Friday August 1, 2014

 
Non-Travel Day

 
This morning we headed west on US Rt . 34 to the town of Estes Park and the entrance to the “Rocky Mountain National Park”. We continued west on the “Trail Ridge Road” that rose through the pine forest up to over 11,500 feet and the tree line, where the road went over the barren tundra. There are plants here on the tundra that can only be found in 2 other places, Siberia and Alaska.   We traveled to the point at which we stopped on our previous trip into the park from the western entrance; stopping at several overlooks and taking two short hikes. On one of the hikes we spotted a small herd of Elk as they were moving away from our position. The views of the mountains and the valleys were breathtaking. After lunch we turned around and headed east, there is only one east / west road through the park, to US Rt. 36 and headed south to “Bear Lake”. Bear Lake is a beautiful mountain lake that was formed when the glacier
receded, and here we took the 1 mile hike around the lake, taking in the beauty of the lake and surrounding area. Next we took a hike to the “Alberta Falls”, the trail started off by going downhill for about .5 miles and then turned uphill for .6 miles; to the beautiful falls. It was a breathtaking sight to see all of this water go over the falls and then cascade down the mountain side. This last hike was somewhat strenuous because of the altitude. Keep in mind that while the distances within the park aren’t great, the road conditions make travel very time consuming; the terrain is mountainous and the roads continually wind around the hillside, and your speed is also slowed by other tourists. For Mountain beauty and diversity of the vistas you cannot beat Rocky Mountain National Park.