Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

We spent the w.e. of August 14-15 in Denver and took the opportunity to drive to Estes Park and hike Rocky Mountain National Park. A ranger told us that the park is the fifth most visited national park in the country. And it happened to be free w.e. of the year! As you can image, it was jam packed. Even after hiking in close to 3 miles, there were still plenty of people around. We pushed just a little further in and found a lake that we had almost to ourselves. These two pictures are from Alberta Falls, a gushing, thundering body of water.

This is Jewel Lake, just past Mills Lake. It had nice sandy beaches all around it, made for sunning and relaxing. Notice that the water is crytal clear, a rare sight.

Fuller view of this high alpine lake. The sad part of our visit was that many, many of the pine trees in the park are dead, attacked by the pine bark beetle. Although not visible on this picture, it makes for a green and very brown landscape. Apparently, the winters have been too warm so that the beetles survive the winters. It takes 4-5 days of zero (Fahrenheit) degree weather to kill the beetles and keep the trees healthy.