I love the mountains and have spent many years visiting the Smokies, the Blue Ridge and Pisgah National Forest. And I still love these mountains, but it was one of the coolest things ever to see the Rockies! They are huge! And magestic! And magnificent! And bare compared to the mountains in the east. And full of wildlife! We had the best day! We had our entrance pass for 6-8 in the morning and we got there close to 6. We planned to do the Vacation Races Trifecta by starting with driving the Trail Ridge Road and climbing the short hike at the highest peak on the road.
But before we got there, we saw lots of other things!! First were the elk in the meadow. They just stood by the side of the road. We didn't get to close them, but close enough to take some cool pictures.
My selfie with an elk!
Dave in his cammo by the elk
We continued on the Trail Ridge, increasing in altitude and decreasing in temperature. And of course stopping at all the overlooks to see the views! We drove the 48 miles from Estes Park to Grand Lake and made it to 12,005 feet above sea level!
A view of Long's Peak. Too high for us to hike that day, but maybe another trip!
More chipmunks...skinnier, but still looking for food!
The snow and tundra at the top of the park
Deer on the tundra
Marmots at the coldest part of the road trip!
The boys didn't want to take their masks off because they were so cold!
Snow in August!!!
By hiking to the top of this mountain, which was a short hike, but still left us winded at that altitude, we finished one part of our trifecta. It was downhill from there to Grand Lake, but that will be for another blog!
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