When my friend Rosemary visited us for a few days from New York early last March, my husband and I were excited to show her a few of our favorite local Colorado sights, We began with Red Rocks Amphitheater, then a drive of the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway, and today I'm showing our visit to Rocky Mountain National Park.
The weather was cold and windy, but the sky was bright blue except over the snowy mountains.
Mountains produce clouds and we certainly saw that scientific fact in action on the day of our visit.
We drove up Trail Ridge Road, which is the highest continuous road in the United States, but it does not stay open towards its highest elevation of 12,183 feet (3,713 m). That portion is usually closed from October to May.
We had a good view of Longs Peak - the highest mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park, at 14,256 feet (4345.22 m).
More clouds were being made!
We usually visit RMNP in the fall, but the snow of late winter defined the shape of the mountains and the vast forests so beautifully!
We drove along Trail Ridge Road as far as we were able.
We stopped to take photos at different pull-outs along the way
Please click on the photo to enlarge it to read the placard.
Rosemary was excited to see her first Black Billed Magpie, who perched on a pole to rest.
Surprisingly, we did not see any other wildlife during our visit. In the past, we often saw deer, elk, and an occasional moose or black bear.
The mountain views were so majestic!
We finally reached the giant snowplows and the end of the passable road, as the rest would be too treacherous a drive until it was opened in late Spring.
We drove to a few lake areas but the trails around them were too snow-covered to hike.
Please click on the photo above to enlarge it to read the placard.
It was the end of a perfect day!
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10 comments:
Sounds like a fantastic Colorado adventure! Beautiful photos and a great itinerary.
Beautiful views and photos of the Rocky Mountain NP.
Hubby and I loved our visit, we were there years ago in September and had a snowy day on our last day. Smokin Dave's was one of our favorite restaurants. Take care, have a wonderful week!
The Mountains are impressive. The landscape around is stunning too.
It's Monday afternoon, my time to write comments. And I'm looking forward to another week of wonderful posts for MosaicMonday.
Thank you for your participation, dear blog friend.
... interesting to read, it´s a great pleasure!
Greetings from Heidrun
Those mountain view are something else. Thanks for sharing all this beauty with us. Happy last week of February to you!
Wow, wow, wow! These mountain photos are just stunning.
...the mountains are gorgeous and clearing the road of snow is herculean task!!!
Lovely post! I hope to see this park someday, (but probably in Summer...)
Your country is so impressive with those magnificent mountains, blue skies and wonderful clouds. I'll bet Rosemary was impressed -- I sure would be! That's one gorgeous national park!
Beautiful photos, as always, Pat, of the state I called home for many years. One thing I never could get a real handle on while living there was how to bake the perfect chocolate chip cookie. My baking is much more successful here at sea level, in spite of how hard I tried to perfect it with High Altitude Instructions in my Colorado days. With that said, I feel sure you figured all that out shortly after arriving in Colorado.
Absolutely stunning. Very sad what's going on with the Park Rangers at the moment. Terrible stuff. #MCoW
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