Rocky Mountain National Park 2012

From Dubois, Wyoming, we traveled to Estes Park, Colorado for a visit to Rocky Mountain National Park.

On September 25, at the recommendation of Park Rangers, we decided to drive the unpaved Old Fall River Road, a spectacular 11-mile drive to the Alpine Visitor Center at the top of Fall River Pass at 11,796 feet above sea level. From there, we had the option of traveling down the west side of the Rockies toward Grand Lake or returning to Estes Park by way of the paved Trail Ridge Road.

Following are pictures from that day.

Mountain Bluebird 

A small waterfall near the roadway

Doug, shooting some video of the beautiful yellow aspen

Another small waterfall

Doug took this shot with our new HD camcorder. He didn't even know he'd pushed that button.

View from the Alpine Visitor Center at Fall River Pass

A storm brewing at the Alpine Visitor Center

When we left the Alpine Visitor Center, we drove a short distance down the west side of the national park, toward Grand Lake. We hadn't gone far before we spotted an osprey in the top of a tree. He was pretty far way, so the picture isn't wonderful; but I couldn't resist including it.

Osprey

This was another scene along the west side of the park.

We didn't drive far down the west side but turned around and returned to Estes Park by way of the paved Trail Ridge Road. By the time we reached the Alpine Visitor Center again, those lowering clouds we had seen earlier had become dense fog, misting rain, and spitting snow. We parked at the visitor center for awhile, hoping for a change in weather before continuing. But the weather showed no promise of changing. So we started on back toward Estes Park through the fog, rain, and snow. Once we got down to a lower elevation, the snow stopped and the fog lifted; but it was still raining.

Since the weather was not cooperating, we decided to drive to Loveland for an oil change for our vehicle and supper for ourselves. It was getting dark by the time we returned to Estes Park. As we entered the town, a large bull elk strolled across the highway in front of us. Again, the photo, taken at dusk through the windshield of a moving car, isn't sharp; but I wanted to include it anyway.



Elk in town

We heard elk bugling in the national park, but we didn't see any there. We did, however, see several herds of them scattered around the town of Estes Park.

We had planned to spend another full day at Rocky Mountain National Park, but the nasty weather didn't show any sign of improving. So we dropped a few of the activities we had planned and headed for home a day early.