Goza's Wanderings and Wonderings: Rocky Mountain National Park

Location: Boyd Lake State Park (el. 5,020 ft); Loveland, Colorado

All pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone
(click pictures to enlarge)

The corn fields of Nebraska slowly gave way to the rugged high plains of eastern Colorado. Of all the corn fields I saw as I passed through Iowa and Nebraska, only one field was being harvested. The corn is beginning to brown so I guess harvest season must be getting close at hand. About 30% of the corn harvested will go to the production of ethanol to be used in gasoline blends to reduce the cost of our gasoline. In comparison, only about 12% is exported to other countries; I'm not sure what they do with it, but I would be surprised if it is used for fuel. It is a deep conversation, that is not talked about a lot, concerning the use of food for fuel when so many people in the world are literally starving to death. Nope, I won't get into that discussion here.

This picture and the following two are from western Nebraska and eastern Colorado. The sky put on a show with its clouds.

Eastern Colorado

The Rocky Mountains came into view about 20 miles from Loveland but I wasn't able to get a good picture of the event. If it had been a clearer day, I may have seen them earlier. I stayed at this state park last year but it was very early in the season and although I tried to see Rocky Mountain National Park at that time, the snowfall prevented me from seeing all of it. That is one of the reason I'm back again. If you want to see the National Park with snow flying and about this state park, see my post from May 19, 2015.

My campsite at Boyd Lake SP.
Level campsite and 50 amp service.

Sunset at the campground. This is from my campsite. I was leaning on Freedom while taking this one.

I arrived here late in the afternoon of Sunday, the 28th. After a long tow and having to empty tanks after getting here, I was kind of tired. But Monday morning came and I was ready to see the Rockies again. So I put on blue jeans (first time in months) because the temperature in the park was predicted to be 50 degrees. The lowest temperature on Freedoms thermometer was 48, but with a good breeze blowing it felt colder. I enjoyed it.

The main highway through the park is U.S. 34 which I have been paralleling since passing through Chicago. To get to the park from Loveland, U.S. 34 goes through Big Thompson River Cut which is an impressive sight itself. It is hard to get pictures in the cut due to the curves and narrow road.

Big Thompson River Cut
I have a few more pictures in last years post

Once you get to the tourist trap town of Estes Park, you are on the doorstep of the National Park. There are several things I want to see in the park but on the first day, yesterday, I just drove through on the main road with stops at most of the scenic overlooks. The road goes from mountain meadows, to tundra. Yeah, I said tundra. The same thing you will find in Alaska or Russia. You top out in elevation above 12,000 feet which puts you well above the treeline. The road is well built with very few problems. There were a couple of "butt-clinching" areas when I was in the drop-off-and-fall-thousands-of-feet-down-the-mountainside lane and some yahoo wanted to use part of my lane. I wished him/her a nice day as we passed. I'm sure I missed a lot of great views while keeping my eyes on the road which is one of the drawbacks of traveling alone.

A mountain meadow. I took a picture from this same location last year with snow everywhere.

A panoramic picture taken with an app on my cell phone

The sky kept changing colors including the blue patch.

This view reminded me of the old song "One Tin Soldier"

Sometimes, looking out over it all, it seemed unreal, almost fake-looking.

You can see the road coming up the mountains on the right side of the picture.

Another panoramic picture.

I found a bench!! In the background is the tale-tell sign of Glacier activity with the curved sides of the mountains

A nice view, uh?

Same bench as before, just looking another way.

Above the treeline as the road curves away

I was hoping the gas pedal wouldn't stick.

There are two things in this picture. A mountain pond being feed by the slowly melting snow, even in late August. On the left side is suppose to be some lava beds from a long ago volcanic eruption. I'm not sure about that part, but the pond is real. :)