Rocky Mountain National Park

So Boulder made us angry and beat up on us pretty good. The wounds are still a little too fresh to talk about so instead I'm gonna talk about our trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park. We wrapped "filming" (I put it quotes because I'm not sure it actually counts) and decided instead of editing this epic failure of a movie, we'd go to RMNP (all the cool people abbreviate it).

I didn't know much about it so I didn't have very high expectations. I thought there were just a bunch of big mountains so I was kind of bleh about the whole thing. The boy scout in Josh wouldn't let him not go so I gave in. We were driving there and hit some traffic near a mini-golf course called Fun City. We got closer and realized that a huge herd of elk had taken over the putt-putt course and the road and the nearby stream. We pulled over and jumped out to get some pictures. They seemed wholly unconcerned about our proximity or the fact that there were people actually trying to play putt-putt.

The elk finally cleared off, apparently having had their fill of mini-golf and we went back to the car, marveling that one of our most impressive animal sightings was at a miniature golf course. Oh irony. Onward to RMNP (I'm so cool right now you don't even know).

We entered the park and drove to a trail for a waterfall, a half mile trail with a pretty steep incline. We breathed heavily, cursing our level of fitness and the high altitude (we blamed a lot on the altitude in Colorado). The falls were pretty cool but not quite matching the one we saw in Yellowstone.

We headed back to the car, resting on a bench to catch our breath. While we were sitting there, we struck up a conversation with a family from Texas. They told us about this windy dirt road that took you up above the tree line and to a ranger station with hot chocolate and snacks. A dirt road on the edge of a mountain sounded right up our alley, so off we went.

We drove and drove and drove up and up and up. We stopped often to take pictures of the most breathtaking views I've ever seen. They for sure kicked Yellowstone's ass in that respect. We gazed at huge mountains with beautiful grassy valleys, chipmunks that would walk right up to you, and patches of snow that still clung to the side of the mountains. Our eyes darted around frantically trying to capture everything but found it was too much to take in all at once.

After taking our sweet time, pulling over often so Josh could take another picture of a chipmunk or touch a glacier, we made it to the ranger station around 5:30pm. By this time we were starving! We walked in the ranger station and were horrified to see chairs stacked on tables and workers cleaning up. We missed food by 30 minutes :(

We walked out, thoroughly dejected, and ate a granola bar we scrounged up in the car. Then our eyes turned to the intimidating steps that went up to the summit of the mountain at 12,000 feet above sea level. We'd come this far. we weren't going to give up now. The air was very thin and frigidly cold. The wind whipped around us rivaling the arctic in its intensity. With much huffing and puffing, we made it to the top and looked out over the tundra.

We could see for miles and miles. Supposedly we could see Wyoming from where we stood but due to my incredibly inadequate geography skills I couldn't tell you where. Standing on the summit, above the trees where only the strongest and most determined plant life would grow, a very distinct "conquering-the-world" feeling fell over us. With exceedingly triumphant smiles on our faces, we walked back down, leaving the tumultuous two weeks in Boulder behind us. Reinvigorated, we were ready to continue on our adventure and face the many more challenges to come.

To see more pictures of our trip, visit our flickr page.