Rocky Mountain National Park
Wednesday 07/02/2008 12:57 PM
I'm back in Florida now, but I'm playing catch up on this blog, so we're zooming back in time to my drive through Rocky Mountain National Park. I realized as I was sorting through photos that I did the typical tourist thing: I took several dozen pictures of panoramic mountainscapes ... none of which really capture what it was like to be there and all of which become very boring after the first two or three. So I'll try to spare you some of that tedium and only post the highlights.
The mountains from afar: just starting up Trail Ridge Road, which winds around the hills and up the mountains to the tundra and snow at the tops.
The warming hut at surprisingly low elevation (since I didn't see any of these further up the mountains), next to the bathrooms at one of the rest areas in the park.
I took an annoying number of really bad self-portraits (the kind where you hold the camera at arm's length) when I stopped for a break on a bluff about halfway up Trail Ridge Road. And then I realized I could try taking photos of my shadow. So here's the one that turned out the best, which isn't saying much, I suppose.
A little further up the road, a fellow tourist agreed to take a photo of me with the landscape in the background.
One of many fanatics biking it up Trail Ridge Road. It's a 20-mile journey, climbing to over 12,000 feet, and this guy was 3/4 done after just over two hours.
First contact with snow along the road, even though the temp here was still in the lower 60s.
Of course I had to put my feet in.
The view directly behind me when I had my feet in the mini waterfall.
Natural aromatherapy: I got an intense whiff of evergreen scent on my way back to my car and finally realized it was coming from this patch of snow under a bunch of trees.
The first sight of elk, just above the treeline.
More elk on the tundra.
Not sure it really comes through in the photo, but the first word that came to mind when I saw this one was "majestic."
After spending four hours meandering to the top of Trail Ridge Rd, I got back down in 45 minutes, and was feeling confident enough to take a couple of photos while I drove. The sticks along the road are markers for the snowplows since they often have to dig through 30+ feet of snow to find the road again.
Yep, the road really does drop right off the mountain on the right side. More than a little unnerving at first.
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