Rocky Mountain NP

I know this is a huge jump from our last post in North Dakota. We zoomed right by the scenic South Dakota Black Hills since we had just been there last August. Ditto for the unique Devil's Tower in Wyoming. It was getting a little too cool at night for us.

We used freecampgrounds.com for several overnight stops along the way. I even added a couple of spots to the website. But on our way south on US 85 in Wyoming, I suggested we hit one of the National Forest campgrounds. It was supposed to be five miles east of Four Corners, just inside the National Forest border. Brenda will sympathize with Ron when I say he might never listen to me again. I should have checked my Topo program first. He was okay with it being a dirt/maybe some gravel road, and even when it narrowed to about a lane and a half, but there was a downhill section with hairpin turns that I later calculated to be a 14% grade. Yikes! We never made it as far as the campground and just parked for the night in a pull off area. But just look how beautiful it was!


Ron even helped out the local beavers with some repair work.

Needless to say, we didn't hook up in the morning and I drove the car out.

Continuing south, we made it to the Moose Lodge in Longmont, CO, on Thursday and went to check out the Devil's Backbone. This unusual geological feature is located just west of Loveland and should be photographed in the morning like our friend Lloyd did recently. Since we were there in the afternoon, the rocks were in shadow, but the clouds in this picture look pretty devilish, don't you think?


This is a better look at the 'backbone' - a line of rock that extends for miles along the top of the ridge. Interesting.


This spot is called The Keyhole . . .


Which we passed through to get a shot on the sunny side.


But I promised Rocky Mountain NP, and on Friday we loaded our water, trail bars, hiking sticks and ourselves in the car and drove to the park. I was very excited because we were doing another of my favorite hikes - this one to Dream Lake. Once in the park, you take the shuttle bus to Bear Lake at 9475 feet and hike up. We were lucky enough to be there at a good time for the autumn aspen color.


Some of the trees had already dropped their leaves and some were still green, but there were a lot of really pretty ones.


The well-maintained trail travels through the woods for the first .5 mile to Nymph Lake, then opens up for the rest of the hike.


We stopped for the obligatory photo at this overlook.


And after the next .6 mile we reached spectacular Dream Lake.


I think this is one of the prettiest spots I've ever seen.

I guess it too would be better as a morning shot, but by the time we drove to the park and hiked the 1.1 miles, it was afternoon.

We then went the last .7 mile to Emerald Lake which lies just at the base of the mountains in the previous pictures. Although it's too close for a good picture, it's a lovely spot for lunch and the water really is a beautiful green.

As you can imagine, this is a popular hike, but it's not as easy as it sounds. Although it's only 1.8 miles (3.6 round trip,) it's at about 10000 feet and air is scarce. The trail also has a 600' elevation gain. I think they should hand out little oxygen tanks to the flatlanders like us.

After making our way back down (which was sure a lot easier,) we stopped at Moraine Park on our way out of the park. At this time of the year, the elk are bugling and the alpha males are gathering their harems. We didn't see any fights, but I'm sure they're doing that too.

Here's a lone male who didn't make the cut.


We counted 14 cows in this bull elk's herd. He sure was keeping careful watch over his ladies. (The picture's terrible, I know, but they were about a mile away.)