Rocky Mountain NP

Just returning to the Internet and cell phone after serval days off the grid.  It was very nice to unplug. Plan to try to maintain that for a couple more days.

We drove through Grand Staircase National Monument and Capitol Reef National Park, on our way to Arches.  They're two of my favorite places in the world.

After Arches,  we drove to Parachute, Colorado. We were too tired to go further after all that hiking.  The next morning we drove in to Rocky Mountain National Park, where we set up the tent.  It was really nice to be in one place for a couple of days and I really love camping.

We immediately drove the Trail Ridge Road and took a hike.  We hiked almost all the way to Bier start Lake, but turned around because we were concerned about getting back across that harrowing road before dark.  The road is not for the faint of heart or anyone with a fear of Heights.

 But wow, is it ever gorgeous.  Truly the Rocky Mountains in all of their glory. The highest point on the road is over 12,000 feet.  Many opportunities to pull over and look at the mountains and wildlife and sky.

This park rivals Yellowstone in terms of the wildlife. We saw lots of elk, moose and dear,  including some that were very,  very close, like 40 feet. A herd of female Elk slept in the campground with us! In the next campsite! We could hear them calling to each other in the night.  It was wild!

We went into town that night and ate a great veggie Mediterranean pizza at the bowling alley of all places. The next morning I made pancakes on the campstove. We planned to cook that night but it rained most of the day and fearful the campsite would be wet, we wound up with fried chicken to go. We drove down to the Wild Basin are of the park and hiked to Copeland Falls and most of the way to Calypso Cascades. Beautiful hike along a rushing stream.  But we really struggled with the altitude,  I guess partially because we aren't in the best shape.  Still,  we hiked more than 4 miles that day.  Stopped in the meadows at Horseshoe Park but no bighorn sheep.

Built a campfire when we returned and watched the super moon rise over the mountain with the elk herd. Gorgeous!