Rocky Mt. National Park Pictures
July 30 - Aug. 1 Colorado
Drove through Colorado on Interstate 70 from Grand Junction. The road passed through the mountains with the Colorado River right beside it. I was amazed when we passed by the big ski towns of Vail and Copper Mountain that the towns were so small. They had to fit in the limited space between the interstate, the river, and the mountains, so the villages were long and narrow with mostly condominiums, a few houses, and the obligatory golf course.
Just before we arrived at the west entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park, we came to several beautiful lakes next to each other with narrow canals connecting them, near the towns of Granby and Grand Lake. We found out later that the Colorado River was once called the Grand River, so several things in the area have Grand in the name. Grand Lake was a cute little mountain town that has been around since the 1800s.
When we got to the park, we were on the Trail Ridge Road which runs through the whole park and is only open in the summer because it passes over the mountains at over 12,000 feet. The range of mountains there is called the Never Summer Mountains, and specific mountains have specific names. The pine trees have been affected by the pine bark beetle which carries a fungus that kills the trees. When you look at the forest, you see lots of red trees because the pines have died and the needles have turned rusty red. It's very sad, and probably in just a few years there will be very few pines trees of any size left in the park.
We toured an historic set of cabins left from the 1920s when rich people came to the mountains for the summer. Then just as we were about to take a hike, it started raining, so we decided to drive through the park on the 50 mile Trail Ridge Road. We stopped at the Alpine Visitor Center which is located at about 11,000+ feet to look at some of the exhibits. While there we noticed several cars stopped on the narrow, windy, one-way road that ends at the visitor center. It seemed like they were stopped to let animals pass in front of them, so we investigated further, and saw a family of moose – father, mother, and 2 babies. They were high on the tundra by then, as this area is above the tree line.
Then we went a little farther along the road until we were at the highest point, 12,000+ feet in altitude. We started walking on the path through the tundra wildflowers, but stopped when Bob started complaining of feeling sick from the high altitude. We continued on the road, enveloped in the clouds, through the rain. Finally we were at a low enough altitude that the sun was out, and we had a much better view of the far vistas.
When we got to the entrance of the one way road, we decided to take it back up to the Alpine Center in hopes of seeing some wildlife. The road was very narrow with many switchbacks. Bob had to turn, then back up, and turn again on a few of the sharpest corners in order to get our RV around them. We passed through the aspen and pine forests, by rushing streams, and then through the Englemann Fir and sub-alpine fir trees as we passed the tree line. Then we, like the group we had seen previously, had to stop for animals in the road. This time it was 5 huge bull elks.
After that drive, we went to our campground which is devoid of pine trees because the pine bark beetle is destroying the beautiful forests here. So many of the trees were diseased that they were cut down, and a few young trees were planted. At the campground we met a woman who used to live in Corning, and found out that she and her husband loved to travel as much as we do. They are on a 7 week trip from Georgia where they live now.
The next day was beautiful and sunny, so we first went moose “hunting”, looking in the areas around the campground where moose are known to be, and were rewarded with the sight of a huge bull moose having his breakfast in a grove of willows. Then we continued up the Trail Ridge Road again, seeing things more clearly today in the nice weather as opposed to the rain of yesterday. We went to a few areas that we had not been to previously, including the Bear Lake area which was so crowded we couldn't find a place to park. This is the area of the park closest to the cities of Boulder and Denver, and more accessible than other areas, so it fills up fast.
We headed out of the park about 2 PM so we could get to niece Saralyn's house to visit with her and her fiance, Tom. We all had a great time catching up since we hadn't seen them in about a year. Of course we also talked a lot about wedding plans! In the evening we took them to a neat restaurant Bob knew about in Denver called the Buckhorn Exchange. It has been a restaurant since 1893 and is now on the historical register. The walls are covered with the stuffed heads and bodies of all kinds of wild game, old rifles and guns, Indian artifacts, and pictures of famous people who have been there. The bar was built in Germany in 1857 and shipped across the ocean, then brought to the Denver when the restaurant was built.
Sunday evening we met up with Bob's cousins Micah, Annie, and Marc Russell in Denver, and also had a nice visit with them. Now we're headed to St. Louis to visit with Nancy's cousins George and Eleanor. Son Rob will also be there for a conference, so we'll see him on Wednesday. Then we'll head on toward home to arrive Friday after 6 weeks of a wonderful trip!.
July 27-29 Nevada, Utah (Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument, Capitol Reef National Park)
Here's a helpful hint! Not every town shown on a AAA map is actually a town. Many of them are nothing more than a spot in the road. I'm not sure why AAA lists them as a town because it does have several towns on the map and next to them it says “ghost town” where there isn't a town, and these spots clearly weren't towns. I guess the AAA map makers were spending too much time in the casinos when they drove through Nevada. We coasted into a town in Nevada on fumes after thinking we'd find a gas station at the next town, and the next, and the next... Unbeknownst to these weary map readers, many “towns” on the map were just air.
Nevada is a lot of nothing, anyway. If it wasn't for Reno and Las Vegas, the state's population would probably number in the low thousands. We saw a lot of desolate areas as we drove through in 109 degree temperatures! We did find one tiny RV park to camp in overnight. We'd thought about just pulling off the side of the road, pulling the shades and going to sleep, but it was so hot we thought we might bake in the RV even with the air conditioner on!
Since we were close to Las Vegas we decided to go into the city and drive down the main strip where the casinos are located. We had been to Las Vegas a few years ago, and although we would have liked to take in a show, we didn't really have time. There are more and bigger casinos than when we were there before, and instead of just one showing of Cirque de Solei, there were several different versions going on in different casinos.
We got to Zion in the early afternoon and were very impressed. This national park wins the prizes for the best communication, the best shuttle system, and the best cooperation with the local towns! The park has the highest sandstone mountains in the world, and sandstone is in most cases red, or sometimes white or tan. Zion's park roads matched the surrounding cliffs as the asphalt was red, too!
Zion's sandstone was created millions of years ago when 3,000 foot deep sand dunes were covered by an ocean. The minerals in the water went through the sand, cementing it, and giving it its colors. After the ocean went away lots of other things happened geologically, and the beautiful cliffs and canyon where Zion is now located were created.
It was 100 degrees both days we were in Zion, but we went hiking anyway. The first day we hiked up riverside into the narrows. The narrows is where the canyon gets so narrow that there is no more trail through the canyons, and hikers actually hike in the creek! It can be very dangerous as flash floods can occur at any time, however. When we got to the narrows we were very hot, and so like a hundred or so other people, we got into the water and “hiked” for a little while. It was pretty rough going as the current was pretty strong, and finding a secure foothold was not always easy. We each had our hiking poles to help us stay upright, and actually held onto each other with the other hand, so that helped, too. We stayed in the creek for about 20 minutes, but didn't hike too far because it was so difficult, and also because the muddy water indicated that there could be flash flooding coming from upriver.
The next day we decided to hike up to the Emerald Pools. These are three pools at different heights in the canyon, created by water runoff up above. They are probably pretty lush in the spring, but in the summer, they are mostly dried up. Many plants were growing out of the side of the rock along the way. Water seeps out of the sandstone to help water them. This water has been tested and found to be over 400 years old. The sandstone soaks up water when it rains, and it takes a very long time for that water to leech back out.
It was pretty easy making it to the first “pool” which was a tiny stream of water coming over the cliff. It was enough to help cool us off, though, so we put our heads and backs under the shower of water to cool off. The middle pool was just a little bit higher climb, but we were really suffering from the heat and the climb. This pool was just a puddle and we dipped our hats in the water and put them back on our heads to help cool off. The third pool was a difficult climb over huge stones higher and higher up the mountain. I was very uncomfortable from the heat, and having to be so careful where I put my feet so that I wouldn't slip and fall over the cliff. I kept taking water breaks, but I needed shade more than water, and there wasn't any. We finally reached the top where there was lots of shade and a shallow pool of water. We stayed there about 30 minutes to get cooled off enough to hike back down. We were almost out of water, as well as energy, so we headed back down to the closest trailhead where we were able to get more water and for a bonus beer!
We took another hike in the afternoon, and the cloud cover helped keep us a little cooler, but it was still 100 degrees out, so by the time we finished that hike, we were exhausted and went back to the air-conditioned RV where our chicken dinner has been cooking in the crockpot all day! We were so exhausted after a day in the heat that we went to bed by 9 o'clock.
In the morning we left the park and were in many different kinds of terrain all during the rainy day which also saw the temperatures drop from 100 of yesterday to a low of 56 today in some of the mountains we went through, going back up to almost 90 as the day progressed. As soon as we got through the one mile long tunnel that is the east exit of the park, the mountains were different. We had climbed pretty high out of the canyon to exit the park, so we were at a higher elevation. The mountains on this side of the park were not rounded mounds of sandstone, but thin layers of sandstone stacked on one another like pancakes, and the mountains had lifted up so many times in their creation that the patterns looked like crazy quilts as some stacks leaned to the right and some to the left, some straight up, and some at another crazy angle.
Before long we passed out of those mountains and came to a small valley, but the terrain changed again as we got closer to Bryce Canyon. We went through Red Canyon, which lived up to its name, and was the beginning of the many hoodoos we would see. When we got to Bryce Canyon, we were enchanted by the many hoodoos – sandstone that has been sculpted by wind and water into weird and interesting shapes. This sandstone here was much softer than in Zion, and thus more easily worn away into these fantastic shapes. The Paiute Indians thought that the hoodoos were men turned to stone by an angry God. My favorite spot was sunset point where we looked down on thousands of hoodoos with a trail going through for visitors to get down in them and get a close up view. Just about the time we were contemplating taking a hike down there, it started to lightning and thunder, so we changed our plans and just went to some of the overlooks. Another favorite spot was “natural bridge” which was really an arch carved in the sandstone.
From Bryce Canyon we wandered northeast, going through the Dixie National Forest and Grand Staircase - Escalente National Monument. These areas were incredible, both up close and in the distance– like an artistic painting with all colors of the rainbow. The drive was slow because of winding roads, but around every corner was another beautiful vista, impossible to capture with a camera (although we tried)!! In parts of the area there was a little grassland, but in most of it, the free ranging cattle were just in the scrubbrush eating. We got up as high as 9800 feet where there were a lot of aspen and pine trees, and then drove down into a valley again where there were actually a few houses.
The next place we came to was Capitol Reef National Park, so named because early settlers thought one of the white cliffs looked like the Capitol Dome in Washington and that the waterpocket fold looked like a coral reef. It, too, is composed of sandstone in a long section of cliffs. When the earth heaved up here, it made a 100 mile wrinkle of “pockets.” After a rain the pockets hold water and serve as a place for the spadefoot toad to lay her eggs. Here, along with piles of red sand and cliffs of red sand there were giant tan boulders strewn around, and there were some hoodoos visible. A lot of the rock was in thin red layers, looking almost like shale. Quite soon after that, in the same park, the cliffs were more tan with a little red, and in the valley at one point someone long ago had planted orchards of apples, pears, and peaches in an area appropriately called Fruita, now owned by the park. After leaving Capital Reef, we got into another area which was made out of a different material, from more recent geological times. It was yellowish tan in some places and almost black in others, and much smoother, probably because it's younger. At the bottom, it just looked like hundreds of piles of gravel. On the top of some of the cliffs, there was a ridge of the harder, red sandstone.
Whereas in Bryce Canyon park we were driving on the rim, looking down at the hoodoos, in Capitol Reef and Grand Staircase we were actually driving down among the cliffs. We decided that we like this scenic 150 mile drive second only to our drive on the Icefields Parkway in Canada. However in Canada the terrain remained the same while here it has changed over and over all day to keep it interesting.
The last several miles before we got on the Interstate to head to Colorado, the landscape changed again and we were driving through flat scrub land with occasional sandstone formations standing all alone near the road or in the scrub land. Another reef was pretty far off to the west. When we finally hit Interstate 70, there was just more of the same on both sides of us – open scrubland with sandstone cliffs in the distance.
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