Rocky Mountain National Park

As we entered the park our national parks pass finally payed for itself. We have now officially saved seven dollars just for having it - Yippee. And we still have many parks to go on our trip. If you ever plan on doing a National Parks tour it is a really good idea to purchase this pass. The entire drive up to the park was pretty because the mountains stayed in the distance through the windshield the entire time. We just watched as the towering peaks inched closer and closer. We hung out in Estes Park - Yet another awesome little town with a tiny river walk that we are sure Mr. Goforth would love. And Paula if he got out of line there are pretty serious rapids you could just push him in - It could be fun.

Cloud Lifting Highway... Driving with the clouds...

The Highway throughout the park is awesome. It is one of the, if not the prettiest, drive I have ever been on. It rivals the Blue Ridge Parkway in the fall. It is the highest, in elevation, major highway in North America (maybe more but we can't remember the statistic - look it up if you want to!) At one point we were two miles above sea level - there was a sign that said this. I believe on average it is about 12,000 feet. There was so much snow I couldn't get over it. There was snow on nearly every peak. At one point there was a snow shelf on the side of the road that was at least three feet deep. It rained for most of the drive. It was a light rain so the views were still pretty breathtaking, but it was so cold when we got out of the car. We were so high up that when you looked over at the mountains there were clouds rolling through the valleys and falling over the peaks. The clouds forming were awesome to see. The green slopes above the tree line were mostly covered with rocks. Since it was rainy misty it looked more like Scotland than America. I was so sleepy on this drive that I wanted to take a nap but it was so beautiful that I didn't want to close my eyes. I am pretty sure I saw a bear butt. It was light brown and on a slope about 200 ft from the road. It could have been a bush with a tail because we were driving and I saw it at a glance. But, I still think it was a medium sized Bear walking away. How cool... How scary. Sadly there is a beetle infestation in the park that is attacking the pines (the majority of the trees in the park). These beetles carry a disease that prevents the tree from soaking up water therefore killing them. They turn reddish-orange and are standing dead trees. These are dangerous because at any moment they could lose a limb or they could just fall over - If it falls and no one hears it does it make a noise, my guess is yes and it would hurt. The only neat thing is that it looks like a field of Christmas trees both green and red.

Hiking with our Animal Friends

Hiking in to the Rocky Mountains was a little intimidating but it was beautiful. We sang most of the way to warn animals, especially bears, that we were on our way. We did run in to a number of animals luckily neither a bear or a mountain lion. We saw a chipmunk eating a dandelion. He was a chunky little chipmunk and I loved him. If you have time you should enlarge these next few pictures to see the animals in them. On this mossy rock is the cutest chipmunk ever -

We saw many birds one snake and lots of flutterbyes. Of the big boys we saw horses, mule deer, moose, and friends (we don't really know elk maybe?!?) There were many of these four legged creatures bouncing around. I was a bit nervous that they were going to charge us but they just stared us down and made sure we walked along. If we were on our way they seemed pretty cool with us. The horses were majestic, as they always are, as we approached there was a black horse and a white horse snuggling. They were licking each other and seemed entwined. It looked like a post card for love. The white horse was a bit more curious than the others and she came up to say hello. We were so bummed that we didn't have sugar cubes because she let us pet her. She nuzzled me with her nose so a hugged and kissed her nose. Brad was a bit more timid but he slowly came around and pet her as well. I wanted so badly to feed her carrots and sugar cubes but we had neither, so i picked grass with flowers in it for her to eat. She ate it out of my hand which tickles a little as her lips rubbed my palm. I felt guilty because she had grass on her side and I wanted to give her something fun to eat. Brad and I are talking about getting sugar cubes from town and taking them back to her at some point. She nayed in response to the dull treat and shook her mane and nuzzled at us some more. We had to get a move on to make it to camp so we had to say goodbye. About a quarter of a mile down the trail I looked back and there she was. The horse had followed us along her fence line as we were walking down the trail. This made us both smile and we were excited about the rest of our walk into the wilderness. We meandered next to a lazy river for a ways. This part was really nice. Not only was there the river but on the other side of the trail were large boulders and wildflowers of so many types and colors. These of course attracted the butterflies and this part of the walk was like walking through a children's book. Only the animals did not talk=(. After a few more wild life encounters we found our camp and set up. There were so many of the standing dead trees everywhere we looked that really so where was safe. So along with the threat of being eaten by a bear we had the threat of being squashed by a tree. The great outdoors is full of threats equal to its beauty. We finally decided on a spot and Tom would be happy to know we used the idea of the "triangle of life" settling near large logs that would hopefully break the fall of any tree. We then walked about the length of a football field to place the bear canister away from camp. At this point we were pretty exhausted and we decided to call it a night. I started to read and within five minutes I looked at Brad to tell him something and he was already asleep. So I quietly continued to read until my eyes were heavy and I too went to sleep. It was about 30 something degrees and it was cold. We snuggled in our sleeping bags and luckily we both bought new ones before the trip so they kept us pretty warm.