July 16, 17 Rocky Mountain National Park

Thursday& Friday, July 16, 17
Onward to Rocky Mountain National Park

41 degrees but blue skies this morning! Getting to be a routine of nice weather in the morning, cloudy in mid-to-late afternoon and then some showers... and cool evenings.

 Lots of chipmunks and ground squirrels in the area and we frequently see them making mad dashes across the road.  We decide to head for Rocky Mountain National Park, thinking it won’t be quite as busy on a Thursday as weekend. The exit road goes by the huge Green River Reservoir and we drive across the dam, passing a few deer, and then heading northeast.

We pass rushing streams and beautiful rocky canyons.  The clouds have been drifting lower, however, so sometimes the tops of the canyon walls aren’t visible.

 Soon we reach Grand Lake which is a huge lake just before the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Lots of marinas and lodging around the lake.  Low clouds here too, but they are lifting as the road begins to climb.

We enter the park after a brief stop at the Visitor’s Center to get a map.  This west side of the park is a little less busy than the east and we don’t see many people for the first little while.  A few deer.  We stop and do a walk at Coyote Valley Trail which travels along the beginnings of the Colorado River.

Beginnings of the Colorado River

 To our left are the Never Summer Mountains, with traces of snow.  At 12,750+feet, they are the only volcanic mountains in the park.

Just before Milner Pass we see three male Bighorn Sheep in a gully beside the road.  Instead of creating a “Sheep Jam”, we continue  driving to the pass and then walk back down the road.  Luckily they are still in the area, so we watch them a bit and take a few (dozen J) photos.  They know we are there, about 25’ away, but are comfortable enough to bed down.

 We continue on, past the “2 miles above sea level” sign.  Past the Continental Divide.

  Finally we cross the tree line to the tundra where the wildflowers are different, mostly smaller,

and there are bigger patches of snow. They get 8 weeks of summer so plants make the most of this time. There are still a few glaciers in these mountains but they are disappearing quickly with warmer overall temperatures.  We stop briefly at the visitor’s center, which is teeming with tourists but has a nice view from its deck.

Lava Cliffs

Next stop is the Lava Cliffs where I take a quick photo.  Clear memories of stopping here with Bryan and Matt  on our way to visit Tom & Sue in Wyoming.  The boys played in the snow.

We wind our way down Trail Ridge Road and stop for a photo of these elk.  They are all big males and what racks!  The ranger says they like the tundra because it is cooler and the grasses are more nutritious.

One of many lakes dotting the mountainsides.

  Near the bottom of the mountains we decide to try the Cub Lake trail in the Moraine Park area.  The clouds have once again moved in, but we continue on, find a parking place and begin the trail even though there is a little rain.  We thought it would pass, but instead it gets heavier.  We turn back and it begins to hail.  We, along with a dozen other folks, take shelter under a small kiosk at the trailhead, then make a run for the Trek and decide this would be a great time for movies.  There are two being shown at the nearby Beaver Valley Visitor Center, so we sit for a spell and watch glorious scenery and learn a bit about the park, which is celebrating 100 years this year! 

Hail Hail

 Greg notices a sign which says there are vacancies at Moraine Campground, just down the road, so we head that way.  The sign at the entrance says Full, but we go in anyway and sure enough there are “a few” sites still available (at 3:30)  It is a huge campground with over 200 sites.  Okay for one night.

On our jaunt back from the restrooms we discover another RoadTrek nearby and chat with those folks, John and Karen from Denver, for a bit.  They later invite us over for s’mores and campfire and we enjoy learning about each other and our travels. They made their reservations for this campground 6 months ago!, 

There is a huge buck wandering around between campsites, watchful but not too skittish. Obviously this isn’t his first time visiting.

 Friday, July 17

Rocky Mountain National Park

We rise early again because we want to drive Old Fall River Road before it is busy. We see these deer on the way there.

 This is the original road that crossed these mountains and it is dirt, windy and narrow with no guardrails of course.  We begin the drive about 6:45 and are rewarded early with the sighting of two moose which amble down the road and off into the woods. I was just able to catch this one who gave me a good stare before continuing on.

We have a small guidebook which explains the different eco-zones and geology of the area, most of which was formed by glacial action.  We stop a few times for closer looks at waterfalls, cliffs, flowers, etc. as we steadily climb.  

Add caption

In the last mile or two we see quite a few marmots which seem happy to pose.

Aren't I cute?

 We end back at the Alpine Visitor’s Center (which is much less busy at 8:15AM) and have breakfast overlooking the tundra and snowy mountains.  This beautiful blue bird seems to be hunting in the area and is the only bird other than hummingbirds, that seems to hover – my picture of it hovering is a blue blur.

 Since we aren’t going to Tom and Sue’s in Laramie, we decide to go back down the western side of the park and wonder some backroads into Wyoming, skipping the zoo that is Estes Park/Denver area.

Going down western Trail Ridge road we discover where the female elk have been hiding out, seeing several groups of them (how many does it take to officially be a herd?).  Note that a few are wearing radio collars.

After a short hike to Lake Irene, which is mostly still in shadow, we do a brief stop at the Visitor’s Center where this moose came strolling through the area.

We continue out of the park and spot this osprey with chicks near Grand Lake.  

 Lots of rolling hills before we get back into the mountains, heading north to Wyoming.

A roll in the hay perhaps?

We stop for gas at Granby, then head north on CO125 through miles and miles of forest devastation caused by the Pine Bark Beetles and a Spruce grub of some sort.  Few trees in this area escaped, and those are aspen and other varieties of evergreen.

We pass into Wyoming a little after noon, and notice that things are much drier. As

a matter of fact when we stop at the Carbon County Visitor’s Center in little Riverside, they gave us a map of Wyoming and chapstick!  A wealth of other information too as we plot our ongoing route. 

We decide to skip Flaming Gorge which is further west and instead go on a less traveled dirt (surprise!) road toward Seminoe Reservoir where the lady at Riverside told us we could find boondocking spots.  It is a long drive through lots of sagebrush and rock.  Very dry.  We see quite a few antelope and it is very windy, with Greg battling a bit to keep us steady.

After a steep descent beyond the dam, we find a nice boondock spot tucked into a narrow canyon full of pine and sagebrush.  The road we back into is so narrow that we brush the sage on either side of the road, which emits a wonderful sage smell!

Seminoe Dam

Way too windy for a fire, the van is rocking a bit!  It begins to rain, but only lasts 10 minutes or so, and we set off on a walk with the wind much diminished.  Things are so dry that the grasses crunch when you get off the roadway.  As we walk back toward the Trek we see a mother big horn sheep with a young lamb.  They cross in front of the Trek weave their way up the other side of the canyon, in and out of copses of trees, stopping to munch along the way.  Fun to watch the young one frisk about, never getting too far from its’ mother.

We discover the name of the road is the Seminoe-Alcova Backway, and we will end up in Alcova at some point tomorrow! Quiet night.