Rocky Mountain National Park

First stop along Peak to Peak Highway

Lilly Lake, our scenic lunch stop

After another nice breakfast with the Robinson's, we headed north to Lyons, where we got on the Peak to Peak Highway.  It is a winding road that runs west of the Front Range, so it was a great prelude to what was to come.  We stopped along the road to enjoy the creek and a little climb.

We headed west toward Ferncliff and then north toward Estes Park.  There were a lot of beautiful views of alpine meadows interspersed with wildflowers and pine trees.  The hot temperature at Lyons gave way to much cooler, more pleasant climes as we gained elevation.  We had nice views of Longs Peak ,one of the 54 "fourteeners" (mountains topping 14,000'). Just before we started the descent from the high valley were driving through, we came upon Lily Lake.  There we ate lunch and took some pictures.  We were very tempted to hike the loop around this scenic lake, but decided to save time for a hike later in the afternoon in the park.  We met a couple from Texas who has been coming to this area for many years.  They gave us some good ideas about what to do and see in the area.

After descending, and driving through Estes Park (a tourist oriented town), we arrived at the entrance to the park.  The friendly and helpful park rangers at the entrance and in the visitors center provide a lot of good advice about what to see and do.  We decided to take the Alluvial Fan hike which scrambled over the fan created by the 1982 Estes Park flood.  We did a some boldering and a dicey stream crossing on the way back.

View from Old Fall River Road, back down valley

When that was done, we headed up the dusty Old Fall River Road, a one lane dirt road with twisting switchbacks, steep drop-off's and many beautiful vistas.  This evoked many "Oh my gosh" moments from Sarah.  Near the top, we took a brief hike on the Chapin Creek Trail.  We all quickly got winded and lightheaded, since it was a little over 11,000 feet.  We could see the top of Chapin Peak, and really wanted to bag the summit, but needed to cut it short due to time and weather danger.  After the hike then continued on to Old Fall  River Road, till it climbed above the treeline.  As we continued, we started to see some patches of dirty brown snow, where snow had blown over ridges and settled in steep ravines that get very little sun.

Elk herd grazing along road

We arrived at the intersection with Trail Ridge Road, which runs along the ridge line, and then stopped at the visitor center which was at an elevation of 12,976'.  There were a lot of tourists at the center, as this road carries a large volume of tourist traffic.  As we drove along the ridge and started heading downhill, we saw a few bicyclists making the long climb up.  On the way down, we passed a small heard of elk, very close to the road.

Drove to airport and exchanged Explorer for a Dodge Caravan.  As the trip progressed, it became clear that this was the best solution, but a very expensive option.

View of remote alpine meadow, north of Chapin Peak Trail