Sunday August 2 , Green Ridge Camp, Rocky Mountain National Park CO

12,180 feet…..Ruakiwi crossed the high point in the Rocky Mountain National Park today, without a problem…we had more of an issue with the altitude!

Before leaving the foothills we took her into a car wash and gave her a good clean, the first for about a month and she needed it.

Then we wound up the road to Estes Park through spectacular passes and sheer rocky faces. This town is the base for tourists exploring the area and it was seething with people. We learnt that it is the busiest week of the year with summer holidays coming to an end, and also combined with it being a Sunday meant it was wall to wall cars and people. Such a shame as it is a really nice alpine type of town, great shops and galleries and would love to visit in a quieter time. Ian found a fly fishing store and made a few purchases. There is a lot of trout in the rivers and lakes, in fact passed many fisherman in the river as we came up.

Then it was up the Trail Ridge Road through the most spectacular scenery with views for miles. The gradient of the road wasn’t too bad, it just kept climbing..and climbing. We stopped near the top for a late lunch break, but didn’t feel like walking too far, the body didn’t want to go!

Amazingly we would have seen at least 30 cyclists riding the road, how they managed to bike up the hills and at such a high altitude was unbelievable. We figured they were top cyclists doing high altitude training, but why would someone want to punish their body like that!

The wildflowers are everywhere, making quite a picture, especially up in the higher areas, felt that we were in Switzerland. There was still ice lying around in the crevasses, and little glacier lakes dotted throughout.

We had noticed a number of dead pines coming up the Eastern side, but as we descended on the Western side this was much more apparent with huge areas of dead trees. Instead of being green, whole hillsides were brown. This is the result of the mountain pine beetle and it is spreading throughout the country. I hope it never gets into NZ as it would just devastate our timber industry.

We are staying in a primitive campground on the shores of Shadow Mountain Lake, at 8500 feet, and are noticing the effects, but such a beautiful spot. Evidently about 6 years ago the camp was in amongst the trees, but now they have gone and the wildflowers and grasses cover the area.