Day 7--Rocky Mountain National Park

We spent this whole, beautiful day in Rocky Mountain National Park, driving on a scenic loop that encircles the park.  The 234 miles took us about 8 hours.  Part of the reason it took so long is that much of the driving was very twisty and curvy.  Part of the reason is that we stopped at just about every twist and turn to take pictures.  We couldn’t stop ourselves.  As it turns out, today, Sept. 30, was the perfect day to be here because the gorgeous, golden, sunshiny aspen trees are at their peak of sunny-ness.  I confess: I’ve always felt a little sorry for Colorado for having mainly just yellow aspen trees to give them color in the fall.  I take it all back.  The yellow is perfection against the deep, green evergreens.  Many of our pictures are scenes of yellow and green.  The rest of the pictures are of the incredible Rocky Mountains, of course.   At the highest elevation on that road (12,183 ft.), we were above the tree line, looking down on the snow-capped mountain tops.   Incidentally, above the tree line (at 11,500 ft), the terrain looks like a desert.  It seems to change suddenly from green trees to alpine tundra.  Around every bend and over every crest, was another wonderful view.   Today, again, was perfect weather: sunny, blue skies, temp of 57 to 72, depending on our altitude.  We feel so lucky to be here. 

See the snow on the mountain tops?

Oh, that green and yellow!

Like a river of yellow-orange in the dark green.  See the peaks in the background?

This part of the drive is in the tundra, above the tree line.

The Rockies!  Notice the tree line, above which the trees are absent from the mountain tops. 

We're on a mountain top, looking down on this pretty valley.