Bear and Nymph Lakes - Rocky Mountain NP

The first photo I place in the blog text is the one that Facebook ends up using.  Yesterday's turned out to be fairly mundane.  Today...

  less so.  It's not easy getting Jan to relax on camera.  I took this one while she was sitting on a bench at Bear Lake.

It's one of the more popular destinations in the park.  We used the Park and Ride access, which was 75% of capacity at 8:45 AM.  The Bear Lake lot fills by 7 AM. 

The hike to the lake is pretty easy.  The trail shows some gentle inclines and declines.  There are plenty of spots to get a good look at the vista.

At one point I foolishly suggested we could re-enact Michael and Laura's engagement video.  Unfortunately, my version of altitude acclimatization feels like a massive head cold.  My sinuses are complaining about living at 10,000 feet above sea level.  Using something like Claritin isn't a good idea.  It dries you out and that makes thinks worse.  Saline works ok, but basically you just need to wait until your body adapts.  Kneeling on the ground in front of Jan might have required an EMT to get me back up.

The hike to Nymph Lake is more challenging.  It is not long.  It elevates the entire trip to the lake.  We soldiered along with periodic rest stops. 

Lots of Lilly pads in bloom.

Our next section today is a request from grandson Adin, who relayed a request to see more mountains.  There is a haze over the top of the park today Adin, but here are the pictures I shot just for you.

Tomorrow we head to Gillette, Wyoming as a way point on our trek towards Mount Rushmore.  We bid adieu to Rocky Mountain National Park until the next time.