Spring Has Sprung!!!

Summit Pictures

So, we finally reach the summit of Rocky Mountain National Park and we climb up the tundra trail, and this is what we see!...

The female elk were just sitting there, 20 ft from us at the top of the mountains...just amazing!

It was cold too! I was the only one who was comfortable up there in a short sleeve shirt. Everyone else was freezing or had coats on! I'm thankful that God allowed me to not be cold, and enjoy the experience. I think I got so overheated in Kansas, that nothing was going to make me cold! Plus, I did spend over half my life hiking in these mountains!

It's so cool seeing giant rock formations come out of nowhere at the top of a mountain! They were HUGE too! You know, sometimes when you remember things as a child as being big, when you see them again as an adult, you're a little disappointed, but that sure isn't the case with these rock formations and the mountains as a whole!

There are no trees up this high, just rocks and grass...

This is the closeup picture below...

And here's the one from a distance to give you scale. Can you see the lake in the middle of the picture? Just beautiful to see a little lake just sitting on the side of a mountain! I don't care how beautiful it is, I wouldn't get in it even if you could access it. Do you know how cold that water hast to be? There is still snow on most of these mountains! They just recently opened the road to the summit. It was impassable before.

One last picture for you. People in Southern climates are just amazed that all the snow still isn't melted off in the middle of August up here. The elevation is just so high. This particular mountain was even taller than us, so it stands at least 13,000ft tall! I believe the highest mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park is over 14,000ft tall. God's beauty is found everywhere and it's all just spectacular, but I will always be partial to the mountains. My mother and I both, just feel so close to God when we are up here! The beauty of His creation in these mountains is absolutely breathtaking and leaves you speechless for a while...just standing there enjoying it, and trying to take it all in!

I also ended up with three beautiful panoramic pictures that won't load onto here, but they turned out great, and will be on my bedroom wall! I was able to get 5 mountains in one panoramic picture! Thank you for looking and letting me share my homecoming with you!

More Mountain Pics

After the picnic, we drove through Estes Park.

I love seeing all the shops there, and watching the wide range of people there!
This fella was standing outside an Indian shop. I don't know if he's a real Indian, or just trying to make more sales, but it was funny to watch him interact with everyone!

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Then we went on to the Rocky Mountain National Park. These two pictures are from about half way up the mountains. I love the shadows from the clouds!

I really had to zoom in to get the detail on this little river from so high up. I love how curvy it is!

Summit pictures next!

Mountain Picnic

On Saturday, the whole family got together for a picnic at the base of the mountains. This park is maintained by the city of Loveland and is a great historical park. It used to be a power plant but was ruined by a flood. It now has picnic tables, playground equipment, walking paths over bridges and so much more! They have two spots that you can reserve for things to, but we were just doing the "FREE" casual thing! The picture above is the view up the mountain from the park, and below is the sign placed in front of the old generators.
These are the old generators which they have left here in the park. I think it's cool to look at them and think of what was once here. It's amazing what kind of damage water can do...especially when it's running down the mountains at great speed!

This is a neat little nature building. Inside they have glass covered shelves that show local wildlife, insects, trees and etc. They also teach the differences between the North and South facing slopes. Pretty cool stuff!

And, my favorite part of the park is the Big Thompson River that flows right through it! The sound of the water rushing through is so beautiful! If that was right out my bedroom window, I would sleep like a baby every night! The water is so crystal clear and beautiful! Our picnic table was just above this spot on the river, and it was such a lovely lunch!

I can't tell you how hard it was to leave the park, but we were going up to Estes Park and the Summit of the Rocky Mountain National Park, so I was looking forward to that. Those pictures will come soon!

Rocky Mountain Wildlife

We saw loads and loads of elk while we were in the national park. They love being there, because they can't be hunted within the park. I love it because they will get close enough to you to get some great shots with the camera! These bulls were obviously distracted by something, but we had a whole group of cows (female elk) that were sitting 20 ft from us and were staring right at us! It was great.
My husband obviously missed the sign that says "don't feed the wildlife" but apparently so did a lot of other people since these little critters ate right of his hand! They won't do this on a first time encounter! It was pretty neat though, I must say.

These birds didn't like all the attention the squirrels and chipmunks were getting and they pushed their way in! They were really beautiful though, and to see them up close was great! The kids could of stayed there all day, but the sun wasn't going to stay with us!

Fields of Yellow

Remember those fields of sunflowers I told you I was looking forward to seeing? Well, I wasn't disappointed and now I get to share them with you! I'm going to blow up one of these pictures to a 16x20 and hang it on my bedroom wall. I'm going to do that with some of my mountain pictures as well.

God's beauty never ceases to stop me in my tracks! I think having all these beautiful pictures on my wall will help me to get through the cold winter that will be here before you know it!