"Take a hike!"

Someone said, “Take a hike…”. So we did just that! Should we have taken that statement literally? Hmm. Well, anyway, we took the day and drove to Carter Lake, Pinewood Reservoir and then Rocky Mountain National Park to check out different hiking trails.

We hiked the Shoshone Trail that starts out by Pinewood Reservoir in the morning, enjoying the cool pines and wildflowers along the way. Here is a picture of a beautiful Blanketflower taken by the reservoir.

Two hours later we were up by the Morraine Visitor Center, one of the five visitor centers in Rocky Mountain National Park. An elk grazed lazily, ignoring us while we drove around him in Glacier Basin Campground.

Then we headed back to the meadows by Morraine Campground. The valley was awakening from its winter slumber, providing fields of gorgeous Yellowbanner flowers and wild purple Iris among the new green grasses.

Yeah, I know this photo is slightly askew, but I kind of like it that way. I had to get way down on the ground to capture the flowers with the mountains in the background, and it sure gets harder to do that every year! Don't worry, no flowers were harmed during this picture taking session.

Don ambles along the path, checking every footstep. We discovered this is a very well used path, not only by hikers, but also by people doing horseback rides. “Horse evidence” was everywhere!

The meadow path also took us along a small brook for part of our hike. We were treated to sunshine, wonderful mountain views, a plethora of wildflowers, an elk sighting and Magpies who entertained us. What more could we have asked for? Homemade pie??? We did manage to find the bakery in Estes Park on the way home. We came home with 2 pieces of pie: Cherry/peach and Apple/Strawberry. It was the perfect way to end our day!