I recently had the pleasure of a three-day trip to Colorado, where I was attending a wedding. As we were flying in, I recalled a line from the movie Dumb and Dumber..."That John Denver was full of sh@# man! I thought the Rockies would be a lot Rockier than this!" I was on the wrong side of the plane apparently. My drive from the international airport towards my destination, Lyons, was quite beautiful. The very next morning I got up pretty close to sunrise and drove towards Rocky Mt National Park/Estes Park.
For those of you familiar with this area, I ended up at Old Fall River Road. Here I sat in my car and stared at the sign for a good 5 minutes, which warned of the dirt road that lie ahead..."Caution, steep switchbacks...ONE WAY" Thinking to myself...hmmm what's a switchback? Having seen a Jeep Wrangler proceed ahead of me...I decided to go for it...in my rented Kia Forte (comparable to a Honda Civic). Everything worked out just fine, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't think I had made a tremendously foolish decision at first.
Anyway, what a gorgeous drive...breathtaking at times. Just before reaching the Trail Ridge Cafe (elevation 11,700+ feet), a herd of Elk were grazing and eventually crossed the road we were on. I stopped for about half an hour and probably snapped about 100 pics of these beautiful creatures. My photo skills let me down as I only got about 5 acceptable shots somehow. I decended the mountains on Trail Ridge Road, what views. I need to go back in the winter time.
The next day I went to Red Rocks and Denver, which were both a disappointment compared with the National Park. Follow the link for photos.
Flickr: danloc78's Photostream 
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