Rocky Mountain National Park - Part I

Arriving in Estes Park, we saw a banner for a Big Band Extravaganza. We headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park and snagged a campsite at the Moraine Park Campground before driving back into town. We spent the rest of the day meandering between the free concerts that featured local Big Bands and the ice cream shops for malts! Yum!

That evening, we made some dinner and broke out our instruments for an early evening jam and we drew a crowd! We enjoyed meeting some of the people that were camping around us, and no one seemed to be unhappy about our music (yet...).

The next morning, we awoke and got on the shuttle for Bear Lake, which is a popular hiking spot in the eastern part of the park. There was a chance of showers and as we had realized in previous national parks trips, the chance that they give you is equivalent to your chance of surviving the storm. We hiked through hail to Bear Lake, Dream Lake, Emerald Lake and Nymph Lake before turning back to the shuttle stop when we heard rumblings from above.

We lazed around for the rest of the afternoon at our campsite and had another early evening jam with a similar audience. A jazz guitar player came over and I broke out the trumpet for some tunes that probably razzed the neighbors. Since he used Lisa's guitar, we gave full disclosure that a bird pooped on it last week. It was early to bed though because we wanted to beat the storms on our next hike.

We got up early the next morning and took the shuttle to the Glacier Gorge Trailhead. In much better weather than the previous day, we hiked to Mills Lake, Jewel Lake and the Loch. Each of these lakes had a much more sweeping vista than the ones we visited on the previous day. After a picnic lunch at the Loch, we headed back to our campsite for another lazy afternoon.

Huffing, at 10,000 Feet

Mills Lake

The Loch

That evening, much of our original campground audience had left so we felt better repeating songs...

The next day we embarked on the Trail Ridge Road, which is the scenic drive that cuts across the park. We enjoyed the scenery along the way and got to explore trails in the tundra. We found it interesting that plants in this area may only come an inch above the ground but have a five foot taproot! It's amazing how nature can adjust to harsh climates.

Longs Peak in the Distance

Tundra

On the return trip, we got to see a few elk herds. One elk that seemed to be sniffing towards our car made us think that it was time for a shower, so we headed back into Estes Park. We will be camping in the park for two more nights before we start heading east.

Sniffles, the Elk