Day 10 - Saturday 5/30/2015 - Gem Lake HIke and Trail Ridge Road
For our last full day, we headed back to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. This time we went north of the city to the Lumpy Ridge Trailhead and the trail to Gem Lake. It was a 3.5 mile round trip with a 1000ft in elevation gain, starting at 7870ft and ending at 8860ft. The trail was pretty steep with may of the steps cut for it being fairly tall, especially for E. However, the effort offered great views of Long’s Peak! Gem Lake was a picture perfect mirror lake that morning! The stuff that you picture when visiting national parks. After we managed to make it back down and back to the car, we headed back through Estes Park. We then drove down the Bear Lake road to hopefully find a still mirror Sprague Lake but a small wind caused some ripples on it.
It seems that every national park has one across park road that is just spectacular. For Rocky Mountain National Park, this is Trail Ridge Road. It connects the east and west sides of RMNP. It peaks out at 12,183ft and has many miles above the tree line! We had hoped all trip that Trail Ridge Road was open but there were some late season snows that we were running against all trip. At Sprague Lake we heard that Trail Ridge Road was open for the first time of the year!
So off we went. We stopped at many of the pull off along the way, including the Alpine Visitor Center at 11,796ft that was near the summit. At the Forest Canyon Overlook, the snow was all the way up to the information signs and we basically walked on the rock walls that marked the boundary! At the Alpine Visitor Center, somebody carved, RMNP 100 in the side of the 8 ft tall snow bank to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the park!
We then continued down the west side and stopped at the continental divide at Milner Pass. We then stopped at the East Inlet Trailhead for a short 1-mile long round trip hike to Adams Falls. We ran into an Elk on the hike back! We then continued south through Granby, through Winter Park and back to I-40 for the drive to Denver. That evening we ate at Work in Class in downtown Dinner for a fantastic end of the trip.
It seems that every national park has one across park road that is just spectacular. For Rocky Mountain National Park, this is Trail Ridge Road. It connects the east and west sides of RMNP. It peaks out at 12,183ft and has many miles above the tree line! We had hoped all trip that Trail Ridge Road was open but there were some late season snows that we were running against all trip. At Sprague Lake we heard that Trail Ridge Road was open for the first time of the year!
So off we went. We stopped at many of the pull off along the way, including the Alpine Visitor Center at 11,796ft that was near the summit. At the Forest Canyon Overlook, the snow was all the way up to the information signs and we basically walked on the rock walls that marked the boundary! At the Alpine Visitor Center, somebody carved, RMNP 100 in the side of the 8 ft tall snow bank to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the park!
We then continued down the west side and stopped at the continental divide at Milner Pass. We then stopped at the East Inlet Trailhead for a short 1-mile long round trip hike to Adams Falls. We ran into an Elk on the hike back! We then continued south through Granby, through Winter Park and back to I-40 for the drive to Denver. That evening we ate at Work in Class in downtown Dinner for a fantastic end of the trip.
It seems that every national park has one across park road that is just spectacular. For Rocky Mountain National Park, this is Trail Ridge Road. It connects the east and west sides of RMNP. It peaks out at 12,183ft and has many miles above the tree line! We had hoped all trip that Trail Ridge Road was open but there were some late season snows that we were running against all trip. At Sprague Lake we heard that Trail Ridge Road was open for the first time of the year!
So off we went. We stopped at many of the pull off along the way, including the Alpine Visitor Center at 11,796ft that was near the summit. At the Forest Canyon Overlook, the snow was all the way up to the information signs and we basically walked on the rock walls that marked the boundary! At the Alpine Visitor Center, somebody carved, RMNP 100 in the side of the 8 ft tall snow bank to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the park!
So off we went. We stopped at many of the pull off along the way, including the Alpine Visitor Center at 11,796ft that was near the summit. At the Forest Canyon Overlook, the snow was all the way up to the information signs and we basically walked on the rock walls that marked the boundary! At the Alpine Visitor Center, somebody carved, RMNP 100 in the side of the 8 ft tall snow bank to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the park!
We then continued down the west side and stopped at the continental divide at Milner Pass. We then stopped at the East Inlet Trailhead for a short 1-mile long round trip hike to Adams Falls. We ran into an Elk on the hike back! We then continued south through Granby, through Winter Park and back to I-40 for the drive to Denver. That evening we ate at Work in Class in downtown Dinner for a fantastic end of the trip.
Day 11 - Sunday 5/31/2015 - Colorado Railroad Museum and Fly Home
We woke up a bit later and packed up. We then headed to the Colorado Railroad Museum for some looking around and photos. Emily parked under a tree and let me explore. We then stopped quickly at Caboose Hobbies before heading for the airport and home on a 2:30pm Southwest flight to Hobby. From Hobby we super shuttled home ending a amazing trip!