Round Trip Distance: 1.2 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 8810 - 8839 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 30 mins.
Trailhead: Coyote Valley
Fee: $20/vehicle
Attractions: Scenic valley and mountains, picnic area
The Coyote Valley trail is located in the Rocky Mountain National Park near the west entrance. The Coyote Valley trail is a self guided interpretive, or nature, trail with kiosks along the way that give interesting bits of information about points of interest and the local flora, fauna and ecosystem. The trail follows along a half mile stretch of the Colorado River which has its beginnings about 10 miles further upstream.
The trailhead sits down off of Highway 34 where vehicle length is restricted to no more than 18 feet due to the small parking spaces and turn around area.
The hard packed gravel trail is wheelchair accessible although one small section has had some minor flood damage.
The trail crosses a bridge to the west side of the Colorado River. There is a fork in the trail after crossing the bridge where the left fork leads to a picnic area and the right fork commences the nature trail.
Coyote Valley is as pretty as you might expect from a sub alpine basin with expansive grassy meadows and the Never Summer mountain range towering in the background.
This massive bull was seen across the highway coming down toward the Colorado River with a herd of elk. Evening was drawing close and the wildlife was beginning to come out of the forest where they had been secluded during the day.
