We went to a Japanese Steakhouse for my birthday and Holly's birthday. Matt and Holly are two of our other best friends here. We have had so much fun with them. They moved a little further away so we see them less now. We miss them.

We went down to Albuquerque on our way home. It was a long drive and an exhausting trip, but we saw a lot. Petroglyphs was our last stop of the 6 park tour. It is a park almost inside the city. It was neat to stand on top of the volcanic rock and look down at the houses (not to mention seeing actual petroglyphs.

We had gone to Pecos (no pictures) which is by Santa Fe on our way from Fort Union. We stayed in Santa Fe and then headed out the next morning to Bandelier where we enjoyed a day of hiking and checking out the Indian Cliff Dwellings. We also climbed up some really high and petrifying ladders to go to a kiva which was a religious place for the Indians. It was really interesting to see the ruins. Then we went for a scenic hike down to the Rio Grande.

Fort Union was rebuilt two times. Here is the ruins of part of the Fort. It was a pretty day in New Mexico.

No, we weren't on the coast. There are dunes in the middle of the Rocky Mountains! We hiked up a big one in the ice cold rain. The clouds cleared enough after a while that you could see the mountain range just behind the dunes, but by the time it was really clear we had left for our next destination.

It was cold, but beautiful. We left the morning of this picture, but not to never return. I often return to it my my daydreams. We had other stops to make and more things to do. This was only the end of the beginning of our trip.

After dinner we would take walks together around the park. It was a nice way to work off dinner and enjoy the scenery.

Jonathan did catch some fish. They weren't here. All that was here were black flies and wild strawberries (we liked the strawberries slightly better). It was a very picturesque spot to fish and was on a river bend, but not worth the agonizing attacks of the flies.

Alpine Fresh
Ah, the Alpine Zone. This is my favorite place to be in the world so far. We would awake at 5:30 on vacation and drive up the twisting winding mountains to get here for such wonderful solitude. The mornings were crisp and cool inthe 40's which we were not used to coming from a hot climate, but it was refreshing and invigorating. We went on a long hike one morning through the alpine tundra (a trail of course). The she-elk in the picture just walked right up to us. The animals are very used to people and we didn't use zoom in this shot. In the afternoons we would usually go to lower elevations and hike, but we loved the mornings. If you stay in the alpine tundra all day you will probably get burned even if the air isn't very warm...it is so close to the sun! If you tried to stay in the alpine tundra all year, you would have to be a crazy person because by October it is covered in snow.

We stayed in Estes Park which is a neat little town nestled almost inside the park. It was pretty neat to walk around, but it is hustling and bustling. We ate out there most nights. Our favorite was the Italian place where we had some mushroom ravioli. It was great!

Morraine Park is a great little fishing hole in Rocky Mountain National Park. Jonathan fished there and I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery. It was fantastic. We watched a thunderstorm come in over the Rockies. The clouds are just the beginning of it.

Bear Lake was where we started on our journey through Rocky Mountain National Park. Bear Lake is easily accessible to everyone, so it is one of the busiest places in the park. We hiked out from Bear Lake and went up a waterfall and then to three more lakes miles away. The crowd thinned out the further we went. We got the prize for the long hike because Emerald Lake was gorgeous. There aren't any good digital pictures of it, though.

Bear Lake

In July we went to the Rockies to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was soooo beautiful and we miss it! We should be making another trip out and up this next summer. This picture is at Bear Lake which is a very popular area for folks who can't hike very far.