8/8/13
We were up early, ready for more scenery. We had a quick breakfast at the Bighorn restaurant, of pancakes and waffles (we love our carbs!), and were very pleased. After breakfast we backtracked to the Fall River entrance of the park, and continued on to Trail Ridge Road. There were few cars on the road at this point, which was nice. We stopped for pictures at the bulk of the pull-offs, and we enjoyed the drive immensely.
The Alpine Visitor Center was a great stopping point, and, a pretty impressive visitor center, particularly when you consider that it’s completely buried under snow for a good portion of the year.
As clouds were building, we decided not to risk driving all the way to Grand Lake, but we did decide to drive to Milner Pass. We were glad we did. Just past Medicine Bow Curve, was a herd of elk on the side of the road. We watched them for at least 20 minutes. Just an incredible experience.
We were surprised by how anti-climactic the Continental Divide was. Very different from the Continental Divide locations in Wyoming. We turned around here, saw the stragglers from the elk herd on our way back, and picnicked at the Alpine Visitor Center, then continued on along, stopping at viewpoints we had missed earlier in the day.
Once we were done driving Trail Ridge Road, we headed for Sprague Lake. We were pleased with how easy it was to find parking, and the walk around the lake was beautiful! We did have to rush the last quarter of the walk around the lake, as there was lightning off in the distance, and we're not ones to mess with that.
After Sprague Lake, we headed into Estes Park, a town that we really enjoyed, but felt we hadn't really spent enough time in. We shopped a bit, and then hopped back in the car to go to Smokin' Daves for dinner. Getting here early was definitely the right choice. We enjoyed our bbq dinner, and then headed back to the hotel to pack.
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