Rocky Mountain High

Since we spent a couple days in Denver on our 2011 road trip, we hit the must-do's for our family already.  We went through the tourism books and looked at TripAdvisor, but couldn't find anything we could all get excited to do today.  Jeff suggested something a bit off the wall, given the mileage we've put on the motor home since Saturday.  He wanted to go back to Rocky Mountain National Park.

We camped in Estes Park, about 60 miles north of Denver, on our 2011 road trip and loved it there.  Jeff has Estes Park on his short list of places he would like to live.  Once he suggested it, the idea of seeing elk and bighorn sheep, plus spending time in the cute town of Estes Park that includes a Dairy Queen won the kids over.

Since we're now technically on Mountain Time but our bodies are still on Eastern Time, we were up around 6:00 a.m. and able to head north early in the morning.  It's been cloudy since we arrived in Denver, so the views of the Rockies haven't been frequent.  We worried that driving through Rocky Mountain National Park would be iffy if it was cloudy and raining, and possibly even snowing at the higher elevations.  The highest part of the park you can drive is is a little over 11,000 feet.

Marmot sunning

Ruth hiking

Since we can drive much faster in the Jeep than we can in the motor home, it was a relatively quick trip up to Estes Park.  We stopped for gas and Ruth and I went into a country store to pick up snacks in case we stopped for an impromptu picnic in the park.

Early on, both Jeff and Ruth thought they saw a black animal as we started to make the climb into the mountains, but neither could confirm what they saw.  As we got out at one of the hiking areas to look up at the mountains and down into the valleys below, we saw some marmots, little mammals that look like groundhogs, basking in the sun on the rocks near the lookout.  Henry was ecstatic to see so many.

Marmot

We walked back to the car and drove farther up into the park, and soon saw a small herd of elk.  There weren't as many as we had seen back in 2011, but two years ago, we were in the park earlier in July.  Maybe the elk move throughout the summer to graze.

At one of the highest points in the park - 11,798 feet - the Alpine Visitor Center has a Park Service building, a cafe and a gift shop.  Henry wanted to hike up to a viewing area above the Visitor's Center, but neither Jeff nor Ruth wanted to go with him.  I came out of the cafe and my boy was walking up a hill, headed to what seemed like hundreds of stone stairs to the top of the mountain.  Alone.  When you see something crazy like that, you do stupid things.  In this case, I tried to go up with him, if only just to make sure he stopped at some point and came back instead of hiking off to mountains unknown.  I got as far as about 20 stairs after the initial hill.  I could barely breathe.  At 11,000 feet, the air is very thin.  Henry looked back and I waved to him, but then I turned back before I killed myself going up any higher.  Oh well, at least I tried...

Henry's view from the top of his hike

Henry eventually made it back, red faced and physically exhausted but thrilled that he made it to the top and took awesome pictures.  He said he could see for miles and the views were incredible.

We drove to the Continental Divide in the park.  The kids asked what it was, and we explained that water that falls on one side of the divide will flow to the Pacific Ocean, and water that falls on the other end will make its way to the Atlantic Ocean.  In 2011, we saw some bighorn sheep way up on the rocky top of a mountain, but we didn't see them this time.

Driving in the clouds - the view out
my window

Rain had started falling as we left the Alpine Visitor's Center, and there was some freezing rain mixed in.  As we headed back to the park entrance the clouds got bigger and darker, we heard some thunder and saw one bolt of lightning.  Ruth got a little freaked out, but it wasn't that bad.  One distraction was seeing a larger herd of elk down on one side of the road.  Henry about jumped out of his seat to see them.  As we continued our drive, we were often below the cloud line, and at one point, when I took a picture out my window, there was nothing but white cloud.  The clouds gave us a different view of the park, which was really beautiful.

After we finished our drive, which included getting stuck behind what must have been a skittish driver who refused to go faster than 30 miles per hour downhill and rode most of the way on her poor brakes, we headed into Estes Park for lunch.  We went back to a Mexican restaurant we had eaten at before, and it was just as good as last time.  We made the obligatory Dairy Queen visit, except I held out for a homemade ice cream shop near where we parked.  Much better.

We spent a good deal of time in the Jeep, but the scenery in the park made it all worthwhile.

Tomorrow, it's on to Wyoming!