It's About the (RV) Journey....: Sprague Lake and Alluvial Fan......................

Our last full day in Rocky Mountain National Park, and we still had a lot of exploring to do! It is a big park. The weather was clear, and with the blue skies, the scenery looks totally different. All views are magnificent though, not matter what the weather. Take a look!

bet this is GORGEOUS in the fall

Our first stop was Sprague Lake, with a one-mile nature trail (easy peasy) around the lake. What a peaceful little gem this was. Kinda makes you want to take up fishing! We noticed a fly-fishing class going on, and if we had more time here, I think I would have signed on. Can you believe it? But...it just looks so awesome.

Sprague Lake

awesome

so clean and clear

pretty nice!

look at that view...

lovely lake view

fly-fishing school

looking for moose?

the far end of the lake

so pretty

We walked around the lake, or should I say.....we ambled around the lake...very slowly. Savoring the views. It is also moose country, and ~~Tom~~ we were trying to spot Bullwinkle! They are very elusive though. As big as they are, they are very hard to find in nature. After walking around the lake, we noticed another trail that went up the hill and into the woods. We walked up there as well, just for a little bit, to see if we had an better vantage point over the prime moose habitat near the lake. Still no luck.

nature's art

ahhhhhhh

moose food (there was a moose in the middle of this lake a couple of days ago, or so we heard!)

lots of wildlife here

close up

hints of fall coming!

heading up the rocky mountain trail

hmmm....not spotting any moose

After our enjoyable jaunt in the Sprague Lake area, we headed to another area of the park to explore the Alluvial Fan (after first checking out the Sheep Lakes area again for big horns sheep-ha!). Actually, we kept driving past the Alluvial Fan/Picnic area....exploring a less-traveled piece of the park. The end of the road forked, to either a really nice picnic area or to "Old Fall River Road"...a nine-mile one-lane, one way, dirt road leading up the mountain to the Alpine Visitor Center. At the Alpine Visitor Center, we saw a dirt road that wound up through the mountains....and now we know where that road begins! HHmmm....dirt road or picnic? We opted to have our lunch in the beautiful, secluded picnic area. Was that ever nice!

lots of deer crossing the road

hello big guy

reminds us of NJ!

another

more gorgeous views

Sheep Lakes and the meadows below

close up of Sheep Lakes

still searching!

great spot for lunch

hungry?

Heading back up to the Alluvial Fan area, we stopped in the first parking lot (east side?) and were amazed at the amount of rocks and boulders fanned out across the area. All of this was the result of a dam breaking, further up the mountain, and then another dam breaking.....and the resulting debris landed here. The water is still flowing, fast and furious in spots, and there are plenty of warning signs regarding the hazards of the area.

the water is trickling down the alluvial fan

we've been warned

its quite widespread

the path ends up ahead

the water really is flowing swiftly

so many rocks....all debris from when the dam broke

finding our way through the rocks

no crossing the water...let's go back and drive around to get to the other side

heading back to the parking lot

Not sure if I captured the expanse of the Alluvial Fan, but you can spot the area from quite a distance away. We eventually drove over to the other parking lot (the west side?), and walked along a completely washed-out and destroyed path to the waterfall area. You can access the waterfall from the east parking lot as well, but we didn't want to cross over the water on the rocks to get a spot-on view of the waterfalls.