Near the end of June, we visited Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Since I haven’t posted here in a while, I thought I’d share a few photos.
This is the view of Grand Lake, on the left, and Shadow Mountain Lake, on the right, from the Grand Lake Lodge, a hotel near the west entrance of the park. After a short break here, we went on into the park. Because of my advanced age, I was able to pick up an annual senior pass to all of the national parks for $20, ten bucks less than it would have cost for a one-day pass if I were a little younger.
After entering the park, our first stop was the Holzwarth Historic site, a fishing camp built between 1917 and 1919. On this day, the historical buildings had no fascination for me; what was most interesting was the stream we crossed on a small bridge during the half-mile hike to the camp; the stream was the Colorado River, just 10 miles or so out from its headwaters. Here, it was maybe 15 feet wide. This is the same river that, many miles downstream, carved the Grand Canyon.
Oh, also at Holzwarth, there was a moose up near the camp.
From there, we drove up the west side of the park toward the Alpine Visitors Center. “Up” being the operative word here.
From the visitors center, it’s a sometimes-treacherous-but-often-breathtaking drive down toward the east entrance of the park.
After exiting RMNP, we went to visit the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo. Another visitor that afternoon was this enormous elk, which was hanging out in the garden next to one of the entrances for a while; hotel workers were stationed to keep people away from him until, as we were leaving, she decided to get up and amble out herself.
