First trip into Rocky Mountain National Park

 On Tuesday, April 8th, we spent the morning at home. Little did we know that we would get a wildlife encounter right there! A herd of about 15 mule deer came through mid-morning. No need to mow grass around here with these deer on the prowl.

They looked up when they heard us - but seemed nonplussed. They are clearly used to being around humans.

We saw wildlife of another kind when the neighbor across the street came out of her door in a towel to try to shoo the deer away from her tiny yard. Sorry I didn't get a pic of that, because it was hilarious.

After lunch, we ventured to the park. We had climbed from 7,500 ft. to 8,200 ft. at the entrance.

Our goal was Bear Lake, which lies at around 9,500 ft. The drive up was gorgeous.

Moraine Park, a large meadow area carved by glaciers millions of years ago. Early in the park's history, this area was developed. It has since been returned to its natural glory.

Obligatory selfie, including my finger. I swear I am happy in this picture - the sun was in our eyes, and it made me make a strained smile.

Our second sighting of mule deer, this time next to Bear Lake Road.

We made it to Bear Lake and easily got rock star parking. While this park is really busy in the summer and fall, it is sparsely populated with tourists on a winter weekday. 

Biggest icicles we've ever seen! That poor tree!

This made me think of the Mom in A Christmas Story saying "Icicles have been known to kill people!" to Ralphie after he broke his glasses.

Leon being his goofy, playful self.

We soaked up a few rays about halfway around the lake.

This is Bear Lake - frozen solid! There were lots of folks walking around on it, but not me. I've seen enough made-for-TV movies to know that is a bad idea.

This boulder was in full sun and the lichen on it was a gorgeous green - the picture really doesn't capture it.

This was the condition of the trail all the way around. We had traction devices, called microspikes, to put on to the soles of our boots to keep us from falling. I also had my trekking poles. Everything worked great until we got around to the far side of the hike. I managed to step into really deep snow and I went down. Still, no harm done - I fell on soft snow!

The Bear Lake Loop is only 1.2 miles, but between the high altitude and the climbing we had to do over deeper areas of snow, we decided that was enough for our first day in the park. We decided to do more touring of the park by car, getting as far we could on the Trail Ridge Road. This is the road that goes over 12,000 feet when fully open. Right now it is closed for much of the way, but we still were able to get high enough to get some great views.

The blog site is being glitchy, so I wasn't able to caption the photos above. These were all taken from the highest point we could get to on Trail Ridge Road. The photo immediately above is Long's Peak - a 14er. The first picture above is looking down onto Moraine Park.

More to come as we continue to explore the park and the areas nearby.