Day 6 (100 miles to nowhere)

Today the kids all became Jr. Rocky Mountain National Park Rangers.

All of the National Park’s have Jr. Ranger programs. At the Rocky Mountains you have to complete a booklet that includes identifying many different plants and animals. You also have to attend a ranger lead program.

At the ranger program we learned that a moraine (we are staying in the Moraine campground) is a debris field caused by a glacier. So the name of the campground makes a lot more sense now, because it is a valley surrounded by moraine’s. After the ranger program we asked the ranger what else we should do and he suggested taking the Trail Ridge Road to the west side of the park.

We really wanted to see Big Horn sheep and there is a look out spot at Horseshoe Park

Horseshoe Park got its name because they thought the river bends looked like horseshoe’s.

 

 

 

Well this is the only Big Horn sheep we saw.

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the rest of the day traveling on Trail Ridge Road. Trail Ridge Road is the highest major highway in North America and it tops out at 12,183 feet above sea level. 

 

We took a lot of pictures along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

A cool picture of a mountain at the same height as we were.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a Bull Elk we saw them everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

Colleen and Alyssa went part way up a trail. We think the trail went up 1000 feet.

 

 

 

 

We stopped for lunch at the Lava Cliffs and there was snow everywhere.

 

 

 

 

The Hohman’s by the snow.

 

 

 

 

 

At the Alpine Visitor center there is a trail that takes you up 200 feet to a elevation of 12,005 feet.

 

 

 

 

Here is Colleen next to the biggest snow drift we saw.

 

 

 

 

 

We kept driving, because Colleen really wanted to see a Moose. There were several cars on the side of the road and a couple of rangers who had spotted a mother moose and here calf.

 

 

So we drove 100 miles and we ended up back where we started. 100 miles to nowhere, but  we got to see a lot of great things on the way.

Trail Ridge Road Roller Coaster.  Who needs Six Flags.