The very nice thing about Rocky Mountain National Park being mostly closed – fewer tourists!
Slowly as bits of the Park have reopened, we’ve been able to get out and explore. Solitude is negotiable, especially when we pick the trails that are normally packed with the tourist crowd.
We lucked out – a beautiful sunny day, very few tourists (of course there’s always the one douchebag with a radio playing…), and a nice hike up Lumpy Ridge to Gem Lake.
We took a bit of a detour on the way down with the intention of doing the loop around the backside of the Twin Owls, but once we saw that it was a climb and not a hike we decided to skip it for today and return when we both had a little more energy.
Once again – Writer and historian Wallace Stegner called national parks "the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst."

This Way

A withered pine tree pointing the way up the Gem Lake Trail.

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Perfect Colorado

Red rock, green pines, and blue Colorado skies.

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Lakeside

Colette sits at the side of Gem Lake.

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Backdrop

A backdrop of layered rock.

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Tropical Water

You can hardly tell that the water is frozen from this angle!

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Twin Owls

The Twin Owls climbing area. One day we will return and do the loop climb around these two.

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