Rocky Mountain National Park

The Monkeys were here and we were going on an excursion.  Because Sebastian was really gung-ho for the mountains, we decided to head up to Rocky Mountain National Park.

With a late start, we finally got to Boulder and headed up the canyon, then took the Peak-to-peak highway across to Estes Park. 

We parked and strolled through town a little bit, and then drove up to the national park. 

The roads are small and winding, and we started off at Horseshoe park, at the alluvial fan falls. A nice little hike around the falls and some pictures, and we decided to move along.

We drove for another 30 minutes at a slow pace and finally got up to Bear Lake. The hike around the lake is real easy and you never even break a sweat. It's only at little over 9000 feet (2750m) so it was more for pictures and seeing something different.

The real fun started after that. We doubled back and headed up towards Mount Evans on the highest paved highway in North America.  The weather and the road are both a bit trecherous up there, so it was going slow, but we managed to get up to the top and see snow on the mountains. Yes, this is August! This is also above the tree line. When trees don't grow due to the lack of oxygen (or whatever reason) it's a clear indicator that we're out of our elements.

At the peak - at 14270 feet (4350m) - we pulled off and ran up (for the 10 seconds before we ran out of air) the little path to the rocky peak for pictures. The temparature had dropped from 85F in Boulder to 46F up on the mountain and the breeze ensured we felt thoroughly frozen - but that didn't dissuade us.

We piled back in the van and took the quicker highway back towards the house for a night of well-deserved rest.

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