Day 1 & 2 - Rocky Mountain National Park

Like always, we had a wonderful trip out west.  We had talked about hitting Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Dakota) this year, but just couldn't tolerate the drive from Illinois.  Flying into North Dakota is expensive.  When discount Southwest tickets came up to Denver, it was set.  While the drive from Denver isn't exactly close (about 10 hours), the Black Hills is in between.  While we have been to the Black Hills before, there were some stops we wanted to make.  

On our first day, we arrived in Denver early, got the rental car, and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park (maybe 1-1/2 hours from Denver).  There was an accident on the road which delayed us significantly.  By the time we got to the trailhead for Longs Peak/Chasm Lake, it was a bit later than we had hoped.

We never had planned on Longs Peak; hikers usually start that hike at 4 am or so.  As it was already about 2:30 pm - even Chasm Lake seemed a bit too far.  Nonetheless, we stopped in the ranger station to see the small exhibit and gather some information.  The ranger station is at 9,405 ft (Longs Peak is a 14er at 14,259 feet - the highest point in RMNP).  

We figured we would start our hike and at least get above the treeline for some views.  Good plan!  We met some interesting people on the hike.  Some people that use to live in Illinois; some people that made it to the peak earlier in the afternoon; one person that has tried the Longs Peak hike 10 times never yet to have never made it to the top.  Everyone suggested given the time, to at least get to the meadow where the marker sign was - they said that there were good colors in the meadow.  There sure were.

We went a bit past the sign, stopped for a quick snack, and turned around.  In the picture below, Longs Peak is five miles away and is the mountain behind our heads to the right of the notch.  We both decided we would love to come back and try Longs Peak sometime - or at least continue to Chasm Lake.  It was a really pretty hike.

After the hike, we drove into Estes Park and got some sandwiches for dinner - and then headed into the main portion of the park in hopes to find some Elk.  No problem.  We saw a bunch of Elk - even heard them bugle.

The main part of the park was somewhat busy at dusk - a lot of people out looking for wildlife.  We then drove back town and stayed in Estes Park at a nice budget hotel.

In the morning, we set out to do a short 3 mile hike to Bierstadt Lake.  Wow.  The fall colors in this area were perfect.

The lake was beautiful too.

Really - you can't go wrong with autumn in Colorado (well, except when there are flash floods such as in 2013).

So very beautiful.  After this hike, we went back to the hotel for showers - and got ready for some business in Boulder and Longmont, and then continued north to Scottsbluff, Nebraska.  More about the business some other time - the next few posts will be about vacation.