I don’t normally blog about my family, but my husband and I just returned from a long weekend in Estes Park, Colorado and I had to share the photos of the gorgeous Aspen in Estes and Rocky Mountain National Park. Estes is the place our family goes to every summer for a vacation filled with hiking and the complete peace that comes with being in such a gorgeous place. Jerry and I have spent countless hours hiking on trails and off trails in breathtaking terrain and it is a very special place for us. This post has lots of photos, but they are all so gorgeous that I had trouble narrowing them down. I took them with a Nikon D7000 that I was trying out for the first time. I like the camera, but still need to put it through a few more tests before I decide if I should keep it. I bought it recently after taking my Pro camera to the pumpkin patch and after watching the farm dust envelop my camera, I thought, hmmm, I probably shouldn’t be lugging my expensive camera everywhere.
The first is a group of Aspen right off of Trail Ridge Road as you turn to head up to Bear Lake.
Don’t you just want to head down this road? It leads to the Fern Lake trailhead.
These are the ferns at Fern Lake! LOVE it!
Look at the aspen sprinkled in the side of the mountain at Storm Pass. I took this on the drive up to Bear Lake. It was very overcast.
The view of Thatchtop on the way down from Bear Lake, Estes Park’s top tourist attraction.
On the way back from Bear Lake, the sun peeked through the clouds and we stopped at Storm Pass again because I knew I wanted this exact shot. I love the star burst.
It doesn’t get much better than these next two shots. I could see this as a framed poster!
I have been wanting to learn how to use my flash off my camera to creatively add lighting to photos, so we hiked up to Nymph Lake and I brought my flash along. We met another couple from Arlington, Texas and shared our views on God and life as we hiked up the trail and they were kind enough to take this photo of us. Paul held the flash off to the side and Julie took the photo. I am so excited to have a photo of Jerry and me together!
I’m over the top with joy that we also got this shot at the overlook above Nymph Lake. That’s Long’s Peak in the background. It’s the tallest peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. Jerry has hiked it a bajillion times, but I hiked it with him several years ago. We started on the trailhead at 2:30 am and reached the summit at 7:30. It was a special time for us. The view from up there was unreal. Sort of like being in an airplane.
Paul and Julie again did a phenomenal job as photography assistants.
The last day we were in the mountains, we were blessed with snow. We headed out to take photos. This is the same bank of trees off of Trail Ridge Road.
Gorgeous!
It’s Elk mating season in Estes Park, so no trip to Estes would be complete without a photo of the Elk. My favorite Elk sighting was the one that slowly closed the street in front of us while we drove out of town on our last day!
Twin Sisters.
I love the blue skies in Colorado!
We drove back to Storm Pass to see how differently it looked with the snow. That’s Hallet’s Peak in the background.
It’s just heavenly.
