Rocky Mountain National Park

Today we arrived at The Rocky Mountain National Park. We entered the park from the west side at Grand Lake, CO. Almost immediately we began seeing elk along the side of the road. Boyd got some pretty good photos of a bull grazing beside the Colorado River. We then began the steep climb towards the continental divide. On the way up I almost ran into the rear of a vehicle that had stopped in the middle of the road to gawk at a mountain goat high on a mountain top. Dang tourists! We finally reached the visitor center at about 11,700 feet. We were all feeling the effects of the altitude as we stopped to admire the views there above the treeline. We could see high mountain meadows dotted with patches of snow and herds of elk grazing on tundra grass as well as still higher peaks surrounding us. Leaving the visitor center, we climbed to about 12,200 feet before beginning our descent to the east end of the park at Estes Park, CO.

We then headed south on some nice cycle roads (Rts 7, 72, & 191). We stopped for the night in Idaho Springs, CO. Tomorrow we will head for Royal Gorge.

Gunny