After enjoying my morning coffee beside the pond adjacent to our campsite,
and finally tracking down the white stuff wafting through the air,
I discovered is was from the female cottonwood trees.
I then chased, with only partial success, a pair of red-wing blackbirds as they gathered material for a next well-hidden in a thicket of reeds.
I then spotted an "ice house RV" … little more than a large, lavishly furnished ice house on wheels – with only inches of ground clearance.
Mid-morning, Dave and LaDonna picked us up for a day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. The drive took us through a recently upgraded Big Thompson River Canyon
to Estes Park (where we'd met up with many of the couples we traveled to Alaska with in 2011 for a reunion in 2013).
Rather than discarding their extra scarves, some generous folks recently came up with a brilliant new way to make use of the must-have winter accessory, and it's all for an amazing cause. Churches, charity groups, athletic teams, and kind-minded individuals across the country are tying scarves around trees in public spaces as a way to care for the homeless in their communities. Many of the scarves come with a note that encourages those in need to untie the scarf from the tree and use it, now that temperatures are dropping.
We then headed for
Although we've been to the Park in the past, its beauty never fails to impress us!
Alpine Avens
Alpine Forget-Me-Nots
Elk migrating up the slopes – ~10,000 feet
Convertible driver taking a "selfie"
Visitor's center, about 300 feet below the height of land on the road
The temperature on top was 53o and the wind howling
Elk sunning just below the Visitor's Center
