The Adventures of Melvin

Tour de France over and farm job exhaustion becoming a bit less, well exhausting, Kevin and I decided to get out of town for the day and see what Rocky Mountain National Park had to offer.

Kevin had done a bit of research, and we decided that Specimen Mountain off of Milner Pass would be our destination for the day. With an elevation of 12,489 feet, this would involve climbing about 1,700 feet over the course of about a mile into the heart of bighorn sheep territory. Coffee and homemade muffins in hand, we hit the road.

We were about ten minutes into the park, when we realized that we were rather low on gas. My bad. We reckoned we could coast down and out of the park without gas, but weren't sure we could actually make it all the way to the trail head at Milner Pass, so back to Estes Park we went to fuel up. Good thing too because we saw our first bit of wildlife on the way down.


What you don't see here are her two babies that ran across the road to join her. Hooray for wildlife! Boo for my not-so-quick camera skills.

We stopped briefly at Rainbow Curve to get directions from this guy...


...but he fancied himself quite the dapper fellow and couldn't be bothered as there was posing to be done. So we pressed on, stopping at Forest Canyon to see what the locals were up to. Matthew, if you are reading this, please avert your eyes. I know how much it would pain you to be this close to a glorious, seven-point elk, well, actually he was starting to develop an eighth point.


Did I mention the breathtaking view?


Ahem, I mean, view?


And speaking of views... there were plenty.


After cresting the highest paved road in the country, 12,180' above sea level (more than two miles above Maine), we dropped down to just over 11,000' and parked on the continental divide at Milner Pass. From there, we set out on foot to locate "the crater" near Specimen Mountain and what proved to be the elusive Longhorn Sheep. We were treated to a beautiful, albeit steep, trail up to the crater where we found a marvelous view of the western Rockies.


We sat for an hour soaking in the view and hoping to catch a glimpse of the Longhorn. At one point, we spotted a moving flash of white among the rocks, giving us a ray of hope that we'd see at least one, but to no avail. This is a close as we got.


Just as we decided to start moving again, the weather took a turn. We felt a few sprinkles and heard rolling thunder off in the distance echoing ominously through the mountains. After numerous warnings of deadly lightning strikes, we thought it would be a good time to head back to the car.

Safe and sound, we pointed the car back down the mountain pass towards Estes Park. While this was only an eight-hour adventure, oddly it felt like a week-long vacation. It was an awe inspiring place and a welcome change from the city. We're looking forward to spending many weekends exploring what the mountains have to offer.