Lofty Heights– Lakeside Camperworld, Dusechne UT 6/30

At dusk last night three elk sauntered across the meadow by our camp ground. All of them had pretty big antlers and seemed nonplussed by the nearby campers. They hung out for about an hour grazing. It was beautiful to see their majestic silhouettes as the sun faded. We enjoyed the ranger talk, but felt a little sorry for all the kids in the audience. The talk about carnivores was quite academic, including graphs, and geared for an adult audience. What ever happened to the good old days when everyone sang “On Top of Old Smokey?” This morning we were thrilled to be greeted by absolute crystal clear blue skies knowing we would have quite an adventure driving over the Rocky Mountains. We first started at a Visitor’s Center and watched a movie about the park and then took the Trail Ridge Road up, up, up. We made several stops along the way taking in the different perspectives of the rocky ridge and valleys. When we passed the sign that said, “Two Miles above Sea Level” and kept going up I started getting a little altitude sickness. I think we peaked out at 12,183 ft. Some of the highlights for us were seeing the historic Ute trail knowing that people walked here 6,000 years ago, and the headwaters of the Colorado River. It’s hard to believe that this harmless little creek created the Grand Canyon! Our next destination was Steamboat Springs. After driving through the desert and modest little towns we were amazed at this huge posh ski village. Wow – the resorts, upscale condos and chalet homes looked like something out of architectural digest. Once you leave the town heading west, the poor desert towns begin again - ironic to see this wealthy oasis amongst this humble setting. Rather than staying at a desert state park in the middle of nowhere, we decided to push on. Ned was a hero and drove on and on. We are now settled in at a private campground and enjoying the amenities. We love camping at the National Parks and taking advantageous of this great American resource, but don’t love the lack of basic amenities – i.e. showers! Tonight we have electricity, showers and wi-fi!! How luxurious. Tomorrow we head thru Salt Lake City and in the name of research hope to find a Farr’s Ice Cream Parlor to verify that it is, in fact, worthy of the first place status.

Rocky Mountain Hi- Rocky Mountain National Park, CO 6/29

We sadly left Custer State Park under a gorgeous brilliant blue sky. We really enjoy the vibe and the surroundings of this place so it was hard to say goodbye. Wanting to avoid the interstate as long as possible we took the back roads out of the Black Hills and into Wyoming. It was fun to see the lush green long views into the distance after being in the evergreen forest. It became abundantly clear when we hit Wyoming as the landscape flattened out and the population was about one person for every 500 miles. We drove by several working ranches and saw cowboys rounding up the cattle, which helped break up the drive. As we left the flatlands of Colorado and headed up toward Rocky Mountain National Park we enjoyed the dramatic flow of Big Thompson River thru a scenic rocky gorge. We finally came into Rocky Mountain National Park at about 3ish and were lucky to get one of the last 3 campsites in the entire park! That’s the good news. The flip side is that we are camped at Glacier Basin Campground which has been devastated by the pine bark beetle. The campground has been completely cleared of every tree and we are basically in a basin, which feels like it’s been hit by a bomb. (See today’s pic). What a difference trees make! This is so unlike camping at most national parks. That goodness we are at a high elevation with a cloud cover or we would be cooked by now. The pine bark beetle is really changing the landscape of our forests. In Custer Park the devastation was also really noticeable by the vast amount of dead brown pine trees. The beetle has really hit this entire park hard. Thousands upon thousands of the dead brown pine trees mar all of the scenic vistas. Apparently, this is a phenomenon that happens about every 500 years. The specific forests of Rocky National Park that was first hit by this beetle, about five years ago, is beginning to reemerge with Aspen trees. We figure that by the time our grandchildren view this park it will look vastly different. Once we settled into our camping spot we jumped on one of the park shuttles and checked out a couple of the Visitor Centers. We were particularly impressed with the Moraine Park Visitor’s Center and enjoyed the interactive displays on the geology, weather and fauna of the Rockies. Unfortunately, we missed the movie that was playing at the Beaver Meadows Center, but hope to catch it tomorrow. There’s a program tonight at 9 pm at our campground entitled, “Large Carnivores”, which we’ll probably go check out. Right now chicken is on the barbie, a glass of wine is being poured and we’re hanging out with all our fellow bomb victims.