The Rockies!

Moraine Campground, Rocky Mountain National Park

 

It rained like crazy last night and a cold, wet morning greeted us. Burrrr. We decided to head out as soon as we took hot showers. Was it really only a few days ago it was well into the 100's?

Driving thru Loveland, Ned spotted a sculpture park and wanted to take a look. His sister, Nancy, is friends with a sculptor (Jan Rossetta?) in this area. He was hoping we'd see some of her work. No such luck, but we did take an amazing bike ride thru a park featuring African stonework.

The sculptures were set up beautifully among ponds and in a wooded setting. They reminded us of the African sculptures we saw earlier in the trip at the Dallas Botanical Gardens. We would have ridden longer, but it was still freezing cold.

 

As we're headed to the Rockies, we passed by a cherry shop. A few days ago we bought some delicious cherries from a roadside vendor. He said they were from Colorado. When we saw this shop we had to go in with the hopes of scoring another pound or two of those yummy cherries.

Turns out they don't have fresh cherries! Only cider, jellies, jams, pies, etc. Needless to say, we left empty handed. Once you have fresh cherries there ain't no going back.

 

 

 

The drive up the canyon to the Rockies was gorgeous. Better yet, the clouds were clearing and there was blue skies. Hurrah!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great shot of Winnie with the Rockies in the background. She's been a trooper this trip! 9th time across the U.S. and she just plugs along. (Okay, a couple of hiccups here and there, but she has over 176k miles on her). Just love the places she has taken us.

 

 

 

 

 

After a short stop in Estes Park we made it to our campground by noon. The pine smell and granite boulders reminds us of home. Darn you Rocky Mountains, you're starting to make me homesick. We had a quick lunch, looked over some maps, and planned our strategy for exploring the park.

 

 

We decided to take advantage of the in-park shuttle service and headed for Alberta Falls. From that hike we picked up another trail, up to Bear Lake, and then took the shuttle back to the campground.

It was really warm and the falls were amazing! I was struggling a bit with the elevation tho. We were at about 9,500 feet and I was definitely moving slow. By the time we got back to the campsite it was close to 6 and the temperature had dropped...a lot!

Our plan was to walk to the ampitheatre this evening and take in a Ranger show on the Black Bear. Fuhgetaboutit...We're beat and the idea of bundling up in our jackets, with blankets, as we sat there for 45 min. was a hard sell. Looks like a quiet evening at home, asleep by 9 is my guess.

No cell in park so will have to post this with tomorrow's blog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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