Estes Park Panorama

I jumped on my scooter today and rode 28 miles to the Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park. It was a gorgeous day for a ride and the temperature was 90 degrees. I purchased an annual Park Pass since I will be visiting a lot of national parks this summer. The roads were perfect twisty and scenic scooter roads with creeks flowing along either side, which made for a pleasant drive.




Inside the park, I chose to take the Trail Ridge Road scenic byway. It's the highest continuously paved road in the United States, reaching an elevation of 12,183 feet. I didn’t seem to mind the high elevation except for my ears popping on the way back down, like they would in a cabin of a plane.

I saw my first snow capped mountain!




There is still run off from the remains of the snow.




Above the tree line looking back down on the route up.




Then I came to the part known as the Alpine Tundra where ice fields take over the roads in the winter. The elevation was high, it was cold and windy and the roads were all tore up with lots of gravel. It was not a pleasant experience. I’m used to riding in wind and on gravel in Texas, but these wind gusts were brutal and COLD! I don’t know how many mph they were, but I couldn’t get up enough speed on the poor roads to counter it and there are no guardrails. (Mom: Please don’t read this part ;) Not that they would have helped anyway. But despite having on my leather jacket and gloves, I had enough.



The ride back down was just as pleasant and refreshing as the ascent. The scent of pine and warmth of the sun was heavenly :)



Tomorrow it’s off to Colorado Springs to see Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods!