Rocky Mountain National Park

Hello all, this is Elijah.

It was nice to be at such high elevations, away from the desert heat for a change. The drive from eastern Utah to northern Colorado on I-70 was actually quite interesting. We drove on what is apparently the section of interstate that the U.S. Department of Transportation is most proud of, as it wound along canyon walls, over rivers, and THROUGH mountains. Some parts of the highway passed by huge open fields that housed several pieces of fracking infrastructure. What was incredibly frustrating was that every piece of fracking equipment was powered by a solar panel.

We just left Rocky Mountain National Park today, the last of the parks on our tour across America. As to be assumed, we loved it like all the rest. It is a beautiful park high in the mountains, full of blooming wildflowers, fantastic wildlife, and of course incredible views. Each park we've visited has had its own unique features. The Rockies, as one can guess, has elevations like none we've ever experienced.

The first full day we started out by taking a hike from a trailhead that started at almost 9,500 feet. The trail took us up farther to three lakes, each surrounded by snow-capped mountains. When we arrived at the third lake, the temperature was in the low 50's and there was snow all around. That was quite a shock for us, especially since we had been in the desert just one day earlier. Next we took a hike that started from a little lower, just under 8,500 feet. This trail was much more level in comparison to the first one. We stopped by a pond and saw little mallard ducklings swimming with their momma, plus a female ring-necked duck. We continued on the trail a ways, only to find ourselves not feeling the need to go any further. We decided to turn back and make for the pond again to watch the ducks. Just as we watched a garter snake in the water take a snap at one of the ducklings, a family came down from the direction we had just turned back from. They asked us if we had made it up to the lake they had just visited, and we said no. They were extremely excited as they told us that there was a big bull moose wading through the lake, nibbling on the water lilies. We immediately dropped everything and ran up the trail as fast as we could. It took us about 10 minutes to run up the steep, rocky 3/4 miles to get to the lake. I timed us taking only 6 minutes to get from the point we had originally turned around to the lake with the moose. We rounded a corner when we finally came to the lake, and quickly realized that as beautiful as the small lake looked surrounded by mountains, it was moose-less. Feeling defeated we slumped down on a rock in hopes to catch a glimpse of the moose maybe coming out for one last nibble. No such event materialized.

The next day we took a nice, leisurely stroll up to another mountain lake. This was another very steep hike, and the altitude really started getting to us. The lake was beautiful, of course, but by the time we got there we were beat. We weren't used to hiking with so little oxygen. It was amazing how much more difficult it is to perform the same way with such an increase in elevation. When we got back down we decided to have a nice, slow evening at our campsite. We were going to have chicken noodle soup on a brisk night, our last night camping. With all the outstanding weather we have been fortunate enough to encounter the entire trip, of course it was drizzling when we went to make our dinner. Nevertheless, I surprised myself by actually starting a fire in the rain. When the soup finished, there was still a light rain, but everything was pretty wet. So we spooned ourselves some soup and sat in the dry car. As we ate we were listening to the radio, and happened to catch a weather alert, which described a huge storm with flash flood warnings pushing its way north from the Denver area. If anyone isn't a real whiz in Colorado geography, we were north of the Denver area. However, the rain around us had since stopped, and it looked like the clouds were breaking. We were able to sit and enjoy the fire for a while. Afterwards we got ready for bed, looking to turn in early for a good night's sleep. As we got back to the car after changing into pajamas and brushing our teeth we heard low rumbles of thunder. A slight drizzle started up as we packed our things into the car. All of a sudden the drizzle turned into an ever-increasing downpour, and we were only half way between our car and the tent. As I mentioned earlier, we had had such great luck weather-wise all trip, but this night, when it was raining mountain lions and coyotes on us, the zipper on the tent's rainfly was stuck. It took me a while to un-snag the zipper between Laura's screaming at me and getting soaked, but I finally was able to break the zipper free and we dove into the tent. As we dove in, we saw intensely bright flashes of lightening, quickly followed by huge crashes of thunder. The storm itself lasted only about 30 minutes, but it rained just about the whole night.

After waking this morning, somewhat wet and desperately needing a shower, we made ourselves a hearty breakfast of eggs and sausage to finish off our time camping. We are now in Colorado Springs, about an hour south of Denver. We'll be here two nights, then spend two nights in Denver. It's looking like we might be home a couple days earlier than we had originally anticipated, due to a combination of fatigue and dried-up funds. Laura will work on getting pictures onto Facebook later this evening.

Take care.

Elijah