Rocky Mountain National Park

My week started out in a less-than-stellar fashion with the following burner mishap:


However, it became a lot more Steller while on my 4th of July weekend trip to Colorado with my friend, Sara.

Steller's Jay

We ditched work a day early and ended up in Greeley Thursday night at 9:30 MST. We're currently staying with her parents who have been nice enough to take in the two of us, plus two other siblings, their spouses, and a cousin.

A subset of us decided to spend Friday in Rocky Mountain National Park. Yes, it was going to be a crowded day, but a little bit of Rocky Mountain is better than no Rocky Mountain.

The Old Fall River Road had just opened for the year. It is a one-way, dirt road to the Alpine Visitor's Center located at an altitude of almost 12,000 ft. Our first stop was the Alluvial Fan - a rocky, roaring river passage formed by a giant avalanche in 1982. On our way up, we also saw Chasm Falls, beautiful mountain scenery, a pair of elk, and a yellow-bellied marmot.

Chasm Falls

Yellow-Bellied Marmot

The top, where Old Fall River Road and Trail Ridge Road meet up was packed. I kept having flashbacks to any day of the summer after 10am at Logan Pass in Glacier National Park. I thought looking for a parking spot would be absolutely futile. But, as I was reminded all day by the beautiful, but somehow incomparable scenery - this is not Glacier National Park. We got a spot just in time for torrential rainfall to begin, keeping me from climbing the short trail to the top of a nearby mountain. I did, however, find some jelly bean rocks that I've been craving since my childhood in Arizona.

Our Route

We were forced to have our picnic lunch in the car while I marveled at the bag of chips and science in action.

Sara & Our Blown-Up Chips

On the way down, we hit a 30-minute traffic jam, which got me all excited. Could this be a bear jam??! Nope, we sat 30 minutes in the car waiting for.....ELK. Ok, they were three magnificent elk, but ELK none-the-less.


All-in-all, I didn't get a chance to do any hiking, but it was really fun to see the park. Like Glacier, RM has a couple roads and a whole lot of unexplored back country. I'm already planning my next major hiking trip, including the scaling of a few of their famous "14ers". (14,000 feet actually sounds pleasant now that we're off of Kili.) Hasta la vista, Rocky. I'll be back.