Mt. Evans, CO

For the past several days, we've been parked in Lakewood, CO, within view of the front range of the Rockies. Last weekend we parked in front of Ron's daughter's house. Since we don't like to test the understanding of the kind neighbors, on Tuesday we moved to Bear Creek Lake Park. Unfortunately, this is a city park, so the magical Golden Age Pass doesn't help, but it is nice and very conveniently located.

This summer we traveled in some of the most remote places I've been, but right here in suburban Denver we saw these magnificent deer. Just look at those racks!


Today we decided to drive up to Mt. Evans. At 14,000 feet elevation, the drive up is on the World's Highest Paved Road. What we didn't know was that the road is only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Hey! It's not like there was any snow! But rules are rules. So we drove up as far as we could and gosh, was it cold! This is pretty little Echo Lake.


This guy didn't seem to mind the cold (or us.) He's a fine specimen of a yellow-bellied marmot.


There were a lot of Bristle Cone Pine trees at the top of the tree line. This little windswept tree is probably hundreds of years old.


Maybe they should close this part of the road. Yikes!


This is as high as we could drive - Summit Lake at 13000 feet. There were lots of tiny Alpine flowers.