Rocky Mountain High

We woke up this morning to sunny skies, so after breakfast we checked out and headed up towards Rocky Mountain National Park. We drove through Boulder, but didn't have time to stop by and say "hi!" to Mork and Mindy. Na-nu, na-nu!

We wanted to spend our day driving through the park and exploring, so we just passed through Estes Park and went straight to the Beaver Meadows entrance.

We found out that there was a Jr. Ranger program being held at Hidden Valley, so we hopped back in the car and drove over to the ranger station. The topic of the 30-minute ranger talk was "Tree Detectives". Even though it was geared towards kids, we all learned how to tell the difference between fir and spruce, as well as lodgepole and ponderosa pines.

When the program finished, it was about time for lunch, so we made some sandwiches for a picnic there by the creek in Hidden Valley. It started to rain just as we finished eating, so we quickly packed up and ran back to the car.

After lunch, we drove back to the Moraine Park Visitor Center, where the ranger told us that we might be able to spot some bighorn sheep up by Sheep Lakes (what else would it be called?!) So, off we went in that direction!

Horseshoe Park

The only bighorn we saw today



From Sheep Lakes, we went back to the junction and continued driving along Trail Ridge Road...

In case you were wondering why the stinky children have suddenly started popping up in all of the pictures, it's because we instituted a behavior rating system (yes, it's bribery, or more accurately, coercion, but with only 7 days to go, we're using everything we have in our bag of tricks!) A passing grade of 7 is needed in order to get the privilege to go to the pool. They can earn extra credit to raise their score by cheerfully posing for the camera. All of a sudden, instead of me begging them to be in the shot, it was "Mom!  Take a picture of me here!" Totally should have thought of this sooner!

By the time we reached the alpine tundra area of the park, the skies were looking ominous...

Snow!

Can you spot the herd of elk on the hillside?

And by the time we reached the Alpine Visitor Center (elevation 11,796 feet), it was pouring! The boys turned in their booklets and received their badges there. When we were ready to move on, the storm had passed over and the sun was shining again.  

At Milner Pass, the boys wanted one last opportunity to play in the snow...

As we were approaching the western entrance (Kawuneeche Visitor Center), we spotted moose!

Mama moose and her two babies

By now, it had started raining again, so it took much longer than we had expected to come down the other side of the mountains back to I-70. After driving through a long tunnel and down a very steep grade (a bit scary!), we finally reached Frisco, CO. We had a late dinner at the Boatyard Pizzeria and Grill, which was quite good -- ahi burger for R, lasagna for me, pizza for the boys. And the boys even got to cash in today's reward at the pool!