Last month we took a road trip from our home in Boise, Idaho to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Visiting this park has been a dream for me ever since I read A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by British explorer Isabella Bird. Her gorgeous description of the landscape that later became America's third most visited national park was published in 1879.
Our trip took nine days and we drove approximately 2300 miles.
We drove across Southern Idaho and over the Teton Pass into Jackson, Wyoming.
Teton National Park is another favorite of ours.
Between Jackson Hole and our next stop, Steamboat Springs, Colorado, was a whole bunch of FLATNESS.
Our favorite view of Steamboat Springs was this one from our hotel balcony. We chose Steamboat Springs for an overnight stay because my brother went to college here in the early 70's. He described his memories of the sounds from his dorm window of whistling cowboys herding cows through downtown. Forty years later we found a traffic congested four lane main street surrounded by hillsides covered with posh ski condos. Times do change!
My favorite driving scenery was between Steamboat Springs and Boulder, Colorado.
Boulder was just as charming as we'd heard, and we had a beautiful view from our hotel room.
Our next morning's drive brought us to the little town of Estes Park and into Rocky Mountain National Park. It was spectacular.
We stayed in Estes Park and drove into the park for two full days of wandering around, watching the wildlife, and picnicking next to this little stream.
On our last evening we were treated to a gorgeous sunset overlooking the park and the Continental Divide from our hotel balcony as the elk bugled below us. It was a dream come true and so hard to leave!
Our next stop was a day's drive north to Devil's Tower in Wyoming. My husband has always wanted to see this amazing monument ever since he saw it in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. We arrived just as the sun was setting and the glowing rock was spectacular.Our next day's drive took us over the Big Horn Mountains for a short overnight stay in Cody, Wyoming.
The next day we were up early for the drive into Yellowstone National Park and around a sparkling Yellowstone Lake to our last night in Island Park, Idaho, where we did a little fishing. We've been to all these last spots many times before, and dare I say, we're so used to it I didn't take any photos of these last couple of days to share.
Thanks for coming along on our road trip to what now is my favorite Rocky Mountain National Park. If you'd like to see a bit more, I'll be uploading some video over the next days to my instagram account.