day 2 was our national park day. we woke up early because rocky mountain national park (rmnp) is a solid 2.5 hour drive from breckenridge. look at these early breakfast cuties.
the drive through granby is beeeeautiful, and the two and a half hours flew by.
and then! we made it! ive been to rmnp a few times, but always approached it from the mountainous and very very crowded east side of the park. the entrance goes through downtown estes park, which is cute but very touristy, and the entire east side of the park is horribly congested. i am thrilled to report that the west side is the exact opposite of all of that. not touristy--not a fudge shop for miles and miles and miles. instead, it's wild and gorgeous wilderness.
we stamped our book at the entrace, and then pointed our car up up up and drove to the highest visitor's center of all the national parks in the country. there was still a little snow up there.
we climbed up a nearby staircase that was crowded but had some sweet views
and then we got down to business. we were there to hike, and hike we did. we crossed the main road on foot and struck out on the gorgeous high alpine ute trail. it was a 4 mile hike across exposed mountainside above the tree line, and we were greeted with chirruping pika and yellow bellied marmots, and views that knock you out. the air was cold and thin, and our hearts were pumping over time. it was an exhilarating hike.
we found little pond and pulled up a seat for lunch.
look at this straight shot view down forest canyon. long's peak is back there somewhere.
back at the visitor's center when the hike was over, the kids got to work on their observations workbook for the junior ranger program....
(side note: check out this view from the visitor's center)
driving back down the western slopes of the park afforded us a peek-a-boo view of a mama moose and her babies.
and further down, we found a short creek side/meadow hike before leaving the park.
we took the long way home, through all the switchbacks near winter park. i love driving through mountain switchbacks more than i love driving....almost anywhere else. and i really love driving. david, i think, maybe doesn't like driving through mountains, but it turns out he really doesn't like it when he is the passenger in a car driven by someone who really loves driving the switchbacks. he did a great job, no one puked (but ramona came close), and we made it home to breckenridge for clothing change, and then..
right back into the river in downtown breck.
we finally got our shoes back on and made it to a restaurant with this hiking heros.
No comments:
Post a Comment