Rocky Mountain High

Man! What a day. It started early. We were having Daylight Donuts at 0630. By 0715 we were on the road. Our first stop of the day was a Veterans Memorial in Yuma. We spotted it the previous night while we were walking to watch the fireworks. The oddest thing happened there. A crazy little deer dashed across the street and ran so close to us that we could have reached out and touched it. We were surprised, to say the very least. After leaving Yuma we set off west toward Rocky Mountain National Park. The first few hours were similar to the views in KS.

The first signs of beautiful scenery was along the road following the Big Thompson river. We were unable to stop for pictures due to the narrow road and heavy traffic. It only got better from there. In Estes Park, just outside RMNP we stopped for lunch at a restaurant that had been in Estes Park for 61 years. The food was great.

As we entered the park we began climbing in elevation. I was cold. My teeth chattered ...a lot. Even with multiple layers and all the rain gear. The views were beautiful. Just look at the pictures. We also saw several packs (not full herds of moose [or maybe elk]). They just went about their business while dozens of people stopped to take their pictures. It was neat to see, but we did not stop for pictures because stopping on motorcycle with all the unpredictable traffic is asking for trouble. I'm hoping to get some wildlife photos in Yellowstone day after tomorrow. The only bad part of the day was the ride out of the park. They were doing road construction and the last 25 miles were loose gravel. To top it off it was raining and hailing and cold.

After leaving RMNP we had a bit of weather to ride through. The views were still gorgeous. The road out of the higher elevation of RMNP leading into Steamboat Springs had a lot of curves and would have been even better without the rain.

We stopped in Steamboat for the night. We pulled in about 1630, got cleaned up and took the free bus to the downtown area for a great dinner. We fully intended to stay for the rodeo and fireworks. Unfortunately, the rodeo was well underway before we were done with dinner and the fireworks were still two hours away. Since we saw fireworks last night in Yuma we decided to call it a night.

Tomorrow we are traveling from Steamboat Springs to Rock Spring, WY. We are taking a circuitous path through Utah and then into Wyoming. There are two random national parks we're planning to stop in and check out. Visit us again tomorrow for more pictures and news from the road.