7/21/16 - Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

Today we drove to Estes Park and to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Our first stop was at Beaver Meadow Visitor Center to get a map of the park.  Then we drove to Moraine Park Discovery Center.  We also stopped at the Alluvial Fan and took a picture of the waterfall. We drove the Old Fall River Road that is 9 miles on a one way, narrow, gravel road with huge drop offs.  On a couple of the switch back curves we had to back up and get another bite at turning the Silverado.  There was another waterfall to stop at on this road.  We finally made it to the Alpine Visitor Center at the end of the gravel road and saw lots of elk.  After having lunch at the top, we took the paved Trail Ridge Road back to exit the park.  There were lots of stops and pull outs on this road.  One of the trails we hiked today was the Tundra Trail and at this stop we saw big horn sheep and a marmot.

In Estes Park we stopped at Rock Cut Brewing and had a beer.  Then we went to Lumpy Ridge Brewing and had another one.  The bartender, Julian, showed Jim the brewery.  Then we stopped at Oscar Blues in Lyons for one last beer.