Colorado Aspens; Day 3

Our day of travel started at 7:40AM under sunny, blue, clear skies with a chilly 39 degrees. It was a little over an hour drive to Rocky Mountain National Park, which was the destination today. After a stop at the Fall River Visitor Center we entered the park at about 9:20AM. There were only 2 cars ahead of us in line. A short distance into the park we stopped at a gorgeous grove of aspens for a selfie. In the distance we heard the bugling of elk but we never saw any.

RMNP was absolutely beautiful, as always, and the weather could not have been better. Up on Trail Ridge Road temps dropped to the low 40's.


We drove almost to the west end of RMNP (Grand Lake entrance), far enough to see the devastation of fairly recent fires.


We turned around and drove back through RMNP to get back to our hotel in Ft Collins. As we drove out past the Fall River entrance we saw that cars were backed up ten deep waiting to get in. It made us glad that we had an early entry reservation.

We stopped at a Wendy's in Loveland for a late lunch before arriving back at our hotel at 3:00PM. The route today covered 166 miles and it was 81 degrees in Ft Collins. The hotel hot tub soaked our old aching bones before we called it a day.

The only way our day could have been better would have been the sighting of an elk, moose, mountain goat and bear.

Click here to see all the photos taken today - Day 3 Pics

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