Rocky Mountain National Park

3rd/4th Trip – May/June 2020

After spending months in CO for work with no access to the national parks – they FINALLY re-opened in June!! I spend two whole Saturdays in RMNP two weekends in a row and got to see things I never saw on my first two trips!

Trip #3 I did the hike to Emerald lake. I took the shuttle to the trail head since the parking lot was full. I guess everyone had been waiting to get back in just as long as I had! This trail starts at Bear Lake – which if you remember I saw during my 2nd trip! Here is a great comparison picture of the difference in view between the two trips!

I walked across this lake the last time I was here and now it was sparkling, beautiful, and crystal clear. Crazy what a few months can do to the landscape. The hike to Emerald Lake has 4 lakes starting with Bear Lake above. The next lake was Nymph lake

This trail was still pretty snow covered so I was VERY happy I had my poles and my spikes. Here is a picture of one section of the trail I snapped. Don’t want to slip down there!!

Next stop was Dream Lake. I think some of these views were my favorite from the hike!!

Just a little bit further was Emerald Lake. The views here did not disappoint!!!

Coming back down I got some great pictures of Elk as I saw them either from the trail or from the road/parking lots!

I like that last one – some of his lunch fell out of his mouth as he caught sight of me taking pictures. Before leaving for the day I drove through the valley – and took another picture that would be great for comparison. Here is the valley in June compared to March!

I saw some people hanging out by the river and viewing some Elk in the valley from a distance so I decided to swing over before heading home. Chance had it that a mom and her baby came over VERY close to take a swim in the river.

Was a great 3rd exploration of RMNP!! Now for trip #4 – the following weekend. This time I planned on attempting the hike to Loch Lake. I didn’t quite make it due to a bout of elevation sickness but I did still get some great views!! One of the way points on this hike is Alberta Falls. I had seen the falls from a distance  but it was much more stunning up close.

Here were some other great pictures and views from the hike.

After finishing this hike I drove up the Trail Ridge Parkway for some views that will never get old!!

Simply due to the sheer volume of experiences I’ve had in RMNP it is probably one of my favorites. Can’t wait to keep adding more and more pictures here!! Check out below in the state parks where I’ve also included my first hot air balloon experience along with my wolf interaction!!

2nd Trip – March 2020

Since everyone is sitting at home – quarantined and social distancing, I decided to post a blog update from my second visit to Rocky Mountain National Park. I was lucky enough to make it out to the park the weekend before it and everything else closed for COVID-19. I’ve also included some bonus pictures in this blog post from my adventures in the CO state parks during the NP shutdown! Hope you enjoy!

First stop going through was Estes Park – I’ve only driven through before so this time I actually stopped and walked around downtown! It is a very beautiful area – and I am sure usually far more packed with tourists.

First and only stop for the day was Bear Lake – I didn’t go too crazy because I thought I would be coming back nearly every weekend to check this place out! Little did I know….

This was fun because there is SO much snow fall here. The lake was obviously completely buried under many feet of snow, so everyone was just walking around like it was an open field.

The terrain gave me a great chance to try out my new hiking poles and micro-spikes!

Coming in and out of the park there were some spectacular views of the mountains!

I tell my family all the time – I am not very good at spotting wildlife. I am, however, very good at spotting other people who’ve spotted wild life! I was driving back down out of the park and saw someone pulled over on the side of the road with a gigantic camera lens sticking out the window. I pulled over behind them and it took me almost 2 minutes to find them! Climbing and navigating the hillside like pros

I am sure I will continue to add to this post if the park opens again while I am here!

Colorado State Parks – 2020

Barr Lake State Park

I walked around this park a bit when I was on my way to see my aunt and uncle in Aurora! Although portions of the trail were closed due to nesting birds I did still get to snap some great pictures

Lory State Park and Horsetooth Reservoir

Did a fun hike here near called Horsetooth Falls. Since my back injury I really haven’t been able to do a lot of hiking. I had surgery in January and am slowly on the mend! This was one of my first real hikes in a long time! Great scenery for my opening act.

There is a road that runs along the reservoir and it is stunning! There were a LOT of people biking this road – which was VERY impressive. The hills were steep and roads were a bit narrow, but they seemed to be accustomed to biking this route! Spent some time walking around Lory State park (on the other side of the reservoir) to round out a great Sunday in CO!

State Forest State Park

Every time I tried to ask some of the locals if they had traveled to this park, they would laugh at the name! It is the self-acclaimed moose viewing capital of CO. Spoiler alert – I did not see any moose… but I did get to go snowshoeing for the first time! I was surprised my snow shoes came in on time – but apparently Amazon deemed them “essential” 🙂

Can I just say – I love the Stellar Blue jay! Well mostly I love to try and take photos of them because their color is so brilliant!

Let me tell you a harrowing story of the first time I’ve ever gone off-roading. Well by CO standards (and google maps) this thing was a road – but not like any road I’ve ever traveled on. I was driving on a dirt road near the Arapahoe Wildlife refuge when I saw some sort of animal on the top of a hill. I turned down a narrower dirt road to follow it – and passed a sign that said no winter service. I was like wellll everything seems pretty dry so it should be fine… I was very wrong! Well fist – here is what I THINK is a coyote – feel free to correct me but it was too big to be a fox. I barely caught a picture of him before he disappeared into the brush.

But then I proceeded to be stuck on this road for almost 15 miles! It was pretty narrow so I desperately hoped no one would be coming the other way. I faced these GIANT puddles of mud and water in the middle of the road. I had no idea whether one is supposed to get out and verify the depth of the puddle? Or perhaps you drive very slowly through it – at the risk of getting stuck? Or better yet do you ZOOM through it and just hope for the best? Well I tried the second two and it was a nerve racking experience! I am sure anyone who actually off-roads is laughing at me – but a few of these puddles came most of the way up my tires! Of course I was driving a Grand Cherokee so I did at LEAST have 4-wheel drive 🙂 But I consider the entire trip worth it simply because of the fabulous image below. It is one of my favorites so far – pronghorns with the impressive Rockies as a backdrop!

Eldorado Canyon State Park – May 2020

I got to explore this park with my brother, sister in law and adorable nephew!! Loved having them come and visit in May 2020!!

While they were in we ALSO got to see Garden of the Gods and drove to Pikes Peak. Wasn’t my first time doing either but it was no less spectacular the second time around!

Bonus – Hot Air Balloon Ride June 2020

This was a bucket list item for me so I am so excited to have gotten a chance to do it while I was in CO. Couldn’t have asked for a more stunning view!!

Bonus – Wolf Interactions!! – June 2020

Visiting my gram before I was leaving Colorado we decided to check out the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center. In addition to the regular tour we also paid extra to have a VIP experience. This included us going in to the cages to pet them!! Navi is the male that I spent more time with, and Tala is the female Gram got to pet more. This was super cool – first pic was him licking me in the face as a greeting!

Bonus – McIntosh Lake, Longmont CO

So this may be cheating – since this lake is NOT a state park…BUT I walked its 3.5 mile perimeter so many times while I was there!! It is beautiful. There are some bald eagles that nest near the shore line so I almost always bring my camera. With Longs Peak as the backdrop this lake is the perfect daily getaway!

The first time it snowed here I was anxious to get out and capture some images of the snow covered landscape!

According to my birding experts (hey mom-r!) this was a female Redtail hawk! Very stunning up close.

This is my view every time I get out of my car! LOVE

Here he/she is! This majestic bird. Not sure if I’ve always seen the same bird – or if there are multiple but I’ve included some of my favorites here.

Now these next pictures were up for some debate! This eagle was on a war path this day – terrorizing geese and another hawk that was flying in the area. When I showed the picture to someone I work with he said this was a mating ritual! Seemed crazy but the internet seems to confirm that eagles will hold claws in mid-air when they are courting. That is some high stakes love. Now my second mom did some more searching and said that they will also do this when they are protecting their territory – which in this case seems to be more likely as the other bird isn’t an eagle. Still some cool images!

He/she landed right in the tree by the path so I got some up close pictures. Looked right into my soul when I started taking pictures!

Below is my original blog post from Rocky Mountain National Park – has some great pictures too!

August 2015

For my first throwback post I decided to pick one of my very favorites. I have only barely scratched the surface of what Rocky Mountain National Park has to offer! This was my first BIG solo trip. I was traveling to Boulder, CO for work and on a whim decided to go out a few days early and go camping in the mountains. I like to think this national park was the spark that lit my passion.

So lets start at the beginning – which is actually not in the park. My very first 14er. As I started researching what hikes to do in Colorado, the most popular hikes seemed to be the illustrious 14ers. For those of you who aren’t familiar, there are roughly (depends on who you ask) 53 mountains that rise at least 14,000 ft above sea level in Colorado.  Naturally my first reaction to that was – who could resist that type of challenge?!? My second thought was – I am nowhere close enough to being in shape for this….

So my next google search was – what is the easiest 14er. Mt Bierstadt was a popular one for beginners, so it was added to my itinerary! Here was my first view. I woke up super early and drove to the trail head.

The trail head is at about 11,700 feet. I had stayed with my uncle and grandmother in Divide, CO (~9,000ft) so I had acclimated somewhat. But don’t overestimate me – I was still winded when climbing a flight of stairs! I’ll start off by saying this hike was the HARDEST hike I had done in my life so far. It was 7 miles round trip with 2850 feet of elevation gain. I also learned the nuances of false summits…definitely not my favorite.

I have no shame to admit that the top picture here was my first false summit moment. I had just finished a particularly hard 0.25 mile and felt that I surely had earned my summit – only to learn that I was less than half-way there! I clearly had no sense of distance traveled… If I hadn’t met some friends along the way to share my struggles I would never have made it. But I did finally!

The view from the top was spectacular. But true to all the those blog posts – the afternoon rain showers came in fast so I jogged back down the mountain. What had taken me close to 5 hours (I took a lot of breaks) was backtracked in a little more than 1.

My next stop was the national park! I stayed up in the mountains. I was pretty exhausted from my climb so I pitched my tent and attempted to get my fire started. I will admit this was my first experience with a bear box. Clearly I had never really experienced the wilderness before now.

I also learned it is much harder to start a fire at 9000 feet! I used a lot of matches because I was too stubborn to have fire starters. I have since parted with the misconception that my worth comes from how easily I can start a fire without cheating… Mostly 🙂

I woke up early to watch the sunrise over the lake.

I was enjoying this beautiful view when someone informed me there were moose back in the woods and asked if I wanted to go check it out. I admit, in hindsight, this could have turned out very poorly for me. However I had my first moose sighting!!

Fear not – I have a pretty decent lens on my camera so the moose were a safe distance away. I couldn’t stop taking pictures of them though! I admit I made a noise for the last picture so they would look at me 🙂 They were beautiful! Once more people started realizing what we were climbing through the brush to see, the moose heard us and ran off. My first moose experience was one I will never forget!! Not to be overshadowed by my second moose experience.

I continued exploring the area and had some good captures! Here is another one of my favorites.

As I was leaving the campground area – I saw two girls pulled over on the side of the road. I assumed they had a blown tire when they flagged me down. I got out of my car to see what they needed, and to my surprise they were just trying to tell me about the moose who was no more than 50 feet away from me!

Now I couldn’t believe my luck! I began snapping pictures and he started walking down toward us and the road – and then I was able to capture one of the coolest sets of pictures.

He  walked RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY CAR! Now 2.5 years later I can recognize that I probably should have been very scared. I should have at least been inside of my car, but I was too excited and amazed to care about safety!!

I don’t know that I will ever get another set of pictures quite like that, but I will never get tired of seeing them. I continued my day by driving the Trail Ridge Parkway. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

This is a random one – but its good!

This blog post will probably use about 10% of my available memory on this website – but it is well worth it. Although it was not the first national park I had ever been to – I like to think it was the first one I truly experienced. I cannot wait to find myself back in this park. There is so much more to see!!