Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain NationalPark 2, 3 June

Another perfect picnic spot! It was with sadness we left Boulder and took another lovely, shortish drive along the foothills to Estes Park, which is on the edge of the Rocky Mountain National Park. Luckily we had a John Denver CD to sing along to!

We had nice accommodation for two nights right by the Fall River.

Next day we went to the Rocky Mountain National Park, starting in sunny Beaver Meadows.

The first thing we spotted was a group of Elk.

Beautiful anteliers on the male elk.

The female elk.

We took the 1932 Trail Ridge Road which goes over the mountains. It has spectacular views all the way. This is the view from the alpine region at Many Parks Curve. It is so hard to capture the true beauty of the scenery in a photo, especially when the eyes are seeing such expansive views.

Not sure of this bird, but think it is a Clark's Nutcracker.

This shows pine trees killed by bark beetles. These native beetles have increased greatly in recent years, possibly due to climate change and have caused massive and widespread damage to pine forests.

In the distance we saw Longs Peak, over 14,000 feet, covered in snow and cloud.

A bit higher up at Rainbow Curve and there is snow along the highway. We are now two miles above sea level. This sculpture is the front bit of an enormous snow plough.

Further on and we were in the arctic tundra region, surrounded by snow. We hopped out at Forest Canyon Overlook and ploughed through the snow to see the erosion caused by glaciers.

Sunny but very windy, so we are desperately holding on to our hats. Behind are the peaks of the Continental Divide.

We were very excited to see quite a few marmots darting around all over the place up there.

This is Rock Cut, the highest point on the road at 13,713 feet.

These are the Lava Cliffs, created by the carving action of glacial ice through a thick layer of tuff (volcanic ash and debris) deposited about 28 million years ago.

Bill in front of an enormous snow wall cut by a snow plough.



This is as far as a we got before turning back, so we could to do some walking trails.



We took a hike around the Bear Lake trailhead.

It was beautiful.

Half way around, the path was covered in snow, so we had to plough through once again. It wasn't too difficult as many people before us had packed down the snow.

View across the lake from the snowy side.

After Bear Lake, we tracked further up hill to Nymph Lake. It was smaller, but also lovely.

We saw plenty of cheeky chipmunks.

Also saw this mule deer on our way out. We were amazed at how many different kinds of vegetation we had passed through and how many different climates we had experienced.