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| Elk near the high point of the drive. |
On Sunday (June 10, 2012), I was up early again and hit the
Trail Ridge Road in the low morning light.
After a quick stroll through the Alluvial Fan and a photo stop at Many
Parks Curve, I continued the lovely drive up to the Alpine Visitor Center,
hitting a few other stop-and-gawks along the way. There was eye candy everywhere, though I was
struck by the relative dearth of hiking trails in all this majestic open country. Not that the place needed to be redeveloped
for my own entertainment, I just would have expected more trails to have
evolved here over the eight decades since the road was built. I wandered the shorter ones and pledged to
come back again to backpack some of the longer routes. I’d also been eyeing Long’s Peak the day
before, so that will remain high on the list as well.
The next day, I had an afternoon plane to catch in Denver,
so I retraced my skid marks past the Alpine Visitor Center and down to the Colorado
River, where I managed a stroll along the tiny river hoping to see a
moose. The moose materialized later on
the drive south. Tourists by the dozens
ignored all the rules and bounded across the meadows on a quest for the perfect
photo of Madam Moose, perhaps not realizing how dangerous these noble giants can
be. I motored on and said ‘so long’ to
the park with a short walk to Adams Falls near Grand Lake.
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| The mighty Colorado River, nearly a foot deep. |
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| Moosing. |
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| Adams Falls. |
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