast corner of Rocky Mountain National Park. We reached the trailhead from the historic McGraw Ranch.
Chris found this hike that had limited parking along the road. When we finally arrived, all of the spots were taken.
We decided to wait for a bit and see if something opened up. While waiting, we put on our hiking boots and made sure our packs were ready to go. Without too much delay, one guy returned to his truck and left a spot for us. Good thing Chris is such a great parallel parker.
To reach the trail, we walked a short distance down a hill and turned left at the fork in the road where there was a gate with signs pointing to the trailhead.
The first part of the path followed an access road for about ¾ of a mile where it changed to a single lane path. The path was lined with wild flowers and relatively flat, with only a gradual elevation. Can’t complain about that!
One of the things we have loved this summer in hiking is all of the wildflowers or super blooms. With all of the spring rain we received, the flowers have continued to grow all season, and much of the undergrowth has stayed green much longer.
The drawback? The bugs are much more abundant this year.
The hike to Bridal Veil Falls was 6.2 miles round trip with just under 1000 feet of elevation gain (mostly in the last section).
Wanting to explore a bit, we carefully crossed over the river below the falls and climbed up even higher. The falls continued on.
It had threatened to rain for awhile and drops began to fall as we climbed the huge granite boulders next to the falls. Knowing that granite gets pretty slippery when wet, we climbed back down pretty quickly.
The rain poured on us as we hiked back to our car. We pulled out our rain jackets and backpack covers and continued on our way.
Returned to find some creative parking.
