8-15-19 - (Day 22 - Rocky Mountain National Park)

We had an 8 hour adventure today.  We rode through Rocky Mountain National Park to the Dam Store.  The temperature range was from 58 to 94 degrees on our 4300 feet elevation climb.

The park was as beautiful as we remembered it being 10 years ago.  The only difference was we were coming in from the west side instead of the east side.

It didn't take long for ole' Eagle Eye, aka Lauren, to spot a Bull Moose out in the river.  We stopped and took a few photos.

We were going to stop at the Alpine Visitor's Center, but there was too much traffic.  We traveled a few miles up the mountain, and we were in a dead stop.  We thought the worst, but 20 minutes later we realized there was road construction ahead.  Another 20 minutes and we got out of the deadlock.  Not to worry. we had gorgeous views while we waited to proceed.

We had our picnic lunch at Hidden Valley and traveled to Estes Park.  Then we traveled through Thompson Canyon to the Dam Store.  On our way, we stopped and admired Big Horn Sheep.  One lady jumped out of her vehicle and spooked one of them, which almost caused him to get hit by a car.  Some people!

We got to the Dam Store, went up in the tower, and took a few pictures and headed back.

The road construction was over for the day.  We saw hundreds of elk on our ride back..

A few miles before exiting the park, we saw a moose and her baby, then the recruits came in.  The rangers were there to try and catch momma moose to tag her.  We would have loved to watch, but they wanted people to continue on so not to spook her.

At we were exiting the park, ole' Eagle eye came through again.  He saw a coyote wandering around in the grassland.

We thoroughly enjoyed our ride taking in the beautiful scenery from our campsite to the Dam Store.  We saw lots of critters including, Elk, Moose, Big Horn Sheep, Deer, Chipmunks, Red Squirrels, Pika, Red-tailed Hawks, and Osprey,

When we returned, we had a camping neighbor.  Lauren went over to check out his amphibious vehicle.  Al and his dog,  Dino, are going to be here through the weekend. 

We winded up with a good sunset and a full belly of pork chop and baked beans.  Al had a good campfire going, and asked us to come over.

Within a few minutes of talking to Al, we realized how blessed we are.  Al's wife, Lisa died a month ago.  They were high school sweet hearts, married for 30 years.

No rain tonight, even though the clouds were wicked looking. We had a couple of beers by Al's campfire and are calling it a night.

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