We were up and on the road by about 8 am today and it was a FULL day! We headed west through Rocky Mountain National Park. . We stopped to get a view of Longs Peak and saw this woman painting. It was pretty good!
Carolyn spotted some wild turkeys and we managed to get pictures of a few.
We also had to wait as a couple deer crossed the road.
We opted to drive past Horseshoe Park and up Old Fall River Road instead of Trail Ridge Road.
A 500-foot thick glacier once covered this valley. As the valley glacier inched along over hundreds of years, it scoured out the distinctive U-shaped valley. Like giant slow-motion conveyor belts, the glacial ice eventually carried it rock debris down the valley. At the farthest point of the glacier's advance it deposited a load of rock fragments, called terminal moraine. About 15,000 years ago, the glacier began to recede. As it dissipated, the glacier dropped rubble along its flanks, forming lateral moraines, and the melt water also left behind sediments that became the meadows of Horseshoe Park. Here, huge ice chunks split from the glacier and were buried in gravel. These massive blocks created depressions which, when the ice melted, became the kettle ponds known as Sheep Lakes. It is such a beautiful part of the park, and often overlooked for the more popular Trail Ridge Road.
We continued to Alluvial Fan. On July 15, 1982 at 5:30 a.m. Lawn Lake broke through the earthen dam that had held since the end of the last ice age, thousands of years ago. The release of 29 million gallons of water swept trees and car-sized boulders four miles down to the valley floor. In addition to tons of lighter rocks, gavel and sand creating a 42-acre alluvial fan. A trash collector heard the waters crashing down the Roaring River and called park rangers, who evacuated campers at Aspen glen campgrounds. Two were lost to the flood at the campground and one along the Roaring River. Much of the flood's force was weakened while submerging the meadows of Horseshoe Park, but still had enough force to flood the town of Estes Park to a depth of six feet. Lake Estes to the east of town contained the floodwaters preventing further damage. Looking at it now, it is hard to believe this river could do so much damage!
Another major flood event in 2013 destroyed the bridge and trail. Construction has started on replacing the bridge.
Back in the car, we continued on our way up Old Fall River Road which is an 11-mile, one-way, gravel road that ends at the Alpine Visitor’s Center. This is one of my favorite places on earth!
Not too far up the road we spotted a marmot. He was busy chomping on the little rocks on the side of the road!
We hiked down the small trail to Chasm Falls. It is another beautiful stop!
Before we knew it, we were approaching the Alpine Visitor’s Center. The snowfields are still plentiful at 11,796 feet!
Of course, we spent some time shopping at the top and enjoying the view.
We continued west to Grand Lake. We had a great view of the Never Summer Mountains.
A little further down the road there were several cars stopped and we figured it must be an animal of some kind. We pulled over and were rewarded with a moose sighting! The day just kept getting better!
A lunch break in the cute little town of Grand Lake was perfect before our trek westward to Rifle Falls State Park. Google took us on an interesting route, including a 24-mile county road that was hard pack dirt and gravel. That sounds terrible, but there wasn’t much traffic and the views were amazing! The route took us from Kremmling to Highway 31 on County Road 1.
Road construction on Interstate 70 east of Glenwood Springs slowed us down more than 30 minutes – we were traveling about 5 mph! It was close to 4:30 when we finally reach Rifle Falls State Park. This was on Kathryn’s list of “must see” places. It is really beautiful! This is a link to the sounds of the falls:
https://youtu.be/jBLm7Baoht4
Still smiling, we knew we needed to move on. After a short stop for dinner in Clifton, Colorado, we still had an other hour drive to Montrose. The map just shows driving time – not stopping times, so we finally got to our Airbnb about 8:30 tonight.
We are settled in for the night. Tomorrow will be another busy day, so stay tuned for more adventures!
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