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For our last summer vacation trip of 2009 we camped in the Aspenglen Campground in the northeast corner of Rocky Mountain National Park July 28 - August 2. Our campsite had a beautiful view of McGregor Mountain and was visited by deer, turkey, and a black bear (which wandered through while we were away sightseeing). We had already spent two previous nights camping in big thunderstorms and we continued to "enjoy" rain & fog our first few days in the Park (at least it kept the temperature down!). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Left Richard "helps" unpack the car.
Right We tried to engineer a more rain-proof tarping technique. It helped a little. Thankfully the weather dried out toward the end of our visit. |
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| Rainbow over Sheep Lakes. Our campground is just a couple miles beyond the rainbow. No rain, no rainbows, right? | Fog in Forest Canyon, viewed from Trail Ridge Road. The left-most mountain is Longs Peak, the highest peak in the park (14,259 feet). | Hallett Peak above Bear Lake. We followed the trail all the way around this lake. The ridge to the right is near (or part of) the Continental Divide. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Above Upper Beaver Meadows | Fly fishing students practicing in Sprague Lake | The Colorado River (really!) near its source in Kawuneeche Valley. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Picknicking in Endovalley. Our guests included Steller's Jays, Red Squirrels, a Showshoe Hare, and a Mule Deer (do you see it?). | Mule deer near Bear Lake Road | Yellow-Bellied Marmot crossing Trail Ridge Road. This was the first of many such encounters. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elk & rainbow near Trail Ridge Road (Do you see the rainbow in the left photo? It's the same rainbow in the right picture.) |  |
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Left Elk near the Alpine Visitor Center Right Coyote in Moraine Park |
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| Above & Below Obligatory "We were there" photos. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Trail Ridge Road - the highest continuously paved motorway in the United States, with more than eight miles lying above 11,000 feet (much of that being above treeline). The high point (near the upper left of the above photo) tops out at 12,183 feet above sea level. We traveled this road numerous times in search of wildlife and to enjoy spectacular views of the Rockies. Richard didn't like the road because there are no guardrails and it's a long way to the bottom if you miss one of the curves. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Left Here is a three minute video of some of our favorite wildlife encounters and other highlights from our visit to Rocky Mountain National Park. The Bighorn Sheep were actually a few miles outside of the Park (thank you to our brother in law Kyle Trimmer for the recommendation to look in the Big Thompson River Valley!). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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