road trip to colorado - day 3 - rocky mountain national park

On Sunday we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park, about an hour's drive NNW of Boulder. The plan was to take a "more scenic" route home.


As we first entered the park we encountered this herd of elk. It is currently elk mating season so elk encounters are more common as they descend from the high country to the lower meadows to mate.

The Trail Ridge Road that crosses over the mountains through the park is normally only open from June to mid-October. Unfortunately an early October storm arrived the night before our visit bringing rain & sleet that froze to ice and closed the road. A ranger at the park visitor center suggested that since today was sunny and warm they might open the road again that afternoon if the ice on the road had melted. We had planned to do some sight-seeing and hiking in the park anyway so we chose a 6 mile hike to Mills Lake. The trail started at 9,475ft elevation climbing 750ft to Mills Lake. The following slide show covers this hike. The trail follows Glacier Creek up Glacier Gorge past Alberta Falls. The final pic is looking south across Mills Lake towards Longs Peak (the highest mountain in the park at 14,259ft). The small jagged spires trailing back from Longs Peak (on the left) are called the Keyboard of the Winds, named for the musical sound the wind sometimes makes as it blows across the rock spires.

After returning from Glacier Gorge, we picked up some food from the car and then took another short hike to Bear Lake to eat. This is the view we enjoyed while eating our picnic lunch.

There had been no sign of bad weather all morning, so after lunch we set off on the drive across the mountains. Eventually the road climbs above the treeline. We stopped at Forest Canyon Overlook (11,700 ft)...

... taking in the view south east down Forest Canyon across the park towards Longs Peak.

This area of alpine tundra (a Russian word for "land of no trees") is under snow for most of the year. Winds often exceed 100mph (160km) and temperatures remain below freezing for at least 5 months of the year. Only a few grasses and alpine wildflowers can survive these harsh conditions and the short growing season. If you look closely in the picture below you can see a couple of cars on the road as it heads up the mountain towards the highest point on the road at 12,183ft.


As we reached the top of the climb the clouds and weather closed in and it started to sleet. As we descended, the weather began to clear until around 9,000ft we were back in sunshine again and encountering more herds of elk.

At the western entrance of the park, a series of 3 lakes - Grand Lake, Shadow Mountain Lake & Lake Granby have been created on the upper reaches of the Colorado River.

I love the light in this picture with the late afternon sun on the lake and the stormy looking clouds hovering over the Rocky Mountains that we have just crossed. Shadow Mountain Lake seems well-named!