ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK — My backyard park is more than 400 square miles and contains vast swaths of tundra, remote peaks and glaciers, and even a fourteener. And did I mention the moose and marmots? Gray jays and hummingbirds?

OK, technically Rocky Mountain National Park isn’t in my backyard. It’s 45 minutes away from my house. (It’s 55 minutes. I always say 45, though. Sounds close, more backyard-y.) It’s a place I visit in all seasons, and it’s a place I always show to visitors: “We’ll go to the park, it’s practically my backyard!”

Our backyard park — I’m guessing you might feel the same way about it, even if you live farther away — is having a big birthday. Rocky has been celebrating its 100th anniversary since last fall, and the celebration continues this summer.

To celebrate in my own way, I decided to get to know the park better this spring and summer. I had a small mental mountain to get over, though. I thought I knew our park well. Maybe even had it wired. I had a list of favorite hikes, drives and views in my back pocket, at the ready. But deliberately going off-list reminded me just how many favorites are to be had at our park, whether it’s your first visit or your 100th.

Now, I have some new favorites. If you head to the park this summer, maybe you’ll find some, too. Until then, here are mine:

Lovely lakes

When I take visitors to the park, I have a circuit: Bear Lake Road to Bear Lake, Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Visitor Center. The mandatory stops and activities are: walk at Bear Lake, stop at Many Parks Curve and Forest Canyon overlooks, look down the hill beneath the Alpine Visitor Center for wildlife on the slopes.

All this time, I’ve been missing out on Sprague Lake.

Sprague is just out of view from Bear Lake Road, but I have no excuse for not stopping there sooner — it’s a perfect place to take any visitor, and it’s even accessible for strollers and wheelchairs. A short walk from the parking lot takes you to the far side of the lake, where you can look across the water at Flattop, Hallett, Otis and other peaks.

Find your favorite: All of Rocky’s accessible trails are listed at nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/accessible_trails.htm.

A walk with birds

All these years I’ve been visiting the park, I’ve never taken a ranger-led program. My dad piqued my interest in birds in the past few years, so I decided to take a birding walk in the park with a group of strangers.

Binoculars poised, we crept from the Upper Beaver Meadows trailhead (another spot I’d never visited — quiet, especially at 7 a.m.) into a meadow with the ranger talking in a low voice about the pair of Williamson’s sapsuckers that have a nest in the area.

Someone spotted one of the woodpeckers, the female. Binocs up! We got a good look at her black, brown and white bars, then a brief look at the male, whose red throat popped out from the dense foliage.

Everyone was excited. This bird isn’t exactly common. “That was a good bird,” the ranger intoned with birding gravitas.

We wandered into the next meadow over, where we saw mountain bluebirds, vivid blue even under the flat light of a cloudy morning. I provided my guidebook but otherwise stayed out of a bird-I.D. debate between a couple over a sparrow (Her: “It’s a Lincoln’s.” Him: “No no, it’s a … okay it’s a Lincoln’s.”). We saw twenty-something bird species that morning, plus some marmots.

Find your favorite: The park has plenty of ranger programs, from tundra walks to talks about big-horn sheep and lightning. Current schedule: nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/ranger_led_activities.htm.

New waterfalls

Alberta Falls is less than a mile from the Glacier Gorge trailhead, so it sees plenty of traffic. Park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson told me that according to their most recent data, 110,000 visitors go to Alberta Falls every year. (Only 30,000 continue on to Mills Lake, two more miles down the trail. It’s one of my favorites in all seasons, and the numbers show why it’s a good idea to keep hiking if you’re able.)

I kind of felt like I needed a new waterfall. Besides, Rocky has plenty.

Adams Falls: If the park’s west side can be said to have its own version of Alberta Falls, this is it … except it’s a shorter hike and a way bigger waterfall. Getting to the East Inlet trailhead requires a drive through Grand Lake and a short stroll up to a wrap-around stone overlook. Adams Falls roars around a corner into a slot in the rock, spraying visitors and making them shout at one another. It’s worth the short walk if you’re on the west side.

Fern Falls: In mid-June I went for a run from the Cub Lake trailhead and stumbled upon Fern Falls (2.5 miles from the Fern Lake trailhead). I was stunned. The snowmelt was fueling all the streams that day, but I still couldn’t believe this gusher was back here in the woods and I hadn’t made my way to it yet. I stood in the spray with a handful of others to cool off on one of the first days of summer.

Ouzel Falls: Wild Basin took a beating during the 2013 floods, and the bridge at Ouzel Falls is currently out but under construction. A hike to the falls — which are slightly hidden, giving the spot a secret feel — still shows the power of so much water on this landscape, and the beauty that remains along the St. Vrain Creek.

Find your favorite: More waterfall hikes at nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/hikes.htm.

West-side moose

Here’s another number Patterson shared with me: Eighty percent of park visitors enter from the east side, near Estes Park. That’s just entries, not the number of people who stay on the east side of the park. But when I saw tiny crowds gathering for moose sightings along the Kawuneechee Valley, on the west side of the park, I thought of the massive elk jams I’ve been in on the east side.

In the morning, I pulled over with a family that spotted two moose across the valley, strolling along the Colorado River. I’m a bit jaded from the elk traffic in the fall on the east side. I no longer think it’s a big deal to spot an elk. (I’m wrong. It’s still a big deal. They’re very cool.) But moose? I’m pulling over for that ungulate. And pulling my binoculars out of my pack, and trying to describe to the other people who have pulled over exactly where the moose are.

In the afternoon, back in the Kawuneechee Valley, I ran into tiny traffic jams over moose, elk and even deer. Rangers were out trying to move things along. I spotted license plates from all over the country, even there on the quieter west side of the park. I let go of my elk-jam angst. Let them pull over for the moose and elk, I thought. Even when the park is in your backyard, it’s not every day that you see these amazing beasts.

Find your favorite: Before you go, check out these tips on wildlife viewing — and reminders not to feed the animals because it’s illegal — at nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/wildlife_view.htm.