For one more time we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park to see the Aspen in their fall colors and to hear the elk "bugle". We didn't have to look far to find the elk. We stopped at the visitor's center in Estes Park and lo and behold the elk were on the adjacent golf course! The sign said "For Your Safety - Golfers Only on the Golf Course". Guess the elk can't read!!
After eating breakfast at Molly B's we headed to the Cowpoke Corral for a 2 hour horse back ride in the Rocky Mountains. This is what I call "9000 feet above Stress Level". What a gorgeous ride and the view from the top of the mountain overlooking Estes Park was truly spectacular. We could see the distant mountains and the Continental Divide. We also heard the elk bugling as they are now in runt. It almost sounds like a woman's scream. It is very shrill and high pitched for such a huge animal.
Emily was our guide for the ride. She is from Michigan and just graduated from high school last spring. Gee, I ought to be able to do this! What a "job". She said it took her a week to learn the trails and two weeks to learn the names of the 50 horses at the stable.
After our ride we took the road to Bear Lake in RMNP. The aspen were awesome, the mountains filled with brilliant yellow. The parking lot at Bear Lake was full (even for a Monday) so we decided to take a different road in the park.
At the beginning of Old Fall River Road, we found a quiet little picnic area where we had lunch.
There were lots of Colorado blue jays just waiting for some crumbs.
After we ate we took a short walk to a pristine waterfalls where another visitor from Arkansas took our picture for us. Yes, that's Bill in a cowboy hat.
Old Fall River Road is only open for a few months in the summer. It is a one lane, narrow, windy road only 9 miles long but takes several hours to negotiate. As you can see it is challenging to say the least. I can't begin to count the number of hairpin curves, some requiring Bill to back up the truck to get around the turn. And of course, no guardrails.
Bill took this picture of the rugged mountains around which we were traveling. The road reached an elevation of 10,703 feet before our GPS quit! Guess that is a high as it will record. So by the time we got to the top, we were over 2 miles above sea level. The air is so fresh and pure, it is unbelievable.
We finally reached the summit at around 12,000 feet about 3:30 pm. Another nice person took our picture at the Alpine Visitor Center.
On the way back down the mountains we spotted this herd of elk. Note the bull elk in the center and the aspen trees in the background.
We left Estes Park and headed east toward Loveland. The road follows "Big Thompson River" for many miles, with enormous, rugged mountains on either side. "Big Thompson River" would probably be called Thompson's Run in Pennsylvania. I don't think is was ever over 12 feet wide, mostly about 6 feet wide, and you wouldn't get your knees wet wading across it this time of year.
Another wonderful memory of Colorado!
I took over 100 pictures today-it was difficult to pick only 11 to put on the blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment