Circle Trip around Rocky Mountain National Park, 16 Jul 2013

It's been a long time since we posted to this blog - but after hours of frustration trying to post a Picasa web album, which is now apparently only a function of Google+, which I cannot figure out, I decided to post our photos of Western Colorado as a blog.

After a busy spring and early summer of motorhome rallies, Palmer reunion, and a 1-day RV service visit that turned into 11 days (another story!), we hastened to Idaho Springs, CO, about 30 miles west of Denver. At 8000 feet, it was a lot cooler and dryer than the hot, humid weather we'd been having since early June in Illinois. We did some walking along Clear Creek and geocaching around Idaho Springs, but the highlights of our 6 days in Idaho Springs were our loop trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, an early morning drive up to Mt. Evans, and the round-trip Georgetown Loop Railroad between Georgetown and Silver Plume, both old mining towns.

On July 16, we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park along the eastern side, with beautiful views of the mountains to the west.

This is a view of Long's Peak, one of Colorado's 14'ers at 14,259 feet. Several outfitters run trail rides along the margins of the national park

Once inside Rocky Mountain National Park, we drove up through the forest with numerous hairpin curves. This is a view back toward the east from the Rainbow Curve overlook, showing a few of the hairpins that the Trail Ridge Road, the only road connecting the east and west sides of the national park, makes as it climbs to a maximum altitude of 12,183 feet.

As we climbed higher and higher, we saw a number of cirques where glaciers used to be, but are no more.

When we got above the tree line, vast vistas opened up, The tundra was covered with wildflowers. Trail Ridge Road is closed from mid-October until Memorial Day - the sticks along the road are used to guide the snowplows when the road is being cleared in the spring. We call them "Yooper sticks" after the slender branches inserted along roadsides to guide snow plows in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

 These two elk were lounging in the tundra meadow close to the top of Trail Ridge Road.

 Poudre Lake is just to the east of the continental divide. It is the source of Cache la Poudre River, which flows east to join the South Platte River near Greeley, CO.

We crossed the continental divide at the west end of Poudre Lake, and just a couple of miles farther along Trail Ridge Rd we had a great view from the Farview Overlook toward the Kawuneeche Valley, with the source of the Colorado River among the Beaver Ponds. Notice the large proportion of trees that have been killed by the pine bark beetle. From here, the road winds its way down to the valley through numerous hairpin switchbacks

 We stopped for lunch at the Pine Beach Picnic Area on Shadow Mountain Lake, just outside the western entrance to the national park. We had a lovely view back toward Shadow Mountain to the east. Ospreys had a nest in one of the trees at the point of land in the center of the photos - we could hear them, but couldn't see them.

As we were eating our lunch, two white pelicans circled overhead and landed in the lake just a few yards in front of us. We were very surprised to see pelicans up here in the Rocky Mountains, but it turns out that the white pelicans migrate north during the summer from their wintering grounds on the Gulf of Mexico. White pelicans are quite a bit larger than the more common brown pelicans, and rather than diving for fish they scoop along the surface of the water for fish, frogs, and other small aquatic creatures.