Hiking the Rocky Mountains

When to hike the Rocky Mountains

From July to September, all 13 destinations clear our recommendation criteria. Not one of them does from December to February.

Averaged across the destinations, July is the warmest month at 18 degrees in the hiking window and January the coldest at -7.

How far apart the destinations are

The selected grid cells run from 1,767 metres at Glacier National Park to 3,477 metres at Maroon Bells, with a median of 2,944 metres. Glacier National Park clears the criteria in 4 months (from June to September), Maroon Bells in 3 months (from July to September).

The longest season belongs to Gila Wilderness, at 9 months (all year except January, February and December); the shortest to 7 destinations, including Sawtooth Range and Grand Teton, at 3 months each.

What closes the missing months

Where a destination loses months, a critical climate component falls below the threshold at which we stop recommending a month. The main reason is snow cover, for every one of the 13 destinations.

In January, the quietest month, every destination is closed, all of them by snow cover.

Conditions in August

August is when the open destinations score highest on average. Hiking-window temperature then runs from 13 degrees at Wind River Range to 23 at Gila Wilderness, and rain falls on 24 to 66 percent of days depending on the destination.

What these figures cover

Each destination is described by one selected ERA5-Land grid cell, averaged over 1991 to 2025. The figures above summarise those 13 cells. They are not a map of the whole area or of any route, and they are not a forecast.