Being new to the area and a good time of year to visit
Rocky Mountain National Park. We decided to be tourists this day. Knowing it gets busy up there, we left early and went straight to the top visitor center. It's 12,00ft MSL so it is cooler and likely to get thunderstorms in the afternoon anyway.
There are surprisingly few trails from the Alpine Ridge visitor center up top, those few get all the tourist traffic. Our timing was good.
The views are outstanding. In the background the "Never Summer Mountains"
As we walked up the Alpine Ridge overlook I noticed a bunch of elk antlers, at first I thought they were statues.
It wasn't until the return that I realized they were real. I couldn't resist watching these magnificent beasts for a while.
This Coyote nachalantly crossed the road in front of us while we were waiting at some road works. Mt Ida and Mt Julian posed for us above.
Iceberg pass and the tundra zone.
Mushroom rocks, interestingly : the Dark-colored rock in the cap is Gneisses (is late Paleoproterozoic) and Cream-colored rock in the mushroom stork is Silver Plume Granite (early Mesoproterozoic) the base is 300 Million years younger...
Much lower elevation at "Many Parks Overlook". Estes Park is over my right shoulder, along with the Needles.
Then we headed to Horse shoe falls, it looked a nice spot for a picnic.
Alluvial.
Maddy took this picture !
Horse shoe falls.
There are surprisingly few trails from the Alpine Ridge visitor center up top, those few get all the tourist traffic. Our timing was good.
The views are outstanding. In the background the "Never Summer Mountains"
As we walked up the Alpine Ridge overlook I noticed a bunch of elk antlers, at first I thought they were statues.
It wasn't until the return that I realized they were real. I couldn't resist watching these magnificent beasts for a while.
This Coyote nachalantly crossed the road in front of us while we were waiting at some road works. Mt Ida and Mt Julian posed for us above.
Iceberg pass and the tundra zone.
Mushroom rocks, interestingly : the Dark-colored rock in the cap is Gneisses (is late Paleoproterozoic) and Cream-colored rock in the mushroom stork is Silver Plume Granite (early Mesoproterozoic) the base is 300 Million years younger... 
Much lower elevation at "Many Parks Overlook". Estes Park is over my right shoulder, along with the Needles.
Then we headed to Horse shoe falls, it looked a nice spot for a picnic.
Alluvial.
Maddy took this picture !
Horse shoe falls.
Alan ?
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