My 10 year old son and I just returned from a cross park hike of Rocky Mountain National Park. I posted my trip report on my blog HERE. Enjoy (we sure did)!

Brian-

Awesome trip! Your son is a trooper, that's for sure...I think it's a great and noble deed to pass on the love for the wilderness to our kids. Thanks for starting a new generation of backpacker!

Thank you so much for sharing, your son now has the best answer for "what did you do on summer vacation". The bear spray incident (while at the moment terrible) has the potential of being a highly entertaining story for years to come.

Looking back the bear spray incident will be a story with longevity and levity. However, at the time I was thinking what in the heck would we have done if it had got one of us? We had already hiked for over 13 hours that day and were still 7 miles from town. It could have been a disaster!

Are the bear cannisters required now?

Chris, Cannisters are currently required in the area we were (wild basin) due to recent bear trouble over the past two years. The rangers indicated that next year they'll be required park wide (but we've heard that before from RMNP). Not sure if they'll actually enforce it next year or not.

That was some beautiful country you folks hiked through. While it was a long hard trip for you three, it sounded like you had some fun too.

Great report!! All the detail is much appreciated, right down to your brief comments describing arrangements you made (including the name of the taxi outfit) for getting to the trailhead. I'm saving that taxi outfit's name to as a resource for future trips I might make the same area.

Indeed, it would be helpful to have a forum topic devoted to identifying local transportation resources at various backpacking destinations in the USA as well as elsewhere. Trying to figure how to get from an airport or train station to a trailhead without renting a car and leaving it somewhere for a week or more is no small feat. Local transportation issues are even more difficult when the point of entry is to be different than the exit point, and even worse by far for a solo hiker.

Anyway, with your narrative woven into to the spectacular photos, the whole report was terrific. And congrats to your fine son who shows a lot of grit and smarts.

Great job!!

JRS