Rocky Mountain high

We had a wonderful first day in Rocky Mountain National Park!  Covered a lot of ground and elevation, and experienced at least three seasons (more about that later).

We started the day with breakfast in the pretty town of Grand Lake.  We are using it just as a base to visit the park, but that's too bad - it does look like a great place to enjoy the lake and the mountains...

I would not mind staying a bit longer....  but we have more ROAD TRIP ahead of us....  So, we just enjoyed breakfast for now....

Then we went into the park.  It was still early (8-ish), which is a great time to catch wildlife doing it's thing.  Indeed, right away, we came upon this young elk by the side of the road.

 And then, just a few miles into the park, a couple of moose in the meadow.  What a treat!!!!  (we plan on going back early tomorrow morning to see more of them!).

Then I took an easy 7.5 miles walk along the Colorado river, to an old and abandoned mining town.  The trail was almost level, although at 9000 feet of elevation, even "level" is harder.

I walked along meadows and forest trails,

met a moose up close (that's not as good a picture, but it was taken with my I-phone - that's how close I was),

and saw the head waters of the Colorado River (it's just a little creek up here....).

While I was doing that, Joe was taking much better pictures of the meadows and mountains from the many stops on the high road. 

After that, we kept going up to the Alpine center, at over 11000 feet.  It is the highest paved road in the US! There is a short trail that goes to the very top of the mountain, at 12005 feet.  In the morning, I was very proud of how good I was doing hiking at 9000 feet.  In fact, while I did not go under 15 minutes/miles (I was after all taking pictures), I did the last mile at 15 minutes and 30 second, which I thought was pretty impressive. 

But I have to say that 12000 is way harder!  That short climb was work!  The views at the top were worth it, although it was VERY cold!!!!! (and windy- see picture at top of blog).  I have gloves with me, but they were in my suitcase back in the hotel, where they were doing me no good! 

While the weather in the valley had been pleasant (and was again when we got back there), it was winter up there!  it even hailed at some point!  (these are ice pellets on the grownd). 

 But that did not stop us.  From the high road, we saw this herd of elk in the valley,

and then went down the very windy road to the dirt road that loops back to the Alpine center (on the picture, you can see three levels of the zigzagging road we took to get back to the valley -there were a lot of hair pins!.

We stopped at every point of view on the way, and I got to climb some random rocks. (note that it is sunny, warm, and definitely NOT hailing there - just about 10 minutes from the summit)

The dirt road that loops back is quite steep (it closes for the season in October), bu tit is worth it because of the views, and the wildlife we saw on the way.  The same herd of elk we had seen from very far away was right there for us to admire. 

Note the very large male, with a bunch of females and some babies. (the herd had about 20 to 30 females, but we were too close to capture all of them in one shot)

Not far - but separate, where a few young bucks, waiting for their turn....  it is mating season (we could hear the calls of the males through the valley), I think some serious challenges are going to happen soon! (the meadows are in fact closed to people in the late afternoon because it is mating season.  Not sure if that is because it's dangerous, or they don"t want to disturb the elk.... maybe a bit of both....

As an extra treat, this marmot posed for pictures on the side of the road,

while it's friend just turned her back on us (they are very fat right now, because they are about to hibernate).
That was enough for a day....  even though I said we'd like to spend more time in Grand Lake, we were just too tired to go outside of the hotel, and had a nice dinner here.
More of Rocky mountain tomorrow.
For now, here are a few of the meadow flowers we saw on the way..