July 7th - 9th

July 7^th Four Lakes All in One Hike!

Sunrise at Glacier Basin Campground (spot 140)

Today we decided to hike around Bear Lake and up to Emerald Lake. On the way we were able to enjoy Nymph Lake and Dream Lake as well. About ½ way around Bear Lake (elevation 9,475 ft)

Nymph Lake (elevation 9,700 ft) had a magnificent reflection of the mountains.

Dream Lake (elevation 9,900 ft) was like so clear that you could see the Rainbow Trout.

So, close to Lar's plate, yet so far away… no license, no fishing.

Keep on  hiking Viking.

Emerald Lake (elevation 10,080 ft) still a little frozen.

July 8^th Lets go see the animals!

Before leaving RMNP, our early morning mission was to see the elk and moose that hang around the Beaver Pond area on the other side of the park.

We traveled back over the Trail Ridge Road, where we stopped and created a now (2011) and then (circa 1933) photo of The Great Rock Cut just past the highest point of the road at 12,183 ft.

We were also hoping to take the Old Fall River Road, which is rough, steep and perfect for a jeeping experience. We had heard it doesn’t usually open until the beginning of July, so we reversed our vacation order in hopes of driving this back road that parallels Trail Ridge Road. Didn’t happen, when we talked to the Ranger, she said it may not open at all this year because the road is pretty washed-out and worse than usual because of the high snow fall totals.

We came back to the campground(I love the waterfalls on the road to Grand Basin), packed up our stuff and headed for the last night of camping in the Roosevelt National Forest (near Boulder) called Meeker Park.

July 9^th One More Photo Before Heading Home

Since we will drive over the night to get back to St. Louis, we decided to view a few more canyon roads, Longs Peak, and any animals we could find.

St. Malo Church on Hwy 7 near Meeker Park

Longs Peak is the last of the 14teeners (elevation 14,256 ft) going north in the Rocky Mountains, including Canada. The thought of hiking this mountain was more hours than we had left of vacation (and I am sure you would need snow shoes… I think we will wait until another trip).

As we were leaving Roosevelt National Forest we did see a couple of animals at the Meeker Park picnic area, one male bear and one female elk…who knew that they would play so nicely together.