Rocky Mountain National Park

We spent a great three days in Estes Park, Colorado  visiting RMNP.
The 7500 foot altitude of Estes Park got our attention but we went slow and acclimated to the lack of oxygen.

We arrived at Elk Meadow RV park and we were amazed. This was our view from the campsite in the park.

The next day we drove the trail ridge road through the park from
East to West. The road was 50 miles one way and climbed to elevations of over 12,000 feet. The drive took the entire morning with a little hiking

As we neared the top snow became prevalent with a little still on the road. Cold and windy was the order of the day up there.






There wasn't a lot of snow on the road but since it's June it was more than I anticipated.




On the way to Grand lake at the far West side of the park we stopped for a little hiking at Timber Creek and found this guy along the trail. He didn't seem to mind us being there.... guess he's seen people before.


We stopped at the visitor center at the top and were rewarded with this awesome view. What a wonderful natural area.




 After a short lunch we set off to the Bear Lake area for some real hiking. We rode the bus up to the Glacier Gorge trail head and set off for Alberta falls. It was about two miles round trip at over 9,000 feet but it was worth it. That ended a day that started at 6:00am with a drive and ended with a two mile hike. We had a little dinner and crashed.

The next morning we drove to the Wild Basin trail head and set off for a four mile hike along the St Vrain and Ouzel creeks. The amount of water in the creeks was just incredible.

We stopped on a bridge and one of our fellow hikers offered to take a picture so here we are.

The turnaround point was Calypso Cascade on Ouzel Creek. It was a tough climb but well worth the effort.





We were  amazed as we hiked along the creek at the amount of water and force of nature. With Sunday to kick back and visit Estes Park we bid a farewell to RMNP on Monday and headed to Colorado Springs.