Although not as old as Mesa Verde (RMNP became a national park in 1915) this is the jewel of the Colorado national parks.  We traveled up I70 then up to Granby to enter the park on the southwest side at the Kawuneeche Vistor Center.  We stopped at Coyote Valley Trail then visited the Holzwarth Historic Site.  Just to see what it looked like, we did part of the long Timber Lake Trail.  We skipped the Colorado River Headwaters trail since is was really, really long.  Drove to the Alpine Visitor Center on the must drive Trail Ridge Road.  We were hailed and sleeted on near the top - imagine that!  The next day since it was cloudy we went to Wild Basin where we saw Copeland Falls and Ouzel Falls - some hail along the way. The next day we went to the Bear Lake area which appeared to be the most popular part of the park.  It was a better day with just high clouds but trying to see Longs Peak was elusive.  So we went up the trail to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake - Outstanding!  Then we did the ALberta Falls trail.  After that we did the very steep Bierstadt Trail but it was worth it.  At Bierstadt Lake the gray jays were everywhere and the mallards were tame.  The weather finally cleared to let us enjoy this part of the park.  I asked a shuttle driver if the Bear Lake area was usually this crowded.  He said with the bad economy, Coloradans were sticking close to home instead of visiting a far away park so the RMNP attendance was up about 20%!

We regret that we did not see the Stanley Hotel (just outside the park at Estes Park)

We could have spent our entire vacation here.  In the two days we were here the weather did not cooperate so I feel inadequate to describe this park.  Maybe Leo Lewis who has been here many times will help me out on this post.

 

This was off Bear Lake - we did not do the trail around it.  It was cold!

I think this is Ouzel Falls.