Rocky Moutain High

Today was both glorious and ghastly.

First, the glorious...
Then, the ghastly...


We left Grand Lake, Colorado, at 7:00 a.m. under clear skies and a 40-degree temperature. At four miles, we entered Rocky Mountain National Park, where we immediately saw some moose and elk (sorry, no pictures).

Highway 34, also known as Trail Ridge Road, cuts through Rocky Mountain National Park. All of the photos from the park were taken from this main road. Approximately 48 miles long, Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous paved road in the United States. Its highest point is 12, 183 feet above sea level. For comparison purposes for you North Carolinians, Mount Mitchell, the highest point in the Appalachian Mountains and the highest peak in the eastern United States, is a mere 6,684 feet above sea level. One thing that we noticed as we slipped across the top of the mountains - there were absolutely no guard rails. At one point in the Tundra (where no trees or bushes grow because of the altitude), the road had nothing to buffer your fall.

You may have noticed yesterday that some of the pine trees looked dead in the photos. That’s because they were. The western United States is having a horrible problem with bark beetles. Millions of trees have already been killed, and, largely, nothing can be done to save them. Rocky Mountain National Park is doing what it can by spraying in high-tourist areas, but the evidence of the 17 species of beetles’ carnage is overwhelming and sad.

Overall, we absolutely loved crossing the Rocky Mountains. While we didn't know what to expect because of the overabundance of dead pine trees, the sheer size of the mountains more than made up for that blight.

After emerging from RMNP, we were able to stop by BMW of Northern Colorado and pick up the part for Dad’s saddlebag. Now, if we’d only had the time to install it…

The weather turned sour around Bennett, Colorado (around mile 140 out of 370). For the remainder of the day, we battled thunderstorms. Unfortunately, both we and the storm were heading east along I-70. We kept running into the back end of the storm, which caused us to stop because of lightning. We stopped a total of four times. Each time, we’d wait a while for the storm to get ahead of us, then we’d get back on the road until we ran into it again. Quite an annoying pattern. I hope you’ll take a look at one of my favorite photos in the album. In Bennett, I managed to capture a bolt of lightning as it struck the ground. It’s quite a picture, if I say so myself.

We finally made it to Colby, Kansas, around 8:45 p.m. It was definitely a long day, plus we crossed back into the Central Time Zone, which means that we will lose an hour of sleep tonight (but we are now only one hour behind!).

Tomorrow’s forecast is partly cloudy and windy. We are not supposed to see any storms like the one we followed today (although you never know).

370.7 miles today. 5,850.7 total miles.