Parking
Only a few spaces sit by the bridge. Day visitors should use Fall River Visitor Center and walk the unmarked connector beside Gateway Stables; it adds about 1.5 miles round trip.
Overview
About Aspenglen Loop
Why go
- Open meadow views to the Mummy Range
- A complete loop from the Fall River bridge
- Lawn Lake flood wayside at the start
Heads up
- Visitor Center access adds about 1.5 miles round trip
- Narrow, rocky tread is also used by horses
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Rocky Mountain map
Full mapElevation8,310–8,701 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
3 active Rocky Mountain alerts
- ClosureOld Fall River Road closed to vehiclesOld Fall River Road is closed to motor vehicles for the season.Official details
- ClosureSun Valley burn-area access remains closedThe area and trail west of Sun Valley Trail remain closed, including the route used for angler access to the Colorado River, because of impacts from the 2020 East Troublesome and Cameron Peak Fires;…Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Rocky Mountain Tour Guide
Your drive to Aspenglen Loop, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Rocky Mountain National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Rocky Mountain audio tourRecorded for this area
Bringing the Elk Back0:00 / 0:33
“Elk seem so much a part of these meadows that it's hard to imagine them gone. But market hunting wiped them out locally in the late eighteen hundreds.”
Plays on the road 0.2 mi from the trailhead in the Parkwolf Rocky Mountain Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Fall River Visitor Center: Planning and a Meal
- Sheep Lakes: Watch for Bighorns
- Deer Mountain: A Half-Day Summit Hike
- West Horseshoe Park: A Meadow-Level View
- 79 audio storiesacross Rocky Mountain’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Elk, Moose, Mountain Goat, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 136 trails, 88 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“…No cell service for majority of the day but had continuous access to the app - the maps, the tour guide as you drive is amazing. Highly recommend purchasing the subscription.”
Trail guide
Hiking Aspenglen Loop
The circuitThis 3-mile loop begins at the Fall River bridge beside Aspenglen Campground, crosses the river…
This 3-mile loop begins at the Fall River bridge beside Aspenglen Campground, crosses the river and circles the meadows and wooded slopes below Deer Mountain before returning to the bridge. Take the right-hand branch at the first loop junction for the gentler counterclockwise climb. Allow about 1½ hours for the core loop; it gains roughly 425 feet and stays above 8,300 feet, where the altitude can make the climb feel harder.
Getting to the bridgeDay visitors can start from Fall River Visitor Center and follow the unmarked path beside the…
Day visitors can start from Fall River Visitor Center and follow the unmarked path beside the west side of the Gateway Stables corral to the park boundary and bridge. That approach adds about 1½ miles round trip, making the full outing roughly 4½ miles. The bridge pull-off has only a few spaces, so it is not a reliable parking plan.
Meadows and mountain viewsOpen stretches look across flowered meadow toward the Mummy Range, including Mount Chapin,…
Open stretches look across flowered meadow toward the Mummy Range, including Mount Chapin, Mount Chiquita and Ypsilon Mountain. At the bridge, a wayside interprets the 1982 Lawn Lake flood, whose water followed Fall River through this valley.
Tread and park rulesThe path narrows and gets rocky in places; horses also use it, leaving uneven tread and…
The path narrows and gets rocky in places; horses also use it, leaving uneven tread and sometimes manure. Pets are prohibited on Rocky Mountain National Park trails.
A shorter optionA connector on the Little Horseshoe Park side cuts across the loop and can shorten the walk by…
A connector on the Little Horseshoe Park side cuts across the loop and can shorten the walk by about a mile. Follow the junctions carefully if you take it; staying on the full circuit brings you back to the bridge.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Rocky Mountain
3,124 sightingsElkMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
1,601 sightingsMooseMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
19 sightingsMountain GoatMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
19 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
30 sightingsGolden EagleMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
270 sightingsBighorn SheepMost seen around 11 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Rocky Mountain. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
