Rocky Mountain National Park

The first picture is of Granite Falls where we camped close to on our second night backpacking. We have been car camping lately and we heartily enjoyed getting away and doing some backpacking. I was able to use my new backpack and so far it is comfortable and well built. It has much easier access to the inside than my last pack. The last three pictures are of us on the continental divide. We planned on hiking to a mountain lake a few miles from the continental divide but took the long trail so ended up seeing a heard of elk and some fantastic expansive views. We both had the hunch it was the wrong trail to go to the lake but the urge for the alpine altitudes and views drove us further. The other half of the hunch was that the lake would be just over the next rise. It was the longest "1.2 miles" ever according to Steph (see picture #2). On our way back to camp from the attempted lake hike we got rained on a little but we saw some Pika's which we found out are industrious hamster like creatures. They stock up something like 50 lbs of grass for eating over the winter!

The best wildlife siting was one I missed and for this I am sorely jealous. At 10 in the morning of our second day in the park we had stopped on the trail to get a map out of Steph's pack. She was standing and I was getting it put away. She happened to look up and saw a full grown mountain lion cross our trail 20 yards away. It stopped briefly to look at her then silently moved on. From what I hear they are the most dangerous animals to encounter in the wild, however I really wish I could have seen it. One of the rangers we stopped and talked to said he had never seen one in 20 years of living and working around the park. They are very elusive. Never the less it was a special treat for Steph to have seen one.

Our trip to this park was so much fun we may do it again next week.