One of my life goals is to visit all the major national parks in the US and I'm doing fairly well thus far*. Colorado has four parks and until we moved here I'd never been to any of them. I really can't say I'd even been to Colorado before, unless seeing the state from the windows of the airport or from my car while driving cross-country counts. We visited the Great Sand Dunes NP a month ago and last weekend we drove the 70 miles north to Rocky Mountain National Park, a park we'll undoubtedly visit numerous times thanks to its proximity to Denver.
When we first arrived the weather looked like this. How nice.
But very quickly turned to this, putting quite the damper to any hopes for long hikes.
Because, if I must be honest, I'm terrified of getting struck by lightning and turn into a complete chicken at even the quietest rumble of thunder. I'm also terrified of getting eaten by a mountain lion. Or a bear. It's really a miracle I go outside at all.
So we did a few very short hikes, not venturing too far from the car. And we drove along Trail Ridge Road, the highest major highway in North America.
We also spotted some wildlife that was slightly more interesting than the chipmunks we usually encounter. There was some debate between Mark and I as to whether this was a moose or an elk. Umm, I'm going with elk. In Mark's defense, we were standing rather far away when the debate began. And we were both secretly wishing it was a moose.
We'll no doubt return. Preferably when the weather forecast calls for absolutely no chance of rain, which to be honest is 90 percent of the time. Things are starting to turn brown and half our state seems to be on fire. A little rain might be nice right about now.
*Park Checklist:
Acadia, Shenandoah (x2), the Great Smoky Mountains (x1,000,000), Everglades, Badlands, Yellowstone, Tetons, Rocky Mountain, Great Sand Dune, Arches, Canyonlands, Grand Canyon (x2), Kings Canyon, Sequoia, Yosemite (x2), Lassen, Redwoods, Crater Lake, Mt. Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades.
When we first arrived the weather looked like this. How nice.
But very quickly turned to this, putting quite the damper to any hopes for long hikes.
Because, if I must be honest, I'm terrified of getting struck by lightning and turn into a complete chicken at even the quietest rumble of thunder. I'm also terrified of getting eaten by a mountain lion. Or a bear. It's really a miracle I go outside at all.
So we did a few very short hikes, not venturing too far from the car. And we drove along Trail Ridge Road, the highest major highway in North America.
We also spotted some wildlife that was slightly more interesting than the chipmunks we usually encounter. There was some debate between Mark and I as to whether this was a moose or an elk. Umm, I'm going with elk. In Mark's defense, we were standing rather far away when the debate began. And we were both secretly wishing it was a moose.
We'll no doubt return. Preferably when the weather forecast calls for absolutely no chance of rain, which to be honest is 90 percent of the time. Things are starting to turn brown and half our state seems to be on fire. A little rain might be nice right about now.
*Park Checklist:
Acadia, Shenandoah (x2), the Great Smoky Mountains (x1,000,000), Everglades, Badlands, Yellowstone, Tetons, Rocky Mountain, Great Sand Dune, Arches, Canyonlands, Grand Canyon (x2), Kings Canyon, Sequoia, Yosemite (x2), Lassen, Redwoods, Crater Lake, Mt. Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades.
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