Lulu City

Today we explored the western side of the Rocky Mountain National Park by driving up to the Alpine Visitors Center. Not far from here is the highest part of the road at 12,183 feet. We thought about taking a short hike thru the tundra above the tree line but it was just too cold and windy! The drive up was beautiful and we stopped several times to take it all in.

On the way down, we stopped at the Colorado River Trail Head and hiked into the wilderness for 7.5 mile round trip to a site where Lulu City used to sit. It was there between 1879 and 1885 with a population of 200. Lulu City did not have much you could see so we had to use our imaginations. We saw the remains of mining equipment and a couple of old log cabins. The change in elevation was a rise of only 350 feet, but it happened often! The forest was lush, the mushrooms and flowers colorful, and the river cascaded beside us part of the trip. This is actually the head waters for the Colorado River. At one point there was a large rock fall where we saw a yellow-bellied marmot.

This was a very long hike for us and we were bushed by the end of the day. So John was kind enough to take me out to dinner. Thank goodness!