July 4th, 2006 Rocky Mountain National Park
Exhausted as we were, we had somehow dragged ourselves to our friend's place in Longmont, Colorado the evening before. We were so thrilled to be puttering around in a home like environment for a change, cooking hot breakfast of our choice. Late morning, we decided to pack some lunch and head out to Rocky Mountain National Park for some auto hiking. The plan was to hit the Trail Ridge Road in the park, stop at prime spot, cajole all three kids out of the car (one of ours and two of our friends'), walk to the designated spots, ooh and aah over the scenes, capture some shots, hussle the kids back in and move on to the next spot. After 10 days of hiking, we were only too happy to play couch tourists.
Even though my son and I had visited Rocky Mountain National Park about two years ago, I had forgotten how rugged and wild those mountains are, how treacherous and narrow the road through the Park is and how prolific and unafraid the wild life is. We ventured into non-protected areas of tundra vegetation, took pictures of coquettish wood chucks, walked to the numerous vantage points and remarked over the populous presence of big-horn sheep.




Towards late afternoon, we had warmed up for a short hike, so we turned around at the Alpine Visitor Center and headed towards the Fern Lake Trailhead for a short 6 miles hike to the various alpine lakes in the area.

Joe and my son headed off with our friends and their kids for the fireworks at the neighboring golf course, while I called it an early night.