Posted from: Estes Park, CO
Miles driven: 75
Total trip miles: 902
Elevation change: 4,396 increase
Our third day at Rocky Mountain National Park was the coolest day yet...and I mean that both figuratively and literally!
Here we are standing in front of the park sign to take the obligatory standing-in-front-of-the-park-sign picture. We had trouble being serious about the whole thing. As Matt and the kids will tell you, there is little I dislike more than jumping through vacation hoops like this. I just want to go experience things already!!! No time for this nonsense, but I put up with it because I end up being glad we have them at the end.
I will take a moment now to write about the sad loss of much of the forest in our national parks due to a bug that kills them. In this picture you can see that 40% of the trees along the Trail Ridge Road are dead. It was still a beautiful drive.
Cameron took this picture for Grandma Colleen to make sure she knew that he was being safe while climbing. Notice the strong footholds.
There was a path carved through the snow that was taller than the truck.
Once we got to the Alpine Summit visitor center, the kids decided that this would be the best place to be sworn in as Junior Rangers. We brought their completed workbooks, and a ranger quizzed them a bit. Thankfully they passed and were sworn in with a short ceremony. It was really kind of cool.
Yeah, the elevation was a bit high, but no inhalers were needed. This poor moose did not fare as well.
I forgot to snap a pic when we were at the top where it was 34 degrees. Brrrr! (My lovely nails are enjoying their brief moment in the limelight.)
When we came back down we stopped at Alluvial Fan, and enjoyed a short hike and relaxing time watching the falls.
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