Bear Lake

We left Sunday morning for Estes Park, Colorado.  We wanted to see Rocky Mountain National Park together.  We didn't go on the motorcycle; at our ages, we are lucky to get there in a car.  

First of all, let me tell you that if you are sixty-two years old or older, you can get a Golden Age Senior Pass that will get you in any national park free... not only you, but anyone in the car with you.  

There is road construction on the way to Bear Lake, so you can get a free tram ride from Estes park.  

It's lovely at Bear lake.

I absolutely HAD to put my feet in that cold water.  A trout swam right over my feet as I sat there.  Unfortunately, I scooted to the right of the rock I was sitting on and ended up sitting in mud.  Thank goodness for the dry climate in Colorado, because the seat of my pants was dry within a half-hour.

Isn't it beautiful?

 See the snow behind me?

 Little alpine wildflowers

 Snow again.

 Little boys playing in the snow.

This is one of the trams we rode on.

 There is a beetle absolutely devastating the forests in Colorado.  The park workers cut the dead trees and stack them as you see in the picture.  They wait until snow falls and burn the dead trees; unfortunately, there hasn't been sufficient snowfall in recent years, so the piles of dead wood remain, waiting.  Also, temperatures haven't gotten cold enough to kill the beetle population.  Very sad.
  

Here's one of the spots where they are making the road to Bear lake wider.

Now let me tell you the worst part about our Monday.  We waited for the first tram to pick us up and when ours finally showed up, the driver opened the door and said, "Are you sure you want to do this?"  

He explained that long lines of people were up at Bear Lake waiting for a tram to pick them up and bring them back down.  

I figured we are pretty tough, and we climbed aboard.  Unfortunately, the tram was loaded, so that left us standing.  I was fortunate that a gentleman got up and gave me his seat (he was a biker, a Harley rider... go figure), but Cliff stood for the long trip.  The reason it was a long trip?  We had to stop where they were doing road work in various locations for twenty to thirty minutes at a time.  

When we finally got to Bear Lake, it was lovely, and we hiked around it.  But when we were done, we had a forty-five minute wait for the next tram to take us back to where we started.  

If we had known what we were in for, we would have skipped the whole trip, returning in three years after the road work was done.