Day 15 - RMNP Day 2

Greetings from 12,000 feet! We spent most of the day at this altitude and saw the best scenery from high in the Rockies.

We left at 8:35am this morning and it was about 60 degrees and sunny. We rode to a different entrance, the Falls River entrance, just 10 minutes away. Once in the park we took Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous paved road in the US. We've been on this road two other times before in previous visits of the area. These three elk in formation were a surprise sighting!

We arrived at our first hiking destination at 9:30am, the Tundra Communities trail. Michele found out about it through a great ebook from the library, Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park by Erik Stensland, that has detail and commentary on every trail in the park. It is organized really well and includes his photography. It's not everyday that one gets to hike at this elevation and see the alpine ecosystem up close. We found a parking spot at the trail head, elevation 12,110 feet. The walk is entirely paved and gains 175 feet to 12,285 feet. 

It was about 50 degrees on this trail. We had shade going up and sun coming back down. We took our time to look at the scenery and unique vegetation. There were educational signs along the way talking about the harsh conditions of the area, the plants and animals. For example, the growing season up here is just 6-8 weeks. Because of it, the vegetation is extremely fragile and in some cases takes 100 years to grow! There are hurricane force winds. Snow drifts can be 30 feet high. 

Many of the plants are miniatures of the same plants at lower elevations. We saw two areas of rock formations. This one is called the mushroom rocks. The darker schist is harder than the white granite below that is eroding faster.

We saw many pikas. They are related to the rabbit family and are easy to detect from their high pitched squeaks. They collect grass and weeds for their winter dens. This guy was busy running back and forth. 

Exactly when we read the sign about the yellow bellied marmot, we saw him posing regally on a rock.

As we were walking back down, another one (or the same one) sauntered over to us without fear. They are large like groundhogs. Their call is also a high pitched squeak but very loud and sharp. One of these screamed at Michele a few years ago at Crater Lake. 

 We tried to find a ptarmigan, a chicken-like bird, but they were not to be seen. Michele got out her binoculars and looked in the rocks for them. A sign displayed their exquisite summer camouflage, looking just like the rock outcroppings, so it was no wonder she didn't spot any. In the winter they turn bright white and wait out the winter in little snow caves. 

We took our time on this trail enjoying the scenery and looking closely at the plants. 

We left the trail area at 11am and continued up Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Visitors Center. It is the highest elevation visitor center in the National Park system at 11,796 feet. We walked up the popular Alpine Ridge Trail that has an elevation gain of 209 feet to 12,005 feet in elevation. Its nickname is "huffer's hill" with 225 steps. At this elevation there is 30-40% less oxygen for each breath. Many people are huffing it up these steps as they likely flew into Denver and didn't have time to acclimate either to Denver or this elevation before walking up. This is our third time walking up these steps in our visits over the years. Michele saw a little girl about 3 or so on a leash (!) held by her Mom. The girl was walking back down and wanted her Mom to carry her. She said, "Mommy, I don't want to go back up there." Michele thought that was funny as she had already done the hard part walking up!

 

Back at the bike, we met the couple with the Harley that we had parked near. They are from Missouri and are beginning a road trip for a few weeks, ultimately getting to Mount Rainier. Rob shared a few scenic routes to take, notably the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway that starts in Oregon and goes up to Washington that we took on our Pacific Northwest trip in 2019. They didn't appear to have heated gear so we hope they will not be too cold.

It was time for lunch, so we rode to Rob's planned stop at Lake Irene arriving at 12:30pm. No parking spaces at all, so we instead rode to Hidden Valley where we've been before. There were no picnic tables left so we set up our own area and enjoyed the views. We watched a pack of noisy ravens and a few of the little squirrels while we ate.

With lunch done, we stowed our chairs and table and descended through the park. We got back to the hotel soon after 2pm. It was in the low to mid 70s at our return, quite a dramatic change descending down the mountain. Rob says today was the first day since we got to Colorado that it didn't rain on us. We hope it is a new trend for the rest of the week.

We had leftovers in our room from the last two dinners and watched movies.

Today the Wing reached 174,000 miles on its odometer while we were in the park!

Tomorrow we want to hike to Emerald Lake if we can get parking in the morning.