Along Bear Lake Road
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Longs Peak Hallett Peak
Wild Turkey’s
Trail Ridge
Many Parks Curve (40 23.267N 105 37.954W)
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Longs Peak Moraine Park
Grouse
Forest Canyon Overlook
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Hayden Spire Terra Tomah
Rock Cut
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Tag Archives: Geology
2013 – Rocky Mountain National Park – Part 2c
As mentioned in the previous post the other part of the second half of the day was a roadside geology tour. In this post I will show you some of the photos from those stops.
Stop #1: Glacial Till – Terminal Moraine (40 24.113N 105 36.289W)
Stop #2 – Sheep Lakes – Kettles (40 24.271N 105 37.120W)
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Stop #3: Horseshoe Park – Ypsilon Mnt. – U Shape Valley
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Stop #4 – <Nothing found>
Stop #5 – Many Parks Curve – Long’s Peak
Stop #6 – Rainbow Curve / Pika (Animal)
Stop #7 – Forest Canyon Overlook Terra Tomah Mtn
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2013 – Rocky Mountain National Park – Part 2b
The second half of the day was a mixture of a roadside geology tour and a lets stop here for a few photos. So, let me start by first showing some of the photos we took at random locations
Our first stop is for a Picnic near Sprague Lake with Hallett Peak in the distance
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We will stop along Highway36 for views of Ypsilon Mnt.
We will find a turnout (40.389431° / -105.611730°) that talks about the “Woodpecker Army” that did allot of work within the park
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We stop at a sign around West Horseshoe Park that talks about Horseshoe Inn that was once here
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We stopped at Hidden Valley and decided to leave this trail for another day
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One more photo to share in this post before showing the roadside geology tour
2013 – Rocky Mountain National Park – Part 2a
On on second day we head into an area know as Bear Lake and with our early morning start we catch one of the reasons for this name…
We will reach the trail head at ~7:30AM and take the left path where most that travel here go right to Bear Lake itself and then turn back.
Our first planned photo stop is Nymph Lake which takes us about 20 minute to reach since do stop to enjoy the views and take photos along the way,
About an hour into our morning hike, we reach a point on this path where you can split off toward Lake Haiyaha as well as Bear Lake but we are not headed toward either on this hike.
We will reach Dream Lake a few minutes later…
Onto Emerald Lake next which puts us about 2 hours into the hike now. Yea, a slow pace but we enjoy the journey as much as the destination…
Time to head back but we will also enjoy the hike down as well as the light change changes the views. So, here we are back at Dream Lake around 10AM.
Around 10:30 we get back to Nymph Lake
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We are back to the Trail Head at 10:45 and the parking lot is “Packed”; sure glad we started early.
Now you might ask what views between the lakes was there to see; who about this one…
Time to go enjoy more of the park in others areas which will be covered in our next post…
2013 – Rocky Mountain National Park – Part 1c
To complete the day we still need to get down from the pass; especially with the clouds rolling in…
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Spot some wildlife just off the roadway but no good place to stop so a shot out the window and keep going…
Time to stop at an Overlook and enjoy some of the views of the park…
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As we get to the lower altitudes we get into Moose territory and bingo we see one…
We reach the point along the route were we cross over the Continental Divide at 10,759ft above Sea Level
Just enough time left in the day for a short hike along the Ute Trail…
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Day one over but we still have two more days to share with you still to come…
2013 – Rocky Mountain National Park – Part 1b
As we continued our drive on Old Fall River Road, we will enjoy nearly every turn-out we find and then some…
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Find another local going about it’s daily tasks as if not to care we were taking photos…
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We then reach the top of Trail Ridge behind the Store and Cafe at an elevation of 11,796 feet…
Well, we are at the top so it’s Lunch and then more stops along the way down but that’s the next post…
2013 – Rocky Mountain National Park – Part 1a
On August 18 we head to our “Back Yard” to enjoy a mini three (3) day vacation in Estes Park
We will head into the park via US 34 in the Big Thompson Canyon and stop to take some photos along the way. One of those stops is at the Big Thompson Canyon Flood Memorial located at 40 25.787N 105 18.956W.
In Memory Of
Sgt. W. Hugh Purdy / Michel O. Conley
Colorado State Patrol / Estes Park Patrolman
They Gave Their Lives To Save The Lives Of Others
The Night Of July 31, 1976 When More Than 140 Persons
Died In The Great Flash Flood of Big Thompson Canyon.
After entering the park, we will take the “Old Fall River Road” which today is a One-Way route with wonderful views all along the route. Here is just a small sample of the beautiful scenes long the initial section plus a friend we found at one stop.
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We will reach Chapin Pass at 40 26.089N 105 43.821W with an elevation of ~11,000 feet. Here too we see another friend in the distance enjoy the morning sun on a rock face…
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We will continue on up the road in the next post…
