Rocky Mountain High

We drove from the Grand Tetons to Loveland, Colorado. The City of Loveland is just west of I-25 about 45 miles north of Denver. Rocky Mountain National Park is thirty five miles west of Loveland. Around Valentines Day, and on some folk's wedding anniversaries, Loveland gets a lot of cards asking that they be post stamped as being from Loveland. I guess that is a romantic gesture, personally I don't get it. Could be that is why I have never gotten a lot of cards.

We got an early start and drove over to Estes Park, Colorado. Just on the outskirts of Estes Park sits the Stanley Hotel. Two remarkable things about the hotel; First it was built by the same fellow that produced the Stanley Steamer automobile and second, it was the hotel featured in the Jack Nicholson Horror movie "The Shining." The hotel is a large, white impressive looking structure with several outbuildings, pools and fountains. It seems to radiates luxury and old money. The hotel was obviously intended for the very well to do crowd. The Stanley Steamer was an interesting vehicle. The car would climb any of the mountain roads in the area and had a top speed of 45 mph. It ran on steam and produced no pollution. One model of the car set a land speed record of 127 mph. Makes one wonder why they ever abandoned the concept.

I lived in Colorado for a few years. My home was less than fifty miles from the national park, so every time relatives or friends visited we brought them to the park. I have probably been through the park a dozen or more times. I tell you this only because after having visited five national parks in the past three weeks, I almost asked Jeannie to skip this one. To miss it would have been a mistake, Rocky Mountain National was her favorite.

We entered the park through the East Gate. Trail Ridge road runs through the park from the town of Estes Park to Grand Lake, Colorado. It is a distance of about 40 miles. It has the distinction of being the highest road in America. About five miles of the road is above 12,187 feet. That is well above the timber line and gives you the opportunity to see a pristine alpine environment. Unless one is an accomplished mountain climber, there is no other way to see animals and plants that live so high up. The road is snowed under for about eight months each year. The park ranger said that at the higher elevations on the road, winter winds of 150 mph and temperatures of 50 below zero are not uncommon.

Unlike most of the Rockies, Big Horn Mountain Sheep and Mountain Goats routinely come down to lower elevations and even cross the roads. There are not a lot of places that provide an opportunity to photograph either species. Rocky Mountain National Park also has a large population of Elk. When I lived in Colorado, we used to come up in the Fall and listen to males "Bugle" to attract their mates. On this visit Jeannie and I were fortunate to see a large male complete with a "double shovel rack" and a harem consisting of a dozen or so females. On the periphery of the herd was a young male looking longingly at the females. After sizing up the size and rack on the older male, the young suitor wisely kept his distance. We will post pictures of the herd and the two males.

We picked a good day to see the park. The clouds were few so we could see most of the mountain tops. There are several peaks of more than 14,000 feet. One of the more spectacular is Longs Peak. We had a wonderful unobstructed view of the mountain made even more dramatic by having some of the lower ridges obscured by low lying clouds. The summit appeared to rest upon lower cumulus cloud formations.

We saw a wonderful ice blue pool in the middle of a snow field, unfortunately the pictures did not capture the beautiful color of the water. There are boardwalks out onto the tundra. Some of the plants at that altitude take twenty years to grow an inch, so a careless misstep can instantly erase two decades of growth. You could spend months in the park and still see only a small fraction of what is available. There are numerous trails for both the fit and adventurous and for the not so fit and sedentary. Wildflowers are everywhere, one extraordinarily beautiful variety is the "Indian Paintbrush." I am still amazed how something so fragile can thrive in such a harsh climate. While stopped an informational kiosk, we met a park ranger who had received his Masters from the University of Florida. He had seen our UF car tag and talked with us a while about the Gators and also filled us in on some of the lesser know aspects of the park. Throughout our trip we have found all of the rangers to be friendly and knowledgeable. One fellow commented to us that people visiting natural attractions like parks or forests tend to be better read and more curious than the general public. I think that for our part, Jeannie and I have reinforced our belief that some things like these lands are sacred and must be preserved. I hope they are here for our grandchildren's grandchildren. All in all, Rocky Mountain National Park was a perfect exclamation point for our entire trip.

Because we lingered so long in the park we faced a long drive to Amarillo. Like George Strait sings we made "Amarillo by Morning" but it was 2:30 in the morning and man am I tired. I will copy this and pictures to the blog tomorrow. Tonight the bed is calling. Be safe, more tomorrow.