Rocky Mountain National Park

Despite (or maybe because of) travel restrictions of the past few months, we were SO glad to be getting on a plane and heading to Colorado to join up with friends for a 4 day get away. We mainly stayed in Boulder, and made day trips out to hike and explore. Our main trip was to Rocky Mountain Nat’l Park, just an hour away. Timed entry tickets are the new norm now, but traffic wasn’t too slow due to this. We were just happy to be in the cool dry air and seeing the gorgeous mountains and pines.

Having the peaks be snow capped in early June made it even more special.

Our first order of business was hiking. When we left Boulder, it was predicted to be 80 and sunny, but we were prepared by dressing in layers, and having rain jackets,. As we started the hike, we crossed a full flowing stream of snow melt.

The aspens had just recently leafed out, and it was a neat contrast to see them in their spring green, compared to the beautiful fall yellows we had seen last year.

The first lake we reached, Nymph Lake, was underwhelming, but it was probably due to the low hanging clouds and rain starting.

I was surprised by the number of mosquitoes at 8,000 ft and temps barely in the 60’s.

We pressed on, as the rain was only light and intermittent.

However… (you knew there was a ‘however’ didn’t you?) as we continued climbing, the clouds kept gathering. Before we reached the second of the three lakes’ destination, we were starting to hike through snow, then the HAIL started!

This video was courtesy of our friend Rick (I didn’t want to get out my Nikon). Luckily, we had just stopped for a water break in a small group of trees off the main path, as the hail started. This mostly saved us from being pelted by the marble sized hail. What ones did hit us stung quite a bit!

As the hail slowed down, and became a steady rain, we were watching younger people ahead of us on the trail slipping and falling frequently on the snow packed route. We wisely decided that we’d seen enough for one hike and headed back down. The top of the ridge never cleared, so we were glad of our decision, but as we descended the rain finally quit.

Our friends headed back to Boulder, but Steve and I went driving on through the park on Trail Ridge Road. The highest point on the road was over 12,000 ft. but we had to turn back before reaching that, as we had thought we didn’t need to fill up the gas tank before we entered the park (what a novice mistake!). I have found that until I get acclimated to altitude over several days, I have an altimeter in my head that starts giving me a headache starting about 10,000 ft. - so I wasn’t so sorry about having to turn back a little early. ;)

As we started on the road:

We then came upon a bunch of vehicles pulled off the side of the road, so we knew there was some kind of wildlife spotting going on. I was thrilled to find it was a young male moose! (only the second moose I’ve ever seen, and the first male)

He had both a tracking collar and ear tag. As you may be able to tell, his antlers are small and covered in velvet.

As we climbed up the road, we were treated to some great vistas -

For awhile, the skies appeared to be clearing -

…but as we got above tree line -

…the clouds were really lowering -

…so we happily headed back down to partly cloudy skies

Again, as we passed through the low lying area where we had previously seen the moose, there were more vehicles pulled off to the sides of the road, so of course I went to investigate. This time it was 2 male elk with velvet-ed antlers grazing.

The young moose was still there, and I got more close up pictures, as well as a good look at the dewlap under his chin. I just looked it up, and scientists aren’t sure what it’s used for (but like a lot of things on males, it probably has some purpose in impressing the ladies).

So now I’ve added to my collection of animal butts, both the elk and moose.

Like our friend there, I’ll say goodbye for now, and hope to post soon from Alaska!