Full Time RV Travel–Rocky Mountain Land Cruiser Tour

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Old Fall River Road in Rocky Mountain National Park

is gravel, and is only open two months of the year. . .

we’ve wanted to do the Top of the World Tour since we got here,

and it finally happened this week when

Dave’s bub & sis in law arrived from Fort Worth. . .

If you drive the paved road, Trail Ridge Road,

you will drive 21 miles from Estes Park to the

summit in Rocky Mountain National Park. . .

If you drive the gravel, Old Fall River Road,

visible in the right hand side of the pic,

you will travel 11 miles from

Estes Park to the Summit. . .

You will travel around 23 switchbacks,

and get up close and personal with the dropoffs. . .

(yes, that is the guardrail right there)

a very good reason in my book to

take a tour and let the experts do the driving. . .

At our very first stop, the Alluvial Fan Waterfall

our tour guide, Alex, opened the hood

on the monster, and entertained the guys. . .

it was all greek to me. . .gear ratios. . .torque. . .yada, yada, yada. . .whatever!  LOL. . .

as close as you can get to the remaining snowfields without hiking. . .

Alex said he had lived in this area his entire life. . .

and he has never seen the snowfields completely disappear. . .but. . .

because the snow pack was so light this past winter, these last few

snowfields will probably completely melt away. . .

that will be sad, because the snow on the mountain peaks

is really what makes them so stunningly beautiful. . .

a Marmot was out sunning on a rock. . .

he stayed put just long enough to get a shot of him. . .

They hibernate 8 months of the year. . .

so they try to triple their body weight in the four months of summer. . .

More gorgeous views and family pics. . .Brenda and I are the only original in-laws. . .

so we gotta get our shots together whenever possible. . .

our hubby’s did good, didn’t they?  Lucky guys!

We had a great day in the park. . .and lots more fun later in the week. . .

More pics and posts later. . .

The END!