Estes Park does dessert as a main activity. Candy shops and ice cream counters cluster around Elkhorn Avenue, and visitors treat a walk down it as part of the trip. Twenty sweet shops are listed, and all of them keep a shop in the valley.
If you want a box to take home, buy from a shop that makes the candy in the building. For ice cream, skip the longest line downtown and walk one block. The cone tastes the same.
Hayley's Ice Cream is listed as a seasonal shop. Confirm it is open before you go.
Downtown
Come in the morning and there's a fair chance the Model K Kiss wrapping machine is running, a 77-year-old piece of equipment that still wraps the taffy made on site. This is the only taffy actually made in Estes Park, on West Elkhorn a block from Bond Park.
On East Elkhorn, a few steps from Bond Park and right next to Purple Mountain Taffy Company, Laura's has been cooking candy in copper kettles with wooden paddles for decades. Fudge and taffy come up about equally when people talk about the place, with caramel apples close behind.
Thirty-two flavors made fresh each day is the pitch, and the flavor list is what people end up debating at the counter. Blueberry cheesecake comes up most, with mint chip, rocky road, coconut almond and tiger butter in the running.
Caramel apples are the thing to get here, whole or sliced, and the fudge and toffee come right behind. This is a national chain, so the boxed assortments, truffles and Mountain-Sized candies will look familiar from other towns.
On Virginia Drive, a few steps from Bond Park and next door to The Vortex Barbershop, this candy shop runs on homemade fudge. Samples are free, which makes choosing a flavor harder, not easier.
Honey lavender, huckleberry Oreo and banana caramel are the kind of flavors that pull people into this shop on Moraine Avenue, next to Moose Creek and across from the Historic Park Theatre. The ice cream is homemade, and a scoop flight is the answer when a group can't settle on one.
Waffle cones made in the shop are the reason to stop, and the scoops that go into them run large. Danish Cone Factory sits on West Elkhorn next to The Stanley Chocolate Factory, with dozens of homemade flavors plus shakes and malts.
A few steps from Bond Park on East Elkhorn, right next to Laura's Fine Candies, this shop is about one thing: salt water taffy, soft, and in more flavors than anyone needs. A quick stop, in and out, with a bag for the drive.
The chocolate chip cookie is what people walk out with here, and the shop sits right beside Grandma's Mountain Cookies on West Elkhorn, a block from Bond Park. Homemade English almond toffee, peanut butter fudge, taffy and rock candy fill the cases, along with 24 ice cream flavors from huckleberry to butterscotch fudge ripple.
Shakes and smoothies carry this takeout counter on Big Thompson Avenue, a few doors from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory: Gansito, Mazapan and chocolate shakes, Oreo and peach smoothies. The other half of the menu is antojitos, including elote, tosticeviche, fresas con crema, mangoneadas, papas preparadas and Dorinachos, plus a few sandwiches.
Pickle soda is the bottle people dare each other to buy, and it sits a few shelves from blue cream soda, fruit punch and a long wall of other glass-bottled flavors. This is the Estes Park outpost of a national soda and candy franchise, on East Elkhorn next to Hands Down Best In Town Therapeutic Massage, and the house taffy (blueberry, watermelon, tangerine, grape cotton candy) shares space with old-school brands like Nik-L-Nip.
On East Elkhorn at Bond Park, a few doors from Wheel Bar, this candy and ice cream shop makes its scoops in small batches right in the store, more than 40 flavors of them. Huckleberry is the one people single out.
Right at the Riverwalk end of East Elkhorn, next to Slice Brothers Pizza and the Rocky Mountain Crepe Company, this shop leans hard on nostalgia. Old-time candy is the main event, the kind of wrappers grandparents recognize, along with taffy, fudge and a big shelf of freeze dried candy, the shop's other specialty.
Jerky gets as much shelf space as candy here, and the range of flavors is the reason to stop. The shop is on West Elkhorn at the downtown end of the street, steps from Estes Village and Lonigans, so it is easy to fold into a walk along the strip.
A Blizzard on Elkhorn Avenue is about as predictable as downtown gets, which is the point. This is a regular Dairy Queen: soft serve, shakes and Blizzards, with Oreo the usual pick and seasonal flavors like pumpkin pie rotating through, plus hot dogs and the burger-and-fries menu.
The smell reaches the sidewalk on East Elkhorn before you reach the door. Caramel Corn has stirred its namesake by hand in copper kettles for close to eight decades, in small batches, sweet and savory both, and sells it by the bag.
Peanut butter is the cookie that gets singled out at this little counter on West Elkhorn, though the case also holds rocky road, white chocolate Oreo, dark chocolate mint and cinnamon chewies. Grandma's Mountain Cookies has ice cream as well, and stocks the candy-shop extras: caramel corn, cotton candy, rock candy and unicorn pops.
Handcrafted ice cream, milkshakes and sundaes are the whole point of this counter inside The Stanley Chocolate Factory on West Elkhorn, so a cone and a box of chocolates can happen in one stop. Seasonal flavors rotate alongside the classics.
Japanese KitKats, Pocky, Milka and bags of foreign Lay's are the reason to walk in, and the international candy is what people leave talking about. Elk Bites also stocks freeze-dried candy, a bulk Swedish pick-and-mix and a sugar-free shelf.
Around the valley
The gift shop is one piece of a bigger stop. Rocky Mountain Gateway sits about a tenth of a mile from the Fall River entrance, next to the Trailhead Restaurant and the Fall River Visitor Center, and it was the first joint venture between a private company and the National Park Service.
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All 20 are based in the valley. Several have been here for decades: The Taffy Shop has made salt water taffy since 1935, and Munchin' House has been the downtown ice cream stop since 1968. Summer is the busy season, and many businesses cut hours or close in winter.
Ice cream is its own tier. Hayley's Ice Cream is listed as seasonal, with 32 flavors on East Elkhorn Avenue. Pines & Cones, Danish Cone Factory and Flavors of The Rockies also scoop. Takeout is listed at 9 places, and 2 allow dogs on the patio. For candy, Laura's Fine Candies cooks fudge and toffee in small batches and is open year-round.
A few are chains or franchise shops, like Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and Rocket Fizz. Rocky Mountain Gateway sits at the Fall River entrance and also sells groceries and gifts. Use the descriptions to tell the local makers from the souvenir counters. Some shops, like Shakes Alive, lean to smoothies and snacks rather than candy. Fudge, caramel apples and taffy travel well, so a box makes an easy souvenir.
The Taffy Shop has made Estes Park Salt Water Taffy since 1935 and ships boxes from its web store. Purple Mountain Taffy Company, Rocket Fizz and Danish Cone Factory also sell taffy. Hours change with the season, so call before you go.
Hayley's Ice Cream, Munchin' House, Pines & Cones Ice Cream, Danish Cone Factory and Flavors of The Rockies all scoop ice cream. Hayley's is listed as a seasonal shop, so confirm it is open before you walk over.
Two listings allow dogs on the patio: Hayley's Ice Cream and Danish Cone Factory. Policies can change with the season, so it is worth a quick call before you bring a dog along on a warm afternoon.
Some are. Laura's Fine Candies is listed as open year-round, while Hayley's Ice Cream is listed as seasonal. Many businesses in town cut hours or close in winter, so call before you plan a trip around one shop.
