Trevor and Lara were to be married on September 14, 2002, in Estes Park, Colorado. We drove there for the wedding and took advantage of the trip to do some hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. The weather was perfect for hiking, with temperatures ranging from the 50's in the morning, up to the 70's in the afternoon.
On Sept 13th, we went to RMNP for the first time and drove on the Old Fall River Road, a one way dirt road 9 miles long that goes up in elevation from about 9000ft to 11800ft. Along the way we stopped in various lookouts, including Chasm Falls. At the end of the road they have the Alpine Visitors Center, from which you can hike up an extra 200ft. of elevation to 12005ft. It was very windy up there.
We then drove back to the park, to the Bear Lake Trailhead. We walked towards
Emerald Lake, passing first Nymph Lake, then Dream Lake. We didn't make it to Emerald
Lake because we had to get back to Estes Park for the wedding rehearsal.
The following morning, Lei, Lena, Fran and I took off at 7am to the park and got to
the Bear Lake trailhead by 8am. We started hiking towards Sky Pond, which was a 5 mile
hike with about 1200ft gain (up to 10900ft.). Trevor's wedding was at 2pm, so we decided
that we had to be back at the car at noon in order to make it. After hiking for two
hours, we would head back, wherever we were.
We kept a good pace, going past The Loch, and actually making it to Sky Pond exactly
at 10am. We lounged around for about 20 minutes, then dashed back downhill, making it
to my truck at about 12:30pm. We went to our hotel, got in our tuxedos, and made it to
the wedding just in time.
On Sunday morning, as we were leaving, I stopped by the side of the road to take this
picture of Longs Peak.
Back home.