September in Rocky Mountain National Park

Hiking Big Meadows RMNP

Recently, we hiked the Big Meadows trail at Rocky Mountain National Park. I had read somewhere that it was an easy hike. I am still getting over my view of an easy hike. Coming from Texas, my version of an easy hike is like something we did at the Nature Reserve near Fort Worth. Here that doesn't even exist. Big Meadows really was an easy hike compared to many of the hikes in the park, but not compared to Texas hikes. Regardless of whether it was easy or not, the views were awesome. It was an uphill hike, through the forest, for about 1.8 miles. The last bit was down into the big meadow. The high mountain meadow was beautiful with a clear stream running through it.  We saw two moose, squirrels and numerous mosquitoes. Round trip it was 3.8 miles. It is definitely a good hike for beginners like us.

Summer at Rocky Mountain National Park

 We have been to Rocky Mountain National Park 3 times so far this summer. Our favorite spot is the Alpine Tundra. This area is absolutely amazing! Here are some photos from our last visit. They were all taken in the Alpine Tundra, except for the picture of the elk. It was taken on Trail Ridge road on our way down.



map of the Rocky Mtn. National Park





Marmot (we also saw Pika)





Love these Mushroom Rocks!



Rocky Mountain National Park in Spring (2013 Nature goals)

This post is a little late, but better late than never! One of our nature goals for 2013 is to visit the Rocky Mountain National Park every season. Here are some pictures from our late Spring visit. The boys enjoyed getting their Junior Ranger badges on this trip. They learned about the 4 ecosystems in the park. The riparian (wetland) ecosystem, montane ecosystem, subalpine ecosystem, and alpine tundra ecosystem. Last week we visited the park again. The primary difference that I saw was in the alpine tundra. Summer pictures coming soon!

Alpine Tundra

Alpine Tundra

Alpine Tundra- It was extremely windy up here. So much so that we had to yell to hear each other.

  

The boys are in the subalpine ecosystem, but they are looking down on the montane and riparian ecosystems.

Riparian ecosystem

Montane ecosystem

Montane ecosystem---We loved the velvet antlers!