Gem Lake

On Saturday, I went for a hike with Cora, Trevor, and Rich to Gem Lake, which is near the northeastern edge of Rocky Mountain National Park.

On the way up, we had great views of Estes Park and Longs Peak.


There were interesting rock formations everywhere,


including surrounding Gem Lake:


We climbed the rocks to a lunch perch, near the top-center tree in the picture above.


We ate with a nice view.


There was a little bit of snow on Longs Peak:


After lunch, we continued on, finally seeing signs of autumn



on our way to Balanced Rock:


We climbed around on the rocks before heading back.




We stopped at the overlook on our way home and ate watermelon. According to Google Earth, Gem Lake is located to the right of the pointed peak between the two rock humps on the right side of the ridge (the appropriately named Lumpy Ridge):

Vikings game

Sunday, I went with Brett to a Vikings game against the Buccaneers. Unfortunately, Minnesota lost.

After the game, we took a ride on the Mississippi River in Brett's brother's-in-law boat.

Twins game

My first blog from my iPhone! Saturday, I went to a Twins game with Brett. We had really good seats, as you can hopefully tell from my iPhone pictures.

Another New Phone

I got a new iPhone this week:


In other news, I had to deal with a blinding sun on my way in to Boulder this evening. It was blinding even with sunglasses on!

Rocky Mountain National Park

I went to Rocky Mountain National Park today.


I drove along Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuous highway in the U.S. I stopped at Lava Cliffs to recreate this photo from my youth.


I did it from memory, so I didn't get the exact stone I was resting on!


The Gore Range parking lot provided a nice view down Forest Canyon. That's Longs Peak at the end on the left.


Then I went up to Bear Lake (as I always do, it seems).


I learned that the view of Longs Peak from the lake


was the inspiration for the Colorado quarter design:



This view was one of my favorites, so I'll show yet another similar shot!


I thought about turning around when I first got to Estes Park because the Labor Day traffic was so bad. Next time I go, I'll try not to choose a holiday weekend!