Rocky Mountain High!

Around every turn, more mountain views like this one...

Road trips are one of my favorite ways to spend time, and this past autumn my husband and I took a great one. We drove to Colorado, then north to Wyoming, then headed back east via South Dakota. We spent four days in a cozy little cottage in Estes Park, Colorado, in order to take in as much as we could of the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Spending time on these majestic peaks can be a spiritual experience for me-- feeling literally closer to Heaven the higher we go. Certainly the majesty of God's creation is easily evident here-- the mountain vistas are everywhere, and if you stop and look at the smaller things there is wildlife and plant life unlike anything anywhere else.

Tundra flowers. It takes over 100 years for these plants to grow and reproduce because of the harsh climate and very short growing season.

The moon setting over the mountains!

There is a road in this park that is purported to be the highest road in North America, elevation-wise, at 12,800 feet. To drive this road and stop to admire the views around every turn, took us most of a day. We hiked as much as my torn achilles tendon would allow (another blog, believe me...) and I took hundreds of photographs. Here are some of them:

Wow... wow...

Driving into a cloud and ultimately into a snow storm!

Suddenly the clouds lift and you can see where the snow fell!

Wow... wow... wow!

There are also deep valleys in this park, and it was the rut season for elk, deer and moose. We never saw a moose, but we did see plenty of elk and deer. The bull elk below was "bugling", which is a high pitched screech intended to appeal to the ladies... we never saw any ladies around him, but he sure was imposing. As tall as a horse and the antler rack was huge.

There were also a lot of fly fishermen in the rivers in the park. This sport always seems so peaceful. Who cares if you catch a fish, given the setting?

Our stay was long enough to see the park from many angles and in different weather and light. We were in a snowstorm up at 12,000 feet, and had it rain on us in the valley. And then the sun was out and we were able to shed our jackets. We saw wildlife and wished we could have hiked into the interior more. This is a beautiful place-- we were very glad we could spend time here.

The high peak on the left is Long's Peak-- over 14,000 feet above sea level, it is usually shrouded in clouds.