Rocky Mountain NP hike

We recently took a quick tour of Rocky Mountain National Park, happy to get a chance to visit this special place again.  Along the way we found a neat hike.  I was thinking we might get to travel cross-country up the Continental Divide, but instead we found a trail almost all the way to our destination (Mount Ida).  Cool!

Starting from Milner Pass:

Pretty rock formations:

Excellent trail building work!

And soon we were above treeline for the start of the incredible views:

Love this trail:

Another in a series of photos entitled, "What does John think about when he is eating trail food?"

View toward Mt Ida in the background, with "Marmot Rock" (based on the creatures we saw on it) in the foreground:

Wonderful little lakes below the ridge:

The trail kind of disappears (or at least hides) for a while amid the rocks:

Dark clouds starting to think about gathering (we would get hailed on during our return trip, that's always an interesting experience in the mountains):

View toward the top where the sun is still shining:

John taking pictures for another couple:

They returned the favor, so you can look at something other than a selfie of us for once:

And for good measure:

Longs Peak way in the background:

We didn't get too pummeled by the hail, made it down no problem, then had this wonderful surprise on our drive out - an elk next to the road!  Too cool.  We had seen a moose in the distance and a mama and baby elk early that morning, but this fellow was much more accommodating to picture takers:

Always a great day when we can go to RMNP!