Indian Peaks Wilderness, Brainard Park, alpine flowers, glaciers, and Estes Elk

Our last couple of days in Colorado.... We drove to Brainard Park, to Longlake, in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. This is an area of breath taking views, postcard settings, lush alpine meadows, carpets of wild flowers, glaciers, etc, etc. My definite favorite!

First, the overall view was magnificent! That's Longlake in the foreground.

Then, the high alpine flowers were in full bloom. It was a riot of color. The flower fields were intermixed with hiking trails through the forest, all with views of the mountain range.

We met a guy who was walking to the top of one of the glaciers to ski.... about 3 hour walk, total. It was 104 in Boulder, cooler in the park, but not cool enough for ME to be hiking 3 hours with ski pants, carrying skis, and wearing bulky ski boots.

Here's where he's headed....

We met the families and then went to Estes Park. Spent a little time wandering through the town, checked out a glass blowing shop, had ice cream (of course), and then drove to Mary's Lake. Mary's Lake has 2 major attractions --- first, it's beautiful. A lot of folks fish there.

Second, there are ELK! Two of them showed up around dusk. They wandered around the grounds, eating some folage.

As the crowd gathered to watch them, they retreated to the relative safety of the water.

Let me tell you, elk are huge! and beautiful. They completed my trip to Colorado :-)