Rocky Mountains

After Jeff’s, we stopped at the National Renewable Energy Lab before headed on to Rocky Mountain National Park. Due to 9-11 they no longer give tours (booo) and, from the looks of the public exhibits, they’re currently under-funded (I blame the current administration). Nevertheless, we did learn a few interesting thing about conserving energy.

We arrived at Rocky Mountain National Park and secured ourselves a campsite on the east side of the park. We did two good hikes on the east side of the park. On our first full day in the park we hiked in the bear lake region, and did a loop hike up to a number of alpine lakes. The hike was really beautiful, but on our way down it clouded up a bit and before we knew it there was thunder rumbling in the sky. Luckily, by the time it started raining we were back below the tree line. Here’s some pics from this hike:

On our second morning in the park we hiked up to the peak of Deer Mountain. We hiked pretty quickly, and it felt great to really get our blood moving. The top of the mountain was in the clouds, so no view, but nevertheless, it was a great hike.
After our morning hike we hopped in the car and headed west over the mountain pass that is the highest paved road in the lower 48 states. We stopped near the top to do a short hike and take some photos. The air sure was thin, and the mountains sure were gorgeous. We saw some elk, marmots, pikas, and some other unidentified small rodents on our second hike of the day.
Once we got to the west side of the park we got a great campsite that overlooked a stream and meadow. To round out the day we did one more short hike along the headwaters of the Colorado River. Back at the campground that evening, and again the next morning we were serenaded by elk calls. Their calls were really beautiful, haunting even, like a really high pitched brass horn, or something. We ended our stay in the park with a long hike up to Granite Falls. The falls were really beautiful, and the rest of the hike was pretty picturesque too. Unfortunately, the west side of the park is very mosquito infested, and boy, do they love Kimbal. So, we didn’t really take time to enjoy the scenery. Luckily, there weren’t too many mosquitoes right by the falls, but we really scurried the rest of the hike. I think it was the fastest that we have ever hiked, 13.4 miles in just over 4 hours, including our lunch stop.