Rocky Mountain National Park

After thoroughly enjoying the best burgers ever, on Father’s Day, we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park. We arrived in Estes Park where the temperature was about 74 degrees and the elevation was about 7,000. We are a mile high at our house, hence the nickname Mile High City. When we left our house it was 85 degrees. If you ever visit Colorado you really must visit Rocky Mountain National Park and drive Trail Ridge Road, unless you are scared of heights. The roads are quite curvy, the drop offs are steep, and the guard rails don’t really exist. Since we’ve lived here we’ve heard so much about this road. It is only open for a few months a year and it is absolutely beautiful.

Upon entering the park we encountered some elk. I’ve heard that the elk out here aren’t too people shy. We continued driving, increasing in elevation and dropping in temperature. We made it high enough to still see snow! There were even people sledding down the hill. Only in Colorado, at the end of June, right?

We parked at about 12,000 feet and decided to go on a little hike. We got out of the car and it was 50 degrees outside. Jared was the smart one that remembered his hat. I’m not sure how high we hiked, but it definitely kept getting colder and colder. And the air was getting thinner and thinner. I finally felt my ears starting to thaw out when we got back to Estes Park.

Not much can survive at this elevation. That’s why it’s so sparse.