Rocky Mountain N/P (Part two)

While I walked back to take this picture Sandy saw a group of 5 deer.

Here are a couple of them.






We stopped at the Alpine Visitor because there is a one way road that comes from the east side of the park and exits here and I wanted to find out what condition it was in. (It also has a gift shop for Sandy to spend a little money).

Well, I guess this tells me what I need to know. I found out that it will not open this year because of all the snow still on the road.

The road comes out behind where the pickup and bulldozer are parked. The new snow will be falling before this snow melts.


There is a herd of bull Elk in the center and lower right of the picture. Double click on the picture to enlarge it. Here is where we need a 300mm zoom lens.  Sandy’s little Canon Sure Shot just doesn’t zoom in close enough all the time.

Here is a Yellow-Bellied Marmot basking in the sun.

One of the things about the Alpine Tundra is that the plants and flowers are small, but they do not lack anything in color or beauty. It took Sandy a long time to get to the top of the trail. She couldn’t pass up taking pictures of just about every flower.  That must come from her Dad’s love of flowers.  We couldn’t include all the pictures or we would have an “Alpine Flower Book” by the time we were done.




These bull Elk were up closer to get a better picture.


Note—the people in the picture are not quite as old as the rocks.


Below you can see the long switchback in the road going up to the Alpine Trailhead.





I wonder from what direction the wind usually blows in this area?

We had to follow this adventurous couple at about 5 mph for awhile to find a spot to get around them. And, yes, Manuel, she had pretty eyes.


There is still a lot of flowing water coming down the mountains. Road crews have been repairing wash-outs on the shoulders of the road.



We stopped just for lunch just outside the east park entrance near Estes Park. This is a good place to stop as the prices are reasonable and the food was great.



Sandy took this picture from the balcony where we ate. That’s the Fall River and a 1939 Buick.

Hummingbird feeders were all along the deck that were constantly visited by the hummingbirds.

Sandy had the Turkey Rueben while I had the Blue Moon Brat with a Blue Moon beer. Sandy couldn’t resist taking a picture of the delicious sandwich on the pretty plate.


As we headed to Loveland, CO, we went from this to….

To this in less than 3 minutes.

Then the next thing we knew we were in Nebraska.

Until next time,
Dave and Sandy

Rocky Mountains and Rocky Mountain N/P (Part One)

When we left the Moab area on July 16th, we thought we would run up to I-70 and find a campsite in Cisco, UT, but when we got there all we found was a modern Utah ghost town.

So we continued on into Colorado and eventually stopped in Clifton, which is just east of Grand Junction.

It was so windy while driving to Clifton that this gal riding on the back of the motorcycle was holding onto her helmet as far as we could see her.

Here we are driving along I-75 on the Colorado River which is flowing high and fast—same as all the other rivers.

The Rocky Mountains somewhere around Eagle, CO.

This is 2:12 Sunday afternoon as we were approaching Georgetown Exit 228 when we hit the traffic jam going into Denver. Exit 260 is Golden, CO, I wonder how long it took these people to drive those 32 miles as it took us 15 minutes to get to our Exit 232 where we headed north on US 40.

This dog is probably thinking “this is going to be a long ride”.


Our plans were to drive through Rocky Mountain National Park this afternoon and early evening then camp on the east side. But as we got closer to the park we could see lots of rain and clouds passing through, so we found a campground in Grand Lake to spend the night.


One of the nice things about stopping early is I can get caught up on my reading.

When we checked into the campground the host said to be sure not to leave any food containers outside because there are bears in the area. Notice the scratch marks on this log at our campsite.


The sun was shining brightly on Monday, July 18th as we entered the west entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.

A short distance inside the park is the Grand Lake Lodge which was established in 1920, 5 years after the park opened.

This is the view of Grand Lake from the Lodge.

One of their old tour cars.



In the next few pictures you can see areas of gray in the green trees. That is because of the Mountain Pine Beetle that has been on the outbreak in the west for a number of years. From what I gather there is really no good way of combating them at this time.






Until next time,
Dave and Sandy