The trouble with hiking on the west side of the park is that there are few shorter trails like there are on the east side. Many of the west side trails are 10+ miles round trip. They also generally start at lower elevations so one has to traverse long segments through the forest to get up to timberline and the views. I generally recommend the east side trails to those who haven't been to the park before. I've spent many days hiking all over RMNP and I personally prefer the east side trails for our hiking. For us, the scenic rewards outweigh the crowd factor.