Off again! This time to Colorado. Why? Last Christmas daughter Kate gave us a poster of the United States with all 60 of the National Parks marked with tree symbols. We thought we had been to many of the National Parks out west and we were able to put on 23 stickers. Can you believe there are 60 in all! “Well, Frank, you know what this means!” Of course he sighed.
Then last January when we were on our Antarctica trip Frank received a Rocky Mountain gold aspen leaf tree ornament at our gift exchange event. “Rocky Mt. National Park? I wonder what that’s like?” I thought. So here we are driving to Philadelphia for our four hour flight to Denver -off to see three National parks in Colorado that we have yet to explore- Rocky Mt. National Park, The Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and The Great Sand Dunes. (We had already explored Mesa Verde in 1994)
Our flight out of Philadelphia was right on time at 8:15 and we arrived in Denver by 10:30 MT. The Denver airport is NE of Denver and it was really easy to take the car rental shuttle and get our Jeep Grand Cherokee. We were off for Estes Park, about an hour and a half north west from the airport and located at the eastern end of Rocky Mt. Nat. Park.
After checking in at our hotel and getting lunch, we were ready to start investigating the park. We headed to the Beaver Meadows Visitor’s Center where we saw a orientation movie and got maps and suggestions of what to do for the remaining part of the day. We headed to the Sheeps Lake area in hopes of seeing some wildlife. By now it was around 4 and usually late afternoon and dusk are prime times to catch elk.
No elk but beautiful scenery at Sheep Lake – these lakes were formed long ago from melted glacier water.
Our next stop was at the Alluvia Fan which is a 42 acre area of rocks and boulders which were left behind when a earth dam broke in 1982. There sure were a lot of boulders everywhere.
There was sign warning about bears in the park. Frank’s reaction below. What can I say?
Not seeing any more wildlife we drove back to our hotel. Just as we entered Estes Park, sure enough we saw a herd of elk along the side of the road. Of course, I had to get out and snap away. 
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All in all, not a bad first day of our trip to explore the national parks in Colorado. Stayed tuned for more adventures tomorrow!
What a great trip!! It is so beautiful out west!!! Have fun!!!!
Hi Dori, WE loved RM Nat’l Park. Joanne did not like the high roads with steep drops, but the scenery was great. We would come out in the evening to try to find the sheep when they came down to eat in the meadows. Loved the place. Bob
We enjoyed it too. Did not get to see sheep though. Just elk and turkeys!
Especially like Frank’ s response. Seems to me he is pretty cooperative on these trips. Nice pictures.