Boulder and the Rockies

Hello again. Time to be bombarded by more photos!

I thought I'd write a quick update seeing as we have wifi, and it's been an interesting couple of days.
We spent three nights in Boulder, which is just outside of Denver in Colorado. It is a really cool university town with a really funky pedestrian mall in the town centre (kids playing in the shooting jet water fountain, street performers, hot dog and ice cream stands) and a very nice park along the river. We had a look around, caught up on a lot of sleep (most comfy bed I've slept in since leaving home!), acclimatized to the altitude and checked out Red Rocks Park, which aside from being a park is also a famous music venue. Unfortunately nothing was on while we were there - although Peter Frampton and BB King were playing the day after we left (not that I could name a song by either of them...).

Boulder - Pearl St Mall

Boulder - Pearl St Mall

Boulder - Pearl St Mall

Red Rocks

Red Rocks - amphitheater

Tool played here in 2001 - would have been mean!

Red Rocks

We headed out to the Rocky Mountain National Park, stopping for coffee at Nederland which is a funky little mountain village, then on to Estes Park.
Estes Park is the town just outside of Rocky Mountain NP. It is a really pretty town, as most of the towns around here seem to be. Most of them have really cool main streets with lovely shop fronts and bright coloured hanging baskets, buildings that look like log cabins,  etc. What you would expect from an American mountain town I guess! It was really only in the backwaters of Utah that we came across places reminiscent of Huntly!

Estes Park

Estes Park

Estes Park

Estes Park

Rocky Mountain NP is really truly stunning. Being in the mountains makes a really nice change from the desert! The first afternoon we hiked to Cub Lake. Only 4.6 miles, but I was shattered, I think from being really tired combined with the altitude.

Our campsite - fancy rental car and Walmart tent...

Hike to Cub Lake through pretty meadows

Hike to Cub Lake

Cub Lake (not all that pretty!)

The following day after a much needed sleep in and a trip to town to do some laundry, we took a four hour hike from Bear Lake to Fern Lake. The scenery was breath taking - from being in the forest, to being up above the tree line, to the picturesque lakes. It was also literally breath taking when Shaun whispered "Catherine stop. Bear!". We were just inside the tree line, looking up at a grassy hill where a bear and her cub were hanging out! They must have been 200m away from us tops. The bear turned and looked right at us. I was ready to high tail it out of there, but Shaun was happily taking a few pictures. I realised the wind was in our faces so the bear couldn't smell us, and probably hadn't heard us coming either as we had not been making much noise (which is apparently a key rule when hiking up there, I'll keep that in mind for next time! ), so we were lucky that we didn't give it a fright!. Thankfully the bear didn't seem to bothered by us - either way, I was relieved to be getting out of there!

Bear Lake

Bears!

Bears!

Bears!

Bears!

Lake Odessa

Mountains

Fern Lake

Fern Lake

Fern Lake

The Pool (Fern Lake trail)

Today we headed out of the park along Trail Ridge Rd where the views are spectacular! The highest point along the road is about 12,000 something ft, about 3700m which is about the height of Mt Cook!

Along Trail Ridge Rd

Shaun and his Colorado Rockies hat in front of the Colorado Rockies....

View near the top of Trail Ridge Rd

We're now in Steamboat Springs, where thanks to Jeff's recommendation we've had a lovely soak in the Strawberry Park hot springs, and chilled out for the afternoon (although Jeff, we're staying at another campground as that one was full).

Off to see Dinosaur National Monument tomorrow, can't wait to see some dinosaur bones!

Hope this finds you all well.

C&S :)