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.

Stewart Lake, Pecos Wilderness

Our friend Mark invited us to a get away w.e. in the Pecos Wilderness in the Sangre de Christo Mountains, northeast of Santa Fe. He rented a rustic cabin (with all the necessary comforts) with a great deck overlooking the canyon. It was made for relaxation and good conversation. However, the cabin was perched on top of a cliff. To reach the cabin, Marc needed to drive full speed up a narrow, winding dirt road... in the dark as it was already 9:30 pm. The picture does not give a good feeling of how steep it really was. If you stopped, you could not get started again because the tires could not get enough traction.

On Saturday, we hiked to Stewart Lake, a high alpine lake. Starting from Cowles campground, we hiked through a little over 4 miles of conifer and aspen groves high above Winsor Creek, to reach a clearing and small lake before finally arriving at our destiny.

We had company at the lake; while eating lunch we watched a young couple on the other side of the lake, brave enough to dip into the icy waters. The mountain gods were on our side... no summer storms.

Thank you Marc for a great w.e.