If you're like me you cringe when someone wants to show you their vacation photos. It often goes something like "Here's the RV.  This is Ruth and I standing next to the RV. Here's the RV in the Stuckey's parking lot." And etcetera. I went to Colorado last week though, and in addition to having a wonderful, relaxing time, I took some decent pictures I'd like to share.  I promise there's not a single shot of Stuckey's here, but I need to confess up front that I was not nearly et by a bear; she was a friendly bear and didn't seem the least bit hungry.

Estes Park, at about 7,500 feet elevation and a couple hours northwest of Denver. It's one of the more popular summer destinations in Colorado, being the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park and other points of interest. The Estes Valley was my base of operations for several days, though I spent little time in the town itself.

I highly recommend the Swiftcurrent Lodge to anyone visiting the Estes Park area. The cabins here are reasonably priced and comfortable, and your back yard is the Big Thompson River and a trailhead leading directly into Rocky Mountain National Park.

Each evening at the Swiftcurrent, after a day's adventuring, I'd hike up into the park.

The view a mile or two uptrail from my cabin.

Steep, dangerous game paths lead uphill at various points along the main trail. It's recommended that only professionals explore these paths at twilight while drinking.

Evening light on the peaks, shadow in the valley. 

Something you quickly learn out here is to watch where you sit. Prickly pear cacti are everywhere, and they're far more prickly than pear-like.

A golden marmot. Marmots are a kind of woodchuck I think, or maybe a woodchuck is a kind of marmot. Either way I enjoyed their company.

I spent most of my time in the national park; there were elk everywhere.  Here's a small herd grazing  at the base of Bighorn Mountain.

Close-up of a bull elk. These animals are delicious, but they're protected here and are so unafraid of people you can walk right up to them.

It was too early for many of the famous mountain wildflowers, but some were in bloom. This is larkspur.

Barrel cactus.

A flowering shrub of some kind; these were growing among the rocks everywhere I hiked.

Saturday I drove up to Wyoming. This is Turtle Rock in the Medicine Bow National Forest, just east of Laramie. It was a lot farther away from Estes Park than it looked on the map.

Pronghorn antelope on the high plains north of Fort Collins.

The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, built in 1909 by Francis Stanley of Stanley Steamer fame.  At one time it was a popular destination for the glitterati; guests during its heyday included Teddy Roosevelt, the Emperor and Empress of Japan, and assorted movie stars.  This place is supposedly haunted; the resort hotel in "The Shining" is based on the Stanley.

I didn't see any ghosts in the Stanley, but there was an eerie message when I looked in a mirror at this Redrum brand candy bar I bought there.

The upper Big Thompson River in the Moraine Park area of RMNP.

On Bear Lake Road.

A typical park view. This may be Long's Peak but I'm not really sure.

Aspens in a little creek meadow.

On Trail Ridge Road, the highest motorway in the United States and the only paved road into Rocky Mountain National Park.  Eight miles of Trail Ridge are above 11,000 feet and the views are spectacular in every direction.

Morris dancers two miles high at Rainbow Curve. I don't know why.

On the alpine tundra, looking across Forest Canyon at Terra Tomah Mountain.

Near the highest point on the road, over 12,000 feet.  It was cold up here, and I'm pretty sure these women were stalking me.  Every time I'd pull over to admire the view, they'd show up two or three minutes later and pretend to be "taking pictures" of each other.

The upper limit of the montane forest. At this elevation the snow was well over ten feet deep in places.

A peak in the Never Summer Mountains on the western edge of the park.

People at the Swiftcurrent had mentioned that a bear came to visit sometimes, but I was still surprised when she showed up on my patio. She ambled right up to me and reared up on her hind legs about four feet away, looking me in the eye. By the time I got the camera focused she was already on her way; you can see her hindquarters here as she makes her escape.  

The bear  climbed up onto a little ridge above the cabins.  As you can see, I was so shaken at nearly having been et that I failed to focus the camera for this shot.

A young bull elk. He walked up as I was sitting on my favorite rock above the lodge; we played hide and seek for a while 'til it started getting dark and I had to head back down the trail.

Every vacation has to end; my last dusk in the mountains.