Rocky Mountain High

After an urban experience yesterday, we finally made it to the mountains today. We left Beth and Brandon’s around 8:30 in the morning and reached the Rocky Mountain National Park around 10am. We were so excited once we got into the park, that we fairly quickly pulled off the side of the road at a mountain stream to take pictures.

Around 10:30, we reached the end of Bear Lake Rd. and geared up to do a 3 ½ mile round trip hike to Nymph, Dream and Emerald Lakes. In reading about the trail beforehand, I wasn’t expecting it to be too challenging because it fell under the “Easy” category. Boy was I misled! After about a quarter mile of straight ascent, Justin and I were already huffing and puffing. We are, of course, not accustomed to the altitude yet either. But, we took fairly frequent breaks and surged forward.

At Nymph Lake, the first of the three, we took some fantastic pictures of Long’s Peak and hundreds of lily pads that blanketed the lake. The next lake, Dream Lake, was large and peaceful and had some great gushing mountain creeks both above and below. The last leg of the hike proved to be the most difficult, with a majority of the elevation gain occurring in the last quarter mile of the hike. Luckily, I didn’t feel as bad about being winded because most of the other hikers were noticeably affected in exactly the same way as us. We finally reached Emerald Lake around 12:30, and it was well worth the trip. The lake is totally fed by a glacier among the peaks surrounding it. We could actually see a waterfall starting all the way at the top of the mountains and working its way all the way down to the lake. We spent a good half hour taking in the views, having a snack, taking pictures and watching the chipmunks and birds beg for food. The return trip back to our car was way easier than getting there….it was all a descent, so it was difficult NOT to go fast. We got back in less than half the time it took us to complete the first leg of the hike.

By this time, it was nearing 2pm, and we decided to quickly make ourselves sandwiches and get on the road. Pretty much the rest of the afternoon was spent driving through the park, stopping occasionally for pictures and looking for wildlife. We completed a lengthy drive on an unpaved road called Fall River Rd. all the way up to the alpine tundra of the park. Near the end of the drive, things got a bit backed up (traffic wise) because there were some mule deer bucks feeding about 20 feet from the road. Their antlers were crazy-huge and Justin got some really cool shots.

By the time we got to the Alpine Visitor Center, the temperatures had dropped low enough that it began to sleet a bit. So, we literally took a quick bathroom break and got on the road again. We continued west on Trail Ridge Road to the southwestern edge of the park at Grand Lake. Along the way, we saw some more mule deer, a moose and possibly a black bear (but it was too far away to tell or get a picture). Once you get to Grand Lake, what do you do? Well, being that it was 4pm by this time, we decided to turn around and head back through the park so that we could check-in to our cabin.

So, we took Trail Ridge Rd. all the way back through the entire park, and we made pretty good time as well. We saw a bit more wildlife on the way back, including some more mule deer bucks and a small herd of female deer resting on a hillside. By a little after 6pm, we reached our cabin and checked in.

It’s a quaint little place that literally sits on the Big Thompson River called Whispering Pines. We are going to attempt to leave the back screen door open tonight so that we can hear the babbling water while we sleep…but it may get too cold. We’ll see. But anyway, once we got all of our luggage into the room, we freshened up and went into Estes Park for dinner.

Before dinner, we went to several touristy hiking stores in the downtown area because Justin wanted to buy a hat to wear while hiking. Apparently, this was not just ANY hat because after going to about 8 places, he couldn’t find what he wanted and finally gave up. On to dinner, after checking out several places, we settled on Redstone Bistro. It was very unpretentious and simple. Justin had brandy-glazed chicken with provolone and I had trout buerre blanc. We also stuck with beer, since we were sort of “wined-out” from the night before. Justin had Fat Tire (surprise, surprise) and I had a local Estes Park Brewery wheat raspberry ale.

We got back to our cabin around 9:15, and basically settled in for the night. Justin is falling asleep next to me as I am writing. So, I feel like it is my duty to join him in that activity. It was definitely an excellent but exhausting day!