Rocky Mountain National Park
June 28 - July 5, 2010

Rocky Mountain NP is a familiar park to us. It is the closest national park to Madison with real mountains, so we have been here many times. But we still enjoy it and keep coming back.







Bear Lake is a good place to start getting used to the altitude (about 9700 ft.); there are some easy hikes here to warm up on. And the scenery is just gorgeous.









Nymph Lake is a short hike from Bear Lake. This view is towards Hallett Peak which is on the continental divide. Note the red trees; these are pine trees that have been infested with the mountain pine beetle. There is an especially bad outbreak of pine beetles this year, and pine trees all over the west are being killed by them.









Dream Lake is a short distance beyond Nymph Lake and provides beautiful mountain scenery.








We took a drive up Trail Ridge Road, which goes over the top to the western side of the park. The road reaches just over 12,000 ft above sea level; so you are above timberline and in the tundra.


The view from Forest Canyon Overlook on Trail Ridge Road.









We found these elk up in the high country. Note that one of them is wearing a tracking collar.








Another alpine resident is the marmot. These furry little creatures are true hibernators.








The pika also lives year-round at this high elevation, but does not hibernate. It spends its summer making piles of hay to eat during the long winter. It is fun to watch these little creatures darting around the rock piles and collecting grass to take back to its winter stash. They are well camaflouged and hard to see, but if you sit a while and listen, you can hear their chirping sound and spot them that way.






We took a short hike, but since we are above 12,000 feet elevation, it is easy to get winded. Nancy seems to be happy that the area we came to is closed, so I can't ask her to hike any farther (:-).









Back in camp we found this deer wandering through and having a meal eating the shrubs and grass.






Because of large number of visitors to the park, the Park Service runs a free shuttle service, which takes people to various trailheads, campgrounds, and the town of Estes Park. It is a very convenient service, especially since the parking lots fill up at the trail heads very quickly. We used the shuttle several times.








The Colorado Columbine is a delicate and beautiful wild flower that is a delight to find along the trail.






Loch Vale is another place of ours. We first hiked here 40 years ago. It seemed to me that the hike has gotten longer and harder in the meantiime. Nancy says that the hike is not any longer - it is because I am older and not in as good a shape as earlier (:-). But I checked an old guidebook and discovered the hike is longer. In 1970 it was 2.5 miles, and now it is 3.1 miles, and the elevation change is greater! It seems they moved the trailhead farther away and downhill.

Next we head for Salt Lake City, the mecca for genealogists.