I have the good fortune to have the very beautiful Rocky Mountain National Park in our back yard.   I opted to drive Trail Ridge Road, the highest paved road in any US national park at 12,183 feet above sea level.  The road climbs from meadows at about 8000 feet and winds through heavily wooded areas.  Slowly the trees become smaller and gnarled.  Branches only grow on one side due to the wind.  The air becomes thinner.  Soon, you are above tree line, climbing though the high alpine tundra.  It is evident that park service worked hard to get the road open, as in many spots they cleared the road of 4 feet of snow. 

 The views are spectacular - sheer cliffs, craggy peaks, sun streaking through the clouds.  I was happy to see so many out of state license plates on the drive.  I'm always glad to see people enjoying our national parks.  After all, all of us in the US pay for them through our taxes.  I did feel for some of the drivers.  On some of the scarier parts of the drive above timberline the van from Florida crept along, driving in the center of the road, straddling the center line until they were forced into their own lane by oncoming traffic.  Same as a few other carloads. 

 Wildlife is abundant. You would be hard pressed to not see a large herd of elk on your visit.  This time of year they are molting, loosing all that winter fur.  As I dropped down the western side of trail ridge road I had an opportunity to view 4 young moose as they were enjoying fresh young greens in a marshy meadow.  The 4 appeared to be yearlings off on their own for the first time.  You could clearly see the start of the massive antlers the boys will be sporting.  They didn't may much attention to us gawkers, the salad bar was too enticing.

This is a young male.  You can tell by the "bell" hanging from his chin.  When he is full grown he will weigh between 1200-1600 lbs, and be over 6 feet tall at the shoulder.  They are massive animals.