We stopped at a darling diner for breakfast - totally forgot the name of the place ( I am getting very forgetful). After a super-heavy and good breakfast we started out to rmnp. The day's plan was to drive on Long's peak, along the famous Trail Ridge road.
This is called the "Road to the Sun" as at that height there are not even trees there - just the sun. The rangers there advised us to go to the Alpine visitor center which is at a height of 11,796 ft - via the Old Fall River road (this is the older road) which is open just for this summer and come back via the Trail Ridge Road. Trail Ridge road is the highest paved road in the US. At the highest it is a height of more than 12000 ft. It promises spectacular views and scenery as you drive along it passing the sub-alpine, alpine and the tundra zones (which is the one above the tree line).
It is amazing to watch the mountains. The tops and peaks that seemed so far away the day before - we were driving along them - and reaching the highest peak - Longs Peak. Very interesting to watch the different zones and the trees that grow along. After the alpine zone - we pass over the tree tops - no trees are found there - just grass, the amazing life force, tiny but grass does find a way to grow at such heights where other trees cannot exist. The scenery is spectacular - the weather changes fast and the air grows thinner and thinner as you go up.
As it was summer - we could see just a few mountain tops covered in snow from down. But as we started ascending - we were getting closer and closer to the snow.
It was a great day - we saw hordes of elks (saw them at 4 different places, from very close), manitous, moose and deer. We did a couple of trails at the top 12,000 ft - its really strenuous even if it is a short trail, as you are already at a height of 12000 ft where breathing is difficult and on top of that there is always an incline.
We saw a lot of water falls on the mountains, glaciers - lot of peaks, small lakes and beautiful mountains - layers after layers of mountains - which just seemed endless. It was green, lush and above the tree lines, there was green grass all over and you could see a lot of elk grazing. It was a very beautiful experience to be at that height and look down.
Some of the highlights of this drive were seeing the Milner pass, where there is the Continental Divide. The Continental Divide of the Americas, also called the Great Divide, separates the watersheds of the Pacific Ocean from those of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. It runs from the Seward Peninsula in Alaska, through western Canada along the crest of the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico. From there, it follows the crest of Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental and extends to the tip of South America. It is crossed by the Panama Canal. Other highlights being the Never Summer Mountains, the Gore range and Lava Cliffs overlook, Iceberg Pass, Rock cut and so many other names which I forget.
We drove far on the trail ridge road and reached the Grand Lake passing through the Arapaho National Forest. We also passed some way in to Roosevelt National Forest that day in the evening.
It was a very eventful day - we saw lots of scenery, wild life and a special mention to the wild flowers that grow there. At the top there is grass, and tiny wild flowers in beautiful colors - it was totally riveting and refreshing.
In the end on our way back to our hotel we took a small detour and drove to Fort Collins, as we knew there was an Indian restaurant in town. Whenever we traveled with my mil, we make it a point to look for Indian place at the end of the day so that she feels relaxed and has a good meal after a busy day. We reached the restaurant named "Taj Mahal". We had a very nice dinner of the usual suspects, the restaurant also served us vegetable pakoras on the house. Maybe they don't get too much of an Indian crowd and so he was happy to see us there I guess.
After the dinner, drove back to our hotel and fell asleep instantly and all we dreamed of were mountains, peaks and elks :).
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