I don't think I will ever finish doing blog posts from our June trip out west... Counting this one, I have done 25 different posts from that trip ---and there's still more to come!!!!! What a fabulous trip that was... That is one trip we'll be talking about for years and years to come.
Today, we're going back to the gorgeous Rocky Mountain National Park. As I think I mentioned in a previous blog, we entered the park on June 25th from the north entrance (north and west of Estes Park). We first visited the Sheep Lake/Meadow area. Then we stopped at the Alluvial Fan area to hike to Horseshoe Falls... Our elevation here was 8.800 feet. This waterfall, believe it or not, is VERY high, probably about 1000 feet... BUT--from this area, we could only see about 300 feet of it total... Even that was awesome --especially for us waterfall lovers!
On July 15, 1982, Lawn Lake Dam (14 miles north of the national park) broke. This dam which flowed into Cascade Lake caused huge flooding in the park and also in the town of Estes Park nearby. Two hundred and twenty million gallons of water flowed south into that area. Three people died ---and this flood caused over 31 million dollars of damage to Estes Park.
After that flood, Horseshoe Falls was buried under rocks and mud. It is now a very steep waterfall, cascading down the scars of the flood.... Here are some of our pictures from Horseshoe Falls. The one above showed our view of the falls once we hiked to the little bridge crossing the falls... As I said, there is MUCH more of this waterfall above our vantage point.
Here is a very happy girl standing there admiring this waterfall from the bridge.
We hiked up to the steep part (I'll call it the crook)---if you look back at the first picture above. We hiked up on the rocks to get some closer shots. George took this one... Nice, huh?
George was as happy as I was --to be here. He wandered around all over those rocks taking pictures.... What JOY!!!!
This picture was taken from the bridge where we were standing... You can also see the bridge below (which is where the cars pass over the cascades). Now--remember these three things: car bridge, hiking bridge, and the crook... You'll see why soon!
This is another picture showing the mountain (which we went to later that day)... You can also get a better view of the car bridge in this picture!!!!!
Here ----from way up on the mountain (shown above) is a great long-distance photo George took of Horseshoe Falls.... I marked the things I wanted you to remember... The crook is what I showed in picture 3. The hiking bridge is where we were in picture 1,2, and 5. AND ---you can see the road and the 'car bridge'.... Isn't this just awesome to see a waterfall up close (or at least part of it) and then from far up on the mountain!!!!!!
Hope you enjoyed seeing our photos of Horseshoe Falls in the Rocky Mountain National Park. Have a glorious weekend and I'll see you on Monday.
Hugs,
Betsy
