06-26-2008
|
#1 (permalink) |
|
aņejo
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 2,400
|
A Ride Through Rocky Mountain National Park
Packed up some gear and headed off to Rocky Mountain National Park Tuesday. RMNP is about 220 miles (at least the way I went!) from here. Missed a few turns, decided not to turn around, turned the music up and made it eventually.
Near Winter Park I saw an old trail I used to hike in the past when I lived up in this area. Thought the sign was interesting and probably scares a few winter hikers/skiers...  Nearing RMNP I had to stop to put on my rain gear as I was getting pounded with a combo of hail/snow/slush which on a motorcycle ain't much fun. After checking out the different possibilities finally settled on a National Forest campground south of the park. There has been a tremendous amount of loss of pine trees due to pine beetles. Many campgrounds were closed because of the danger of falling trees. This place was kinda cool to look out over Lake Granby. Pretty much had the area to myself.  This photo shows the devastation around this entire area caused by the pine beetle. Also shows a critter I haven't seen much; a young bull moose.  After setting up my camp, I took off on a ride up to the Park with just my camera. Not much traffic on the road as it was near dusk so I had my head on a pivot looking for moose. The west side of the Park (I don't get to spend much time there as the east side is much closer to us) is known for having a substantial moose population. Anyway, as I was thinking of heading back, came to a clearing and saw this young bull moose. I was hanging back wishin' I had a longer lens snapping some photos and watching this beast. Naturally others stopped to see what I was looking at. One fella started walking a bit too close taking photos. Sure enough, he stepped on a twig, the moose looked up and had this look in his eye that said "take one more step closer!" If you have ever seen that look from a wild animal, you know what I'm talking about. Said tourist saw it and immediately retreated.  Decided to go a bit further and ran into a group of bull elk. Not much light, but still got some photos...   Naturally woke up early the next AM (sleeping on the ground isn't as easy as it once was!) and snapped a few photos before having some coffee and taking down my tent.  Saw this van camped nearby and liked the way the early morning light hit it.  On the road early into the park because I knew it was going to be a long day riding through the Park then heading home trying to beat any afternoon thunderstorms. Trail Ridge Road is only about 45 miles long going from the west side of the Park through to the east side of the Park, but it still took me about 4 hours because of lots of stopping, walking around, etc. Stopped at this old cabin that some dude lived in for about 10 years back around 1900...  I so much wanted to clean off these windows, but thought it might break if I did and new a Ranger would probably be walking up about that time!   The top of Trail Ridge Road is over 12,000 feet above sea level. Must have been about 35 degrees up there (while heading back home south of Denver it must have been 95 degrees!). A photo doesn't do justice to what it's like to be at that elevation on a motorcycle. I did prefer when the drop-off was on my left rather than on my right!  After coming back down, nearing the east side of the Park, walked around a bit and made this photo looking back to where I had just been...  Left the Park, rode a few more hours through the two-lane backroads before eventually making it back home. Another wonderful couple of days in Colorado.
__________________
Stories with no words... |
|
|
| register to remove these adverts | |
|
06-26-2008
|
#8 (permalink) |
|
aņejo
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Colorado, USA
Posts: 2,400
|
Kinda forgot about the number of people who have ties to Colorado; with Linda and Jez having lived here and Ranger vacationing here.
Even after 24 years of living here, I still have such an appreciation for this beautiful state and enjoy sharing my travels with all the good folks here at playa.info! Thanks for the comments, all! |
|
|
|
|
06-26-2008
|
#9 (permalink) |
|
Canada Dry
 Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 49,560
|
Manitou, you are the most amazing photographer!!!
  I love love LOVE that photo of the snow capped mountain reflected in the cabin window. Spectacular!  I love the mountains, I am a mountain and ocean girl at heart. I hate flatland, and here I live, on the dang prairies.  Isn't it sad to see the dead trees from the pine beetles.....I saw the same thing out in BC last fall.....thousands of square miles of dead red-brown trees.....very sad. |
|
|
|
|
06-26-2008
|
#10 (permalink) | |
|
aņejo
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: 40 miles south east of Boston
Posts: 5,515
|
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
06-26-2008
|
#12 (permalink) |
|
aņejo
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Franklin, Wisconsin
Posts: 1,649
|
Thanks for the teaser! I'll be there myself in September.
I'll have to keep my fingers crossed tho since the airline I booked with, Midwest, is talking about bankruptcy. Have you ever done the Cache Poudre river canyon? I'm thinking of taking a day and doing that too. |
|
|
|
 |
| Thread Tools | |
|
|
