We finally found ourselves in Estes Park and were really surprised to find that all of the National Park campgrounds were already full for the night, but no worries, we did some searching around and found a nice little County Campground (with hot showers woohoo) where we settled in for the night.
In the morning we ventured into the park for a nice little waterfall hike. We had grand plans of doing a much larger hike the next day but wanted to start out with an easier warm up. Turns out later that it was a good thing we did. Along the way we saw some beautiful sights and even hiked through an area that had burned last fall.
After the hike we returned to our beautiful campsite cooked some dinner and headed to bed. In the morning Jess woke up feeling absolutely terrible; apparently the combination of altitude and exertion wasn’t sitting well with her, so it was on to plan B, go down. We had wanted to check out Fort Collins on the trip so now was the time. We headed down out of the mountains back to thicker air and within no time Jess was feeling healthy and happy again. We checked out Colorado State University and visited their beautiful annual garden before heading back up into the park.
The following morning we woke up and decided it was time to move on. Of course moving on meant driving the signature piece of Rocky Mountain National Park, Trail Ridge Road. The road is a fine example of America’s road building prowess in the early years of the 20th century. She winds up over the crest of the Rocky Mountains reaching heights of over 12,000ft but does so at a fairly nice gently grade. It was our first big test for Black Bessy and Ramblin’ Rose but they took the mountains right in stride and we had no trouble making it over the pass and further into Colorado.
At the top of the pass we ran into a bit of a traffic jam and finally discovered what al the commotion was about. This heard of big horn sheep was grazing just off the side of the road.
And what national park would be complete without a properly placed gift shop?
We also decided to take some glamour shots of Black Bessy and Ramblin Rose along the road. This one by far came out the best. We are really glad we did since neither of them will ever look this good (or clean) again.
After crossing the divide we ventured further across Colorado with our sights set on Steamboat Springs. We stopped at a few lakes right outside the park to take in our last views of Rocky Mountain National Park, wound through some tight canyons sharing what little space there was with both a river and a freight train and finally found a place to camp in Rabbit Ears pass for the night. We can only assume that the last picture is how it got it’s name.
No comments:
Post a Comment