Horseback Ride with Dad

On Sunday my Dad and I did a 3 hour ride inside the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a perfect overcast day and it was just us on the ride with a knowledgeable guide. He has a degree in forestry from Ohio State so we learned a lot about trees. (Emil, you two would have had a lot to talk about =)

At the end of the ride (50 feet from the barn) we had quite a scare when Dad's horse bucked him off. He fell at least 8 feet and thank God, not onto the partially exposed rocks that were in front of and behind him on the trail. He has recovered almost fully since Sunday from some severe internal bruising, but did not break or crack any ribs or other bones. We are so thankful nothing worse happened and that the horse did not hurt him worse after the fall or otherwise. It shook us a bit.

Although we didn't see any wildlife on our ride, we saw amazing wildlife on the drive down the mountain, which is at the end of the post. Happy 70th, Dad!

Did you know that the Aspen Tree is the largest organism in the world after the coral reef? All the roots of the trees (within close proximity like below) are from one singular root system underground. At one point on the trail we saw 1 and 2 foot aspen trees sprouting, clearly the shoots of its neighboring adult trees.

We saw a lot of beetle killed trees. The rangers come up and cut them down, then stack them into these huge piles. When it snows, they come up and burn the piles. In some areas we saw 8-10 of these piles scattered.

After a drink at the Stanley Hotel (where "The Shining" was written), we decided at the last minute to take the back way down the mountain just to see different things. What a good choice! This enormous male elk was grazing near the road as we drove down.

Holy antlers!

And here is a beautiful Ram grazing near the road just a few miles from the elk.

This is the mascot for Colorado State University