I’ve got to admit, even though we’ve seen the most amazing and exotic locations, the Colorado Rockies still call to me in a way more special than most anywhere else. Today we headed into the Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) to sample the Bear Lake Road and the Trail Ridge Road. Right off the bat, we discovered the Bear Lake Road was still closed to private vehicles and was only available by shuttle bus from downtown Estes. Oh well, we saw Bear Lake Road a few years ago when we came through on the way to Steamboat Springs. On to Trail Ridge Road. The Trail Ridge Road winds its way to the top of a pass at 12,500 feet and back down to the Colorado River on the other side. The scenery is spectacular and changes dramatically as you wind your way through beautiful Ponderosa Pine forests to granite and tundra scenery above the tree line. The total drive is about 55 miles to the other side of RMNP and Grand Lake just outside the park. We had packed our lunch and ate it at an overlook at the old Grand Lake Lodge. The Lodge overlooks Grand Lake from an elevated viewpoint and the views are great. After lunch we returned the same way over the Trail Ridge Road. We then drove to the Fall River Pass road and stopped at the Alluvial Fan. The Alluvial Fan is a really cool waterfall accessible from a relatively short trail. The falls are surrounded by boulders that were very popular for climbing. We really enjoyed the falls even though the thin air makes climbing trails and boulders more challenging. We continued down this road to the Endovalley Picnic Area. This area was not very crowded and we were able to let Maverick explore the river and small falls off leash. We had a great time following the trail up the river and exploring without anyone else on the trail. We chose not to go further down the road because it becomes one-way and ends high on the Trail Ridge Road we just travelled earlier. We decided to save that for tomorrow. We headed back into Estes Park and walked the downtown strip and had french fries at Penelopes that were really tasty. Later we had dinner at Bird and Jim Restaurant. We ate outside with beautiful views but got a little too cold. The food was good.