RoMo: a roaring river*

I will eventually show you some of the work we did on our "work trip" to Colorado last week. But I have more fun stuff to talk about first.

The first few days we were scheduled to be "working" we actually had renters at our cabin (an unusual event for summer). This situation led to us getting invited to spend a couple of days with one of Henry's high school buddies who just happens to have a lovely place near Estes Park.

Astute users of Google-maps will notice, if they look up "Estes Park," that Rocky Mountain National Park is right out the back door. In the winter, this isn't really anything to write home about, since most of the Park's roads are closed. But in summer it's a mountain—and rushing-stream—lover's dream. (New nickname learned this trip: "RoMo" is how folks in the know refer to this jewel of the park system.)

Early summer in the Rockies is always a time to see great white water (see this post from our June, 2014 trip to Montana). But we think this year the roaring water was louder than usual due to heavy snow over the winter. And we got to see this great spring rush up close and personal on two RoMo outings with our generous host.

Our first night there we had a late picnic dinner at the Endovalley picnic area, which is graced by a fork of the Fall River. You can see this nice stream above on the right.

But this was just a taste. The next morning we took a wonderful hike along St. Vrain Creek, in the southeast corner of the Park, specifically, the Wild Basin area. What great river views! I took a lot of pictures, but have selected my favorites for this post. *(Yes, technically it's just a creek, but it looked a lot more river-like to me!)

The one at the top is near Copeland Falls, where we saw more than one group of artists sketching the extravagantly photogenic scene...

Along the trail there were glimpses of almost unimaginable quantities of water churning over the rocks, down to the valley...

It's hard to look at these photos and not hear the thunderous sound of rushing water. If you want to hear it as well as see it, check out this video I put on YouTube.

And of course with all the lovely trees and fabulous rocks and boulders...well, it was a great hike.

---

However, even more RoMo joys were yet to come. Here's a sneak preview, snapped on the way home from our picnic:

We got a lot closer to those gorgeous mountains the next morning. And I'll show you all about it in the next post.