Today was a pretty lazy day. Some of us slept in fits and starts and some of us slept until 9. It took some time to break down camp. We did some laundry and had breakfast in town. Then we set up our new camp in the park.
Martin has a hammock that he set up. It looks pretty sweet, and he decided to read a while in it. The men needed to get the lactic acid out of their muscles from yesterday's hike, so we piled in the car and headed out to Trail Ridge Road. This road curves up and around several mountains, climbing higher and higher to the top, past the tree line and into the tundra.
We took a one mile hike along the tundra to the top of the mountain. Trees and flowers grow in miniature here, and there were yellow paintbrush. We heard some pika and saw a herd of elk grazing next to the snow. The mountains here are green, with grey rock, lots of pine and aspen. In all the parks we have visited this summer, we have noticed the devastation of the lodge pole pines by the pine beetle. In Beaver Creek they have cut down every single dead lodge pole pine. In most place you see a forest of dead trees where there once were tall trees. However, the beetles don't get the younger lodge pole pines so they will grow. The forest here is more diverse so the effects of the beetle are not as bad.
Next we went to the Visitor's Center. I got caught trying to buy the men tshirts that talked about making it to the top. They didn't say Long's Peak on them anyway, so they wanted to wait for just the right shirt. There was no ice to be had, so no diet coke for me. I'm picky about by my diet coke. John bought me a can of diet coke to placate me.
We came back to camp and ate a wonderful meal. The men had s'mores and I had blackberries and cream. We played Tunk, which is a card game. I was very lucky and winning all the money until I said I was lucky. John then began to clean house. He won about 50 cents from me and Martin by the time we quit.
Tomorrow we are hiking the waterfalls. Yay!
No comments:
Post a Comment