Gene and I went into the Rocky Mountain National Park the first full day we were on vacation. As I was taking a panorama, Gene decided to try to make it more interesting. Sadly, my camera was too fast for him and it just turned out a bit odd. Good try though, Gene!
I like taking pictures of tall grass. It’s cool, right? I can’t be the only one that thinks that!
While driving back from the park, we stopped to watch a herd of elk. Gene saw this elk licking its butt and asked me to take a picture of it. I didn’t really see the need but he stated again that I should take a picture, so I did. I just now noticed that there’s another elk licking its butt in the top left corner. Did not do that on purpose.
The next day, Gene and I went on a hike to Lone Pine Lake. It was about 5 miles one way I believe so we left in the morning and ended up having lunch at the lake. Neither one of us had been there before so it was nice. Well, it was nice once we got out of the mile or two stretch of mosquito land. We were walking near a meadow, that also had a river, and boy were the mosquitoes everywhere. They bit Gene way more than me, though. Sorry, Gene, your blood must be sweet.
We saw a deer within 10 minutes of our hike, which was neat. I always like seeing wildlife when I go up there. In the picture on the right you can see a chipmunk on the rock. He was enjoying the view with us.
During the hike we found a great place to look out over Grand Lake. Couldn’t figure out how to get my camera to focus on everything so ended up just focusing on Gene’s face. That is the best part of this picture anyway so it worked out. Granted, the view of the trees and the lake and the surrounding mountains was pretty spectacular too. I do recommend hiking up there one day to see for yourself. If we hadn’t been so motivated we definitely could have stopped there and had lunch and then hiked back down. Glad we kept going though!
Lone Pine Lake! Years and years ago my dad hiked this trail with my grandpa and my uncle. I wish I could have seen how the lake looked when they went to see if it had changed at all. It was quite gorgeous and completely surrounded by mountains. Gene and I were the only ones at the lake so it was quite peaceful. We had some lunch and ended up spending an hour there when our goal was 30 to 45 minutes. Because we were there for so long the sky ended up raining on us. We had brought ponchos and for the majority of the rain, it wasn’t horrible. Right towards the end though, the last quarter mile or so, it was just a complete downpour. Thankfully the ponchos and the amazing hats we had bought at Costco, kept me generally dry. Well, the bottom of my pants got soaked but my core and my head were just fine!
Tiny tiny little mushrooms we found. I have a thing for mushrooms in the wild. I just love taking pictures of them. Look how adorable those things are? I may not like the taste, but I can’t deny that they are cool to look at. That is Gene’s finger for scale.
Just Lauren 