A full day in RMNP despite sleeping in...

I was outvoted this morning regarding getting up before 10am (EDT).  It was a catch-up on sleep day and the sounds of the river through our open window was very relaxing.

Trail Ridge Road travels high up into the mountains and at one point is over two miles in elevation!

Who needs guard rails right Jacob?

We are above the treeline and the area is tundra!

Elk! Jacob and I had elk burgers for dinner!

Shelly is quite proud of this picture...

At the top of the world, the kids just love getting their picture taken!

Walking back to the visitor center.  It was over 250 steps up to the top.

Another unexpected wildlife encounter!  Bighorn sheep chilling at 11,000 feet!

Rocky Mountain rivals Yellowstone for the most wildlife seen (and we never saw a moose there).

More elk on the way back down

Shelly and I saw an awesome lightening bolt in this storm 

We went back down to 7,000 feet for a quick hike.

Lots of great rocks to climb on.  Will we see a mountain lion?

This trail probably will become known to us as the "horse poop" trail.

 Tomorrow we will attempt Bear Mountain...

Oh yeah, and this is where we are staying!

Inside the cabin

The view from our "private" deck...

Of course Malcolm had to cross the river...

On "our" rock in the river...

Rocky Mountain National Park!

We made it!

We made it into Rocky Mountain National Park (west entrance) at about 3pm on Monday.  We were in the park for about 10 minutes when we noticed a number of cars pulled over (usually a wildlife jam).  Shelly had previously told the kids that she would give them $10 if they spotted a Moose that she would be able to take a picture of.  We had looked for moose in all of the parks we had been in as well as our trip to Vermont earlier in the year.  

5 minutes in... 

Part of the first little group we saw...

 

We took our pictures, got back in the car, went 100 feet when we saw...

This was a monster moose.  The picture does not do it justice.

All told, we saw about 8 total moose.  Absolutely stunning way to spend the first half hour in the park...

Yep, this close...

BTW: this is where Shelly thinks we lost the hubcap...

How many miles have we driven? And how many years has it been since I saw this?

I guess I should probably explain that one... but first, let me tell you the beginning of the story... 

Our two days of travel (after our Crater Lake day) began rather poorly.  After our great burgers at the Burger Queen we retired to our room and as the evening / night progressed, we realized that we had no air conditioning (it made noise, but little else).  Most people would have demanded a new room or a fix but we are not them since we felt it was more important to try to sleep to get set for our next marathon travel day.  Big mistake, as it became the worst hotel experience of our stay (good news Hamburg NY Super 8!)... 

We made it to the road and over the next two days saw interesting sights... 

This is a real place in Nevada

The speed limit on this road is 65 mph...

It was an actual cattle drive!

The cattle were not very pleased to see us and the cowboys weren't very friendly.  They may have seen our plates...

Shelly made several comments about dinner to the cattle as they passed.

 

The salt flats in Utah made it look like winter.

Not much to see in northern Utah until you make it to the mountains in the east...

Our stay in Utah (just east of Salt Lake) was pleasant and we awoke to 5 hot air balloons over our hotel.

A graphic photo of our motley crew as we travel.

And then we entered Colorado...

Shelly was quite amused... 

The officer said that I was "pulling away" from the traffic in the 45 mph zone and used that as the justification for pulling me over (he never told me what my speed was - I felt that I was moving with the traffic).  In the end, he was really nice and clearly was being paid by the tourism board since he made several jokes about returning to Steamboat Springs for court and we could just make it a vacation.  The paper was a warning that the officer said was "suitable for framing".  

Nice.

Nope, not a picture from 2010... just more good times!

This is the van from 2010, Devil's Tower!

Where did the hubcap go???