Rocky Mountain N.P.

We arrived at RMNP on Sunday afternoon August 26th (we broke up the drive from Custer State Park with an overnight stay in Loveland, Colorado).  We are "parked" right on the Big Thompson River in site #2 at Paradise RV Park in Estes Park, Colorado.

Tracy fishing from the deck on our campsite; right behind our trailer
FYI - one bite, no catches...

Monday, August 27th we took a 10 1/2 mile hike in RMNP via the Cub Lake and Fern Lake trails.  We were looking for oxygen on the ascent!

Beginning of Cub Lake Hike

Saw a small herd of elk along the hiking path

Cub Lake

First bridge on hike crossing stream

Next bridge

Margueritte or Fern Falls - Stopped to try and find some oxygen!!

Fern Lake - started raining on us a bit; had to pull out the rain jackets

Fall color toward the end of the trail

End of Fern Lake Hike

 

Tuesday, August 28th, we drove Trail Ridge Road in RMNP.  Went up to over 12,000 feet in elevation; took a "high mountain" hike on Alpine Communities Trail - hard to breathe up there!!

Lookout on Trail Ridge Road - what a view!!

View along the road

Decided to take a one mile hike on the Alpine Communities Trail
Only 12,096 feet in elevation!

View of Trail Ridge Road from the Alpine Communities Trail

Mushroom Rock on Alpine Communities Trail

Rocky Mountain High View!

We both decided to climb up a pretty high rock at the end of the high altitude trail
This is as far as I got - it was high!!!

Tracy climbed a little higher to see a marker placed in memory of one of the first park superintendents
That's him trying to figure out how to get down!

After coming off the Trail Ridge Road, we saw another herd of elk on the way out of the park
This guy was huge, so we had to take his picture!