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ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, Colo. (KDVR) — The steady snow covered cars parked at the Bear Lake trailhead inside Rocky Mountain National Park. A group of first-time snowshoers had gathered for the 12:30 p.m. ranger-led snowshoe walk. They were each scrambling to assemble their gear before the two-hour hike began.

“The nice thing about snowshoeing is that if you can walk, you can snowshoe. So it really is an accessible winter sport,” said Cynthia Langguth, a ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park.

Those are the words every beginner wants to hear. According to Langguth, Rocky Mountain National Park is a great place to start.

“Even though the terrain we travel isn’t flat and easy, we go at a very slow pace. We stop a lot. (The Ranger-led walks are) meant to give people the confidence to build some skills with snowshoes,” Langguth said.

Ranger-guided snowshoe tours returned to the park in January after a two-year hiatus because of COVID-19 protocol.

“It’s always beautiful. You’re always going to find something very beautiful to see,” said Jacob Mendiola, a winter educational fellow at Rocky Mountain National Park.

Mendiola led the East Side tour, which covers a mile and a half. The hike wove its way to Bear Lake with a leisurely pace. The tone changed when Mendiola and the group of 14 headed uphill for Nymph Lake.

“I get to skip the gym today,” said one first-time snowshoer as she tried to catch her breath.

The hike was described as “moderately strenuous.” That might be an understatement because the mile-and-a-half loop was a workout.

“That’s the great thing about it. I joke with people (that) you earn dessert when you go snowshoeing because you can burn up to twice as many calories as just hiking,” Langguth said.

And it took twice as long for the group to reach Nymph Lake. Luckily, the way back down the mountain was a breeze for a handful of the snowshoers, who slid down a steep decline on their backs.

The 2022 ranger-led walks have wrapped up at Rocky Mountain National Park, but it’s not too late to give this sport a shot.

“The snowshoeing season, you might say, will last into April,” Langguth said. “Winter is not finished at 9,000 feet at Rocky Mountain National Park. It will linger on for another month or so.”

So, by all means, take a hike.