Kawuneeche Visitor Center

3.5 stars in the winter
This is not open during the winter, but helpful information is available on the message boards, specifically around snow-​shoeing.
I rented snow-​shoes from OTTR and started at Kawuneeche Visitor Center to look for trailheads. I read the message boards and found a few spots to try out in RMNP.
Snow-​shoeing was a lot more fun than most people would make it out to be. It’s easy and it was very peaceful to wander around with a camera and my thoughts in the park. Be aware that the trails around here are rarely used in the winter, so consult a walking/​hiking map of the trails. I got really close to a river, which would have sucked. If I’d fallen through the water, I’d surely be dead because there wasn’t anybody else out there. I used MapMyWalk (it has a snow-​shoe option if you want to calculate your calorie usage) after I realized how close I got to the water. On my next trail, I headed straight South when the trail went West. Fortunately I could tell on my app and go back since the trail was not marked.
The park really needs to label the trails for winter guests. This could have ended badly.

I’ll admit it – it’s the public restroom that brings me here every time. But once I’m there, I always learn something new. It’s comfortable to sit and look over the information. There are computers to map out your day. Menus from nearly every restaurant, helpful folks on staff.
A good place to start your adventure in Estes Park or RMNP.

This visitor’s center is NOT in Estes Park, it’s over 40 miles away on the west side of the park near Grand Lake Colorado!

Very well done information center. Picturesque brook runs right under the sidewalk just steps from the front door, the information and audio/​visual interactive topographical map is a really nice touch! The rangers are friendly and patient. A nice complement to the Rocky Mountain National Park!

Ranger Barb led us on a 2+ hour kickass snowshoe tour east of the Holdsworth Cabin parking lot into the high country. So much snow you wouldn’t believe it. And that ranger lady. .. tough as nails, leading us up terrain you’d just shake your head at and think, «no way we’re going up there!» But up we’d go (well, it was billed as one of their more advanced level trips), and it was worth every panting breath.
Punctuated with welcome rest stops every half hour or so, she’d give of all kinds of interesting and fascinating historical and natural science information. This free (did you get that?. .. FREE) service includes a lemon drop stop, ala the kindness of the rangers who lead the trip.
Not to be missed, these weekly trips out of the Kawuneeche Visitors Center are an enormous bright spot in our national park system!
(P.S. Kawuneeche’s on the west side of the Park, just north of Grand Lake, not the Estes Park side, contrary to what the address says at the top of the review:)