Rocky Mountains

The big city of Denver was not included in the plan of our journey.
We had hoped to wake up in the morning of June 23, 2016 at the campground, in the National Park "Rocky Mountain".
But our GPS navigator broke and we woke up at one of the motels in Denver.

After a breakfast, we rushed to the small town of Estes Park, near the Estes Lake.

The tourist town of Estes Park - is an open door to the "Rocky Mountain National Park".
*Estes Park*

The staff of the park and the "Visitor Center" are located here.
GPS-coordinates: 40°22'44.3"N, 105°30'52.0"W

The Rocky Mountain National Park was founded in 1915.
The park is huge - more than 1000 square kilometers.
In the park there are more than 150 mountain lakes, many rivers and more than 100 mountain peaks.
There are 72 peaks above 3700 meters.
It is the world of a wild nature...

No wonder, the park "Rocky Mountain" is one of the most visited national parks in the United States.
For visitors, there are all conditions to feel the greatness of nature.
There are many hiking trails to the snow-covered peaks and to the lakes.
The most famous: "Glacier Gorge Junction Trail" and the routes to the Bear Lake, to the Nymph Lake, to the Dream Lake and to the Emerald Lake.
We chose the route to the lakes...

The trail of a route starts at the Bear Lake.
If you have children, you can walk around the lake and to organize a small picnic.
GPS-coordinates, parking: 40°18'43.0"N, 105°38'44.2"W

You can walk a little further along the trail - to the Nymph Lake.

The route is in a pine forest...

Well, if you want to get to the lakes "Dream" and "Emerald" and to play in the snow in the summer, you have to go up and up by the trail.

But the road to the Dream Lake is not easy...

We like these routes...

A good road was behind, but the trail meandered between rocks and pine trees...

We went up quite high into the mountains and we have opened wonderful sceneries.

The streams have ran down from the mountains...

Here was a snow!

But the flowers were there!

And the snowy slopes of the mountains! A beauty.

We came to the Dream Lake.

Around the lake - a pine forest, a lot of snow and very quiet.

We wanted to be close to a nature, take a walk on the shore...

Or meditate, not breaking the silence...

The deers were grazing near the water, not paying an attention to the people...

The lake is like the lakes in Northern Europe, were a lot of granite stones near the water, left after the Ice Age.

As in a fairy tale, mirror of lake reflects its shores - cliffs, rocks, pines.
Maybe, that's why the lake has a name - "Dream"!

But we were moving ahead to the Emerald Lake.

The trail has been prepared, but it was hard to go...

We were jumping from rock to rock and were overcoming a snow and streams.

Well, we were higher than a forest, which remained below us.

Only the mountains and the Emerald Lake were higher.

Here was not as quiet as at the Dream Lake, because a cold wind was blowing very strongly.

And the beauty was the other - the harsh mountain nature.

A snow covers the shores of the lake and the slopes of mountains.
Only stunted pines alter the same landscape...

But, there was also a small animal...

And my wife...

The route from the Bear Lake to the Emerald Lake was nearly a 3 km up the trail, and a 3 km down the trail.
But always go to down faster...

We had to hurry, because we had a very long way to the city of Rock Spring, Wyoming.
It is a 5-hour drive by the car.

We spent the night in Rock Spring, Wyoming and in the morning we were moving to Grand Teton National Park!