We're Half Way To Being Giants

Imagine twisting and turning on a road, much like a dragons tail. It curves and winds so much at the beginning, but soon it leads to the body, a clearing, surrounded by the sky above it, and the ground below it.

Estes Park is a touristy town, where I stayed the night with a good friend of mine. The entrance was a tight compact river canyon, with sheer walls on either side. It slowly lead into more and more space, and then the town.

               

The climb up the mountains stressed on my engine. I noticed my thermostat went from 1/4 to 1/2. I parked, and let it cool, and I went to enjoy a pizza and a beer. I woke up the next morning:

I made my way to breakfast, said goodbye, than embarked on an adventure into the Rocky Mountains National Park:

The visitor center was nice and welcoming, but it is what happened after the gates that left me breathless, and not just because of the altitude.

The car cranked up the mountain, and I simply had to stop because I had never seen anything like this in my life.

I stopped to take some more vista shots. This curve is called Rainbow Curve.

I stopped to take a picture of my car also. I think I should make a blog for it. Also, this looks like a picture for an advertisement or something.

I finally made it above the treeline. The point at which it is too cold and rocky for trees to survive. I couldn't stop thinking about the alpine ecosystem and the landscape in general.

I have tried to include smaller shots so it doesn't clog all of your bandwidth when you try to load this article.

Fun Fact of the Blog Post: Did you know that this road is the highest continuous paved road in the United States? I couldn't remember if she said North America or not, but I wouldn't doubt it.

Towards the top it kind of reminded me of Northeastern Colorado, except for the fact I was 11,000 feet above sea level. That amounts to about two miles folks.

This picture is of the road leading up to the Alpine Visitor Center, which is probably the highest Visitor Center elevation in the United States.

Finally it was time to leave and travel back into the valley. The drive down was magnificant, and provided this view of the Never Summer Mountains. Yup. They don't really experience summer.

After leaving the park, I made my way onto the dusty West Colorado plain, and into Wyoming. This I would consider to be a desert.

It literally went on forever.

And ever.

And ever.

I finally made it into Wyoming by now, and it was a lot of the same.

But then I got into the Western parts of Wyoming, and found some really cool buttes.

And cliffs.

Among pulling into Utah, I began hauling up more mountains. This time they had huge valleys in between them. I even found a lake, which was left over from when there was an inland sea here.

The lake (Bear Lake) has been isolated so long from any other water sources that four unique fish have developed that are found no where else in the nation, or world.

Now I am here in Logan, Utah, preparing for my final trek to Washington tomorrow. It is going to be a long haul, 10 hours in total, but I am sure I can do it. I'm going to leave nice and early so that I can have enough time to stop if I want to. I cross more desert tomorrow, and finally into the Cascades.

Looking back on today, I can see why people call this place "God's Country". It really gives the feeling of inspiration and awe. A feeling that only a higher power could have created these land masses and that it seems like tectonic plates don't cut it. The colors, the ecosystems, the vast space of it all. It really gives perspective on how large this country actually is. And how much of it I have yet to explore. I am really sad that I only get to see the Rockies for one day on this trip, but I so hope to come back someday. The grand scale of it all is just too hard to put into pictures.