Day 5, top of The Park

 Our last day at RMNP we wanted to take the Trail Ridge Road to the highest elevation in the park, about 12000 ft. Connie again worked her magic in getting a timed pass for 9-11 AM so we could get going early, but still get breakfast and check out the Stanley hotel (Stephen King's "the Shining") before the drive up.

The drive to the top was a well built mountain road, full of switch-backs and almost no space to the sheer fall-offs in many places. All this was especially hairy since we were driving a gigantic (for me anyway) Ford 150 truck! Connie was quite nervous at times, but we managed it well and enjoyed the many pull-out sight seeing stops. The end point on this route was the park's Alpine Visitor Center,  just past the high altitude point. 

Our plan was to return to Nancy and Pete's via Boulder and to stop at the Celestial Tea plant for a tour. Celestial tea is one of our favorites and so it was a must for us.

Here are a few photos from the day.

Stanley Hotel 

Rockies
More of the Rockies 
Man and his toy

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