A Brief Stop at Longs Peak Before Trail Ridge Road

        The day we set off to see the 12 stops listed on Trail Ridge Road, we made a brief stop at Longs Peak on the way. At the beginning of the day we lucked out and saw a small group of elk off the side of the road.

   Here's another shot from the car:

    The rest of the photos are of Longs Peak and the area around it. Longs Peak is one of the most prominent mountains in Colorado with an elevation just over 14,000 ft. It's a favorite among mountain climbers, since it's the only "fourteener" in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

   I think Longs Peak was one of my favorite mountain stops and it has a nice rocky outcrop to sit and rest. A really beautiful spot :)

Rocky Mountains or Bust

          After our trip to Mt. Rushmore and the Wind Cave, we rested up and then set out towards the Rocky Mountain National Park. The drive through Wyoming is always a treat. Here's a couple shots from the passenger seat.

              

              We had reserved a campsite at Moiraine campground a few months earlier for about $20 a night. The smaller size of the park means fewer campgrounds to choose from, but Moiraine was pretty spacious. We had more room between us and other campers then we had at the Madison campground in Yellowstone. This year we splurged on a larger tent so we could actually stand up straight while changing. We were even able to fit a fold-out table in the tent! The front part of the tent also had a screened-in "patio" that we could zip up if it started raining. The weather was iffy when we got there but we managed to beat the big rain and get the camp set up.

            Not too bad on space! This is the view from our tent. The nice thing about this particular part of the campground is that the sites were staggered at different levels so it still felt like you had some privacy. The bathrooms weren't too far away either. I ran into a young male deer on my first trip to the facilities. He ran right by me and then came back a few days later to eat lunch by our tent (photos of that later).

          The following day we did the hike to Alberta Falls. Unfortunately, along the way we missed a sign and wound up on a not so fun, steep and rocky trail. After turning around, we got hit with more rain but here are some photos from the hike.

              We had a really nice lunch at some picnic tables by a river. Wish we had this view at home!

             My next blog will be on the Trail Ridge Road where you can spend the day stopping at 12 beautiful spots ranging from subalpine, alpine tundra, alpine lakes and rock glaciers.

Yellowstone: Close Encounters of the Buffalo Kind

    On our drive back from Mammoth Hot Springs, we stopped along Gardner River and did some walking. It was a beautiful place to walk and take photos and the weather was perfect. I kept forgetting to keep my eye out for large and small critters because the scenery was so distracting. Here's some photos.

Gardner River

Gardner River

    However, it was the trip from Gardner River that was the real gem! While we were driving down the road, we came across a bit of a traffic jam. A lone buffalo was ambling down the center of the road with both lanes stopped. And he did not care how long it took! And he definitely was not concerned about being surrounded by vehicles. It was pretty cool to come that close to something so massive and powerful.

............

Whoa!

     Here's a few more shots on our way back to camp:

    On Wednesday, we drove 45 miles northeast to Lamar Valley where there's even more buffalo. That's supposed to be one of the best places to see buffalo, bears and wolves. No luck with wolves, but we did see one bear from REALLY far away. We did happen upon a young and slightly curious coyote though. 

On the way to Lamar Valley

And, oh, wait...more buffalo...

   After Lamar Valley, we drove to Slough Creek and hiked part of the trail there. We didn't make it too far because of the incline, but we tried!

Slough Creek Trail

Up to no good: Karl, me & Patience

Leaving Slough Creek

Leaving Slough Creek

   The Artist Paintpots was our next stop after Slough Creek, but that will have to wait until the next blog.

Bighorn National Forest to Shoshone

     Bright and early Sunday morning (July 29th), Karl and I left our Wyoming hotel and started our last leg to Yellowstone. Along the way, we passed through Bighorn National Forest and Shoshone National Forest and can I just say...GORGEOUS! It was the perfect prelude to Yellowstone itself. Basically our conversation went from "ooooohhhhh" to "aaaaaaaahhhh" to "Hey, look at that!"and back again. Absolutely beautiful and, at times, a bit nerve-wracking with those drop-offs right next to the road. You definitely don't want to take your eyes off the road!

Here are some photos taken from the car as we passed through Bighorn and Shoshone.











We had a couple close calls with deer. You can tell they're used to traffic coming through because they look both ways before they cross :)

Be prepared to not look at the road when you get into Bighorn. And if you get carsick on those mountain roads (like me) be prepared to suck it up and deal with it. Luckily, I had my camera to help distract me.

Another passenger-side view of Wyoming...

Nearing the end of our drive through Bighorn and Shoshone. Our expectations were surpassed before we even got into the park! Once reaching Yellowstone, it would be another 1 1/2 hours before reaching our campground but that's another blog.