Life on the road...: Rocky Mountain National Park...September 4

(Kim's Perspective) *WARNING...PICTURE INTENSIVE* :D

Trying to maximize our short time here, we were up early and went for a walk around the campground at sunrise.

It brought tears to my eyes to watch Old Glory slowly rise to her rightful place of honor.

The Sitts opted to sleep in and get a later start so Bill and I loaded up our gear and jumped in the truck to see what the drive along Trail Ridge Road had in store for us. When we were here in October of 2010, Trail Ridge Road had already closed for the season so we didn't get to see much of it. In fact, this parking lot was the furthest we got in 2010...

It was very cold then...too cold for us....

...but our beloved Boys enjoyed themselves despite the bitter temps that day. <sniff, sniff>

So back to the present...let me dab my eyes....okay...so...we got a little farther this time. It was nice to not have the parking lot covered in snow.

We walked along the pedestrian path across the road from the parking lot and snapped a few photos.

We continued heading west and pulled in to each of the overlooks. There were amazing vistas around every turn.

We stopped at the Rock Cut parking lot and walked the Tundra Communities Trail. This short little 1 mile paved interpretive trail was SPECTACULAR. We spent nearly an hour here. The alpine wildlife was entertaining.

Yellow Bellied Marmot

In fact, we stopped next to a guy filming this little pika for a documentary he was producing for PBS. He lives in Estes Park and makes documentaries of RMNP. I, too, took a video, but let's just say the quality is not up to PBS standards. Fast, tricksey little Pikas make it hard to capture quality footage.

Taking a break from his winter stockpile gathering activities....

...and back to work

Here's the film guy....I want his job.

The alpine plants begged to be admired and I happily obliged.

We continued along and got a few pics of the "Mushroom Rocks".

We then walked to the end of the trail and climbed the rock outcropping for an awesome 360 degree view. At the top is the "Trail Ridge Mountain Index" that depicts a map of the Rockies as well as the distances to other national parks. Here, we are at 12,304 feet above sea level. So, basically, we can't breathe. :)

We walked back to the truck and continued along the Ridge.

We stopped by the Alpine Visitor Center. It wasn't open yet (it doesn't open till 10:30am) so we went into the Trail Ridge Store and bought a couple souvenirs and coffees.

The visitor center finally opened and we went inside and looked at all the exhibits. There was a donation center that consisted of little acrylic cubes for each state. I tossed in a buck for West Virginia and then noticed with delight that the cube for Maryland was empty. I pulled out another buck and told Bill that I was taking Maryland away from the Sitts as a penalty for sleeping in. LOL.

Maryland's First Dollar Donated By Kim O'Hara, Former Resident

We left the visitor center and then walked the Alpine Ridge Trail. It's another paved path consisting of over 225 steps that lead to yet another killer view.

I think the look on Bill's face is because he realized we just walked up 225 steps to get to a point that was 300 feet lower in elevation than the rock outcropping we had just climbed. :)

I love my little cloud-piercing picture. :)

Naturally, I had to take a few more shots of the tundra plants...

This nut job (the guy in the green shirt, not Bill) was running up and down the stairs over and over for fun or exercise or something. Bill said "I bet you can't do another trip before we get to the bottom." Dude replied with "I bet I can". And he did. Jerk face. :)

As we were walking down the stairs, we saw the Sitts pull into the parking lot. They spotted Bill's uber bright coat right away and then located the truck. Neither is particularly difficult to find. Bill's coat can burn your retinas out of your eyes and the bright blue Dodge Ram with two motorcycles in the truck bed are kind of hard to miss. :) We chatted with them for a few minutes and then went our separate ways again. We wanted to find some hiking trails along the Ridge and then make our way down to Grand Lake. We stopped to hike Timber Lake Trail, but the trail had been damaged from the flooding last year and required a detour and scrambling around the rockslide area. We weren't inclined to mess with all that, so we decided to check out Coyote Trail and combine it with a late lunch. I had brought our backpacking stove and dehydrated meals so we could eat on the trail. Unfortunately, (at the time anyway - it's a long story) I didn't have my trusty little spork packed in the titanium cup/pot combo so having a backpacking lunch was out of the question. Anyone who has ever poured boiling lava-hot water into those little foil dehydrated food bags knows why you need a utensil; thus, I'll not go on further to explain. :) The Coyote Trail, while also short, flat, and easy, was quite pretty.

Since our lunch plans were a bust, we drove to Grand Lake and just ate at the lodge. :)

Now THAT'S a salad!

My mother always told me if I didn't have anything nice to say, I shouldn't say anything at all. So...I'm not saying a word...but a picture is, in fact, worth a thousand words. :)

As we were getting ready to leave, I pointed out to Bill that one of the cool hikes I wanted to do was at this end of the park. I could tell he was not very interested in doing it since the weather had turned questionable and it was getting late, but he humored me and off we went. Wooohooo! This would prove to be an excellent decision. :)

The North Inlet trailhead is actually outside the park's boundary and the first portion of the trail is on private property. It's kinda weird to be hiking along and stumble upon this...

Oh to have this place in my real estate portfolio!

We hiked along the river and through a somewhat creepy, scraggly stand of ponderosa pines and aspen trees.

Eventually, we came across this guy grazing in the meadow.

We then proceeded to hike a little further and encountered these two...

Apparently, it was our lucky day. :) The female alerted to us first and kept an eye on us for quite a while. The bull finally meandered over and eventually got around to lifting his giant head from grazing to check us out.

While walking on a side trail towards the meadow, I had scared up a snake that quickly slithered away into the grass. Humpf. I figured it would be too cold for snakes here. Anyhoo...it was getting late, so we turned around and started to head back. We were both looking around hoping to spot more moose - which loosely translates to "not paying attention to where we were walking". At the last minute, I yelled for Bill to watch his step - but I was a little too late and I think he got the tail end of this little guy anyway. Fortunately, he wasn't hurt. The snake I mean. :)

Later, when reading my newly purchased "Nature Guide to Rocky Mountain National Park" book, I would learn that the Western Terrestrial Garter Snake is the only snake found in the park. The book also states they are "hard to spot". Really? Cuz Bill just stepped on one and I nearly stepped on another. Perhaps they're hard to spot because their populations are dwindling....from being crushed to death.

We continued on and encountered a few mule deer. One was a fawn that was totally adorable.

A few minutes later, I spotted another moose in the thicket.

This was a great hike. The Effort to Pay-Off Ratio was outstanding. :)

It started to sprinkle rain so we put our rain jackets on and made our way back to the truck. We headed back to the park entrance and spotted one last moose for the day.

Continuing North/East on Trail Ridge Road, we reached the uppermost portion of the drive as the last remnants of light dwindled away. It was cold and snowing along the Ridge, but that didn't prevent us from stopping for 30+ minutes to watch a herd of elk on the tundra. I have a great video of their antics but it's waaay too big to upload.