Fabulous Rocky Mountain National Park

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June 26th 2014

Published: June 27th 2014

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OffOurRocker

How do you like this view?

Rocky Mountain NP, near Glacier Basin Campground

Thursday, 26 June, 2014

We awoke this morning to the sound of a leaf blower out in the parking lot and knew right away what was going on. There are several large cottonwood trees in the campground and they have been releasing their puffball seeds. At times the air has been so full of these little cotton balls that it looks like it is snowing. Anyway, they were trying to use the leaf blower to move these giant dust bunnies into a heap so they could scoop them up. After a little while they gave up and just used a push broom. Before the leaf blower started, Kerry saw deer wading down the creek beside the campground, until they got spooked and ran off.

We left Manitou Springs and drove to I-25 where we headed north again. Around Denver the yellowish smog was so thick it almost obscured the mountains. I hear there are days that the smog is so bad that Denverites can't even see the mountains.

We were going to take Hwy 34 to Estes Park and then to Rocky Mountain National Park, but there was major road construction going

Mile High Stadium

Kerry thought this was a roller coaster as we were nearing it.

on to repair the road from last fall's floods, so we were turned back to take Hwy 7. This was a longer road, maybe steeper in places, but still pretty and we finally got to Estes Park, just a little later than we had hoped. After setting up the camper at Glacier Basin campground in the national park, then eating a little lunch, we headed out to drive up Trail Ridge Road.

What a gorgeous drive on a beautiful day. There is still a lot of snow on the tops of the high mountains and in the bowls and crevasses. We saw yellow bellied marmot and quite a few elk, a few of which were very near the road. Sean got to play in the snow again and throw snowballs with Papa. We went as fall as Alpine Visitor Center, which sits at 11,796'. It was cool up there, but not cold like the other times we had driven there. What huge, breath-taking vistas there are in this wonderful national park.

Back at camp, Sean finished his junior ranger activity book and went looking for a ranger to validate it and give him his