The drive to Rocky Mountain NP from Loveland is about 40 miles. But the first 30 are through the most beautiful canyon, Big Thompson Canyon. If you remember this is the canyon that had the flood in 1976 that killed 150 people. You wouldn't know it now the way people have built there home right along the river again. Unfortunately it is so narrow that it is difficult to get pictures. Peggy got some video while we were driving through the canyon but didn't get and stills. At the end of the canyon you enter Estes Park a pure tourist town but very neat and pretty. We stopped at the visitor center and watched a 18 minute video about the park and bought some books, hat pin and walking stick medallion.
This is the view from the first pull off in the park.
Another pull off view where we meet some bikers that were biking to the top of Trail Ridge Road. Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous road in the US. It tops out at 12,200 feet.
This is an example of how the road twists and turns up the mountain.
This one is above tree line in the alpine region.
This little fellow a Hoary Marmot live here at between 11,000 and 12,000 feet.
At 12,000 feet on June 28th there still is plenty of snow and no telling when it will snow again. It could be tomorrow. It can snow at any time of the year here.
Beautiful scenery, you can tell where the tree line is. This is up around 12,000 feet.
This is the visitor center at the top of the Trail Ridge Road. Note the timbers on the roof to hold it from blowing off. Winds up here can exceed 200 miles an hour.
This is the trail to the highest point on the Trail Ridge Road. Unfortunately at this altitude we were not able to climb it. The view from the visitor center is spectacular enough. From here we went down the west side of the park. About half way down we stopped at picnic site and had lunch. What a great way and place to have a picnic. Instead of going back the way we came we decided to go around the south end of the park. You wouldn't believe the beautiful roads we were on. Curvy (there's that word again), windy U turns but oh so pretty, green forests every where. We drove through another canyon and found a city in it where there wasn't any room for a city. There was one road through the canyon and one on the other side of the stream. But what modern building, naturally they were Casinos and hotels it was called Central City. I was told it's claim to fame is it's Opera. The round trip took us about 200 miles. By the time we got home we were wore out and decided to rest the next day.
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