RMNP

After a night/morning in Boulder we headed up to Estes Park and into Rocky Mountain National Park. I don't have to say much about the 2 nights/3 days we spent here except that I think it's pretty much the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I am so in awe of the Rockies!



We pitched our tent in Moraine Campground, met our camping neighbors (a very sweet family of 4 from Iowa...or Idaho...never been to either place; I could be mixed up), and drove to Bear Lake Trailhead. We waited out a storm, then decided to do an easy hike since it was already after 2pm. We chose Bear Lake to Bierstadt Lake. It wasn't strenuous and was a little over 4 miles round trip. Beautiful.

Monday morning was our "hardcore" hiking day. We drove up to Glacier Gorge Trailhead but the small parking lot was already full at 8am so we drove further up to Bear Lake again to park. We hiked from Bear Lake until we met up with the Glacier Gorge Trail. We took the Glacier Gorge Trail past Alberta Falls, the Loch, Timberline Falls, Lake of Glass, and finally reached the top/end at Sky Pond. We hiked through several parts of the trail that were snow and ice.


The snow was melting heavily by Timberline Falls so they were very treacherous. The "trail" is the rocks lining the falls. We took a good 20 minutes debating whether or not it was safe enough to get up and whether or not we could make it. After seeing some people come back down in not so sturdy shoes, while others seemed older and less in shape than us, we figured we go for it. I have never been so scared before. We scaled up the rocks in the waterfall and pushed upward on the trail to Lake of Glass. Once there, we continued up the rocky trail to the very top; Sky Pond. So. Worth. It.


The most beautiful, serene place I have ever seen was Sky Pond. We were treated to a group of 3 or 4 elk feeding up there as well. I couldn't fully enjoy the beauty because I was SO nervous about how we were going to get back down the trail/waterfall. So we left after only a few minutes considering the dangerous trail and the fact that it was lunchtime and we knew we were in for afternoon storms. We made it down the falls and found a place to eat our lunch then we headed down the rest of the trail. We got caught in a massive thunder/hail storm at the end of the hike. Not fun! We made it back to our car and figured we had hiked close to 10 miles.

Needless to say, we were very sore and tired after that. We drove into the town of Estes Park for a much needed beer, then relaxed at our campsite for the evening. We were bombarded with a night of thunderstorms. It stormed while we were cooking dinner, it stormed again right before we went to bed, and then I woke up to wind/thunder/rain pretty much every 2 hours throughout the night. The wind really whipped through Moraine Valley and it felt/sounded like our tent was going to blow away. Not fun!

Tuesday morning, we broke camp and drove up Trail Ridge Road to exit the park on the west side. We stopped at every overlook and were in awe by the views. We got up to the tundra and saw a herd of elk of about 50 or 60. I have never seen so many animals together in my life. We saw a herd (smaller) very close to the road and took some very neat up-close pictures. We stopped at the Alpine Visitor Center for a quick view check and I had to put on 2 sweatshirts it was so cold up there! The road down the west side of the park was very steep and slow (RVs kind of assed it up). It was also under construction most of the way and unpaved. We finally made it out of the park at Grand Lake and headed south to Breckenridge...