Fall Foliage Tour

This past week or so the leaves finally started to change into brillant shades of yellow and red. The hubby and I decided to take a drive this past weekend and enjoy some of the beautiful fall scenery. We drove down to visit several state parks in southern Missouri. Our first stop was Elephant Rocks State Park. The park gets it's name from the huge granite boulders that are strewn about. They are indeed "elephant sized" rocks. We walked along the trails amid the changing leaves.

The park contains the ruins of an 1890s engine house. The railroad used to connect here when granite was quarried here. The walls of the engine house remain along with a section of abandoned railroad track.

Some of the elephant rocks. These huge granite boulders are all over the park.

The old granite quarry, now filled up as a lake.

After our hike through the giant rocks, we headed on to Johnson's Shut-Ins State Park. This park suffered great destruction a few years ago when the wall of a large water resevoir was breached. A 20-ft wall of water was sent down through the park.They have rebuilt and cleaned up most of the park, but some trails are still closed and construction continues to rebuild the upper resevoir. The resevoir is used to generate power.

The final state park we visited on our fall colors drive was Taum Sauk State Park. We didn't do any hiking at this park. We simply drove around and stopped at the overlook located by the highest point in the state.

It really starts to feel like fall when the leaves are bursting with color. I love driving along the country backroads to see all the various shades and signs of autumn Are the leaves changing where you live yet or have they already turned? I hope you enjoyed this little tour through the changing colors of the Midwest.

Colorado Trip-Part 5-Estes Park continued

Here's the final segment of our trip story. Sorry if I'm boring anyone with the tons of photos, but Colorado was just so amazing and I hope to be able to return someday soon.

On our full last day of vacation we also awoke bright and early so we could see and do as much as possible. We were both starting to feel a little sick with colds so we didn't do as much hiking as we wanted to. After a delicious breakfast at The Egg and I in Estes Park, we headed to the Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National Park. We were only up for a short hike, so did a small walk to Copeland Falls. This is a great easy hike if you are in the area and the views are dramatic.

I was using a slow shutter speed to get the smooth water look in the photos, but I forgot to use my tripod so this picture is a little blurry.

Posing at the lower falls.

And some shots of the upper falls.

We spent the rest of the morning climbing Pole Hill just outside Estes Park. The hubby wanted to get one more Jeep ride in. It was another rough road.

The views made up for the rough climb.

Go Jeep Go! You can make it!

There was a great overlook of Estes Park from the top.

After lunch, we relaxed at our condo and started packing up all our gear to head home the next day. We ate dinner at Smokin Dave's BBQ. It was delicious. I had some wonderful sweet potato fries along with some great pulled pork. Once we finished eating, we headed back into Rocky Mountain National Park for some elk viewing.

Elk roam all over the park in the town of Estes Park as well. We stopped at several places to photograph them. The didn't even seem to notice the large groups of people gathering around and watching them.

We also saw several deer to round out our talley of wildlife.

After snapping tons of pictures, we continued on up Trail Ridge Road one final time and stopped at several overlooks to take our last photos of our Colorado vacation.

That's the last segment of our trip. It was so amazing and I fell in love with the gorgeous mountains and views of the state. I can't wait to someday return. If you have never visited Colorado, you are missing so much awesomeness and you should add it to your "must see" list.

My Favorite Camera Tool

If you've seen any of my vacation photos, you may notice that I always have several photos of my husband and I together. I always try to get several different poses in different locations because it's about the only time we ever take any photos together. At one time, we would usually have my husband stretch his arm out and flip the camera around to take a picture of us squeezed together. Or we might even ask a stranger to take a picture of us together. But these don't always turn out how you may have hoped. That's why I recommend buying a flexible tripod like this little guy.

I picked up this tripod at Wal-Mart for around $10. They are available for both point and shoots and SLRs. You simply screw it onto the little triped mount on the underside of your camera. Because of the small size, it's easy to throw this guy in your purse and take him along with you everywhere. The bendy legs are great because you don't need a solid surface to set the tripod on. You can even wrap the legs around a railing or tree branch although I'm a little too scared to try that. So if you don't already have something like this, pick one of these cheap handy dandy little tripod doodads and start getting some great shots of your family together.

Colorado Trip Part 4-Estes Park and Rocky Mountains

The next installment of our trip report focuses on our last stop in Estes Park. We stayed three nights in Estes which is just outside Rocky Mountain National Park. We stayed at a lovely condo called The Woodlands.

We had a balcony that overlooked Fall River.

The first morning we arose bright and early to make the hike to Bear, Nymph, Dream, and Emerald Lakes. We were glad to get an early start because this trail can get very crowded.

Our first stop was Bear Lake which is right next to the parking area.

We continued hiking along the trail to tranquil Nymph Lake. This was one of my favorite lakes we visited with all the floating lily pads.

We posed for several pictures along the way. I love being able to get pictures of us together on vacation and a small tripod works great for that.

The trail was all uphill on the way past the lakes. There were many stairs and that combined with the altitude, left us a bit out of breath.

Finally we arrived at the second beautiful lake, known as Dream Lake. We stopped for more massive picture taking of the amazing surroundings.

The final lake along the trail was Emerald Lake. Taking photos as Emerald Lake really made me wish for a wide angle lens and an SLR camera since I couldn't capture fully the beautiful scene with my point and shoot. I know my next camera purchase will be an SLR. I always use the manual settings on my camera as it is and I would like more options and flexibility to take better photos.

Emerald Lake was the end of that particular trail so we turned around and hiked a few more trails. The altitude and the fact that we were both starting to come down with colds starting to wear on us a bit though. After lunch we decided to drive up Old Fall River Road. This is the old road through the park. It is uphill, one way and unpaved. It was much tamer and smoother than the other roads we had tackled so far though.

The road climbs up through the tundra until you reach the Alpine Visitor Center at 12,000 ft. While it was 75 degrees in Estes Park, it was in the 40s and sleeting at the Visitor Center.

We joined up with Trail Ridge Road and headed back down to Estes Park, stopping at some of the overlooks for photos.

A large portion of the road is above the treeline where the weather is too cold and harsh for trees to grow. They can get snow drifts as high as 20 feet and it takes six weeks each year to get the road cleared and opened in late spring.

I have one final installment of Colorado photos to share. I took 846 pictures so narrowing them down is tough and I have so many beautiful views to share.

Colorado Vacation-Part 3

I'm back with the next installment of our trip through Colorado. After our drive over Mosquito Pass, we spent the night at Siverthorne. (Where I browsed through some fun outlet stores.) The next day we set our bright and early and headed towards Georgetown.

In Georgetown, it was time to take the Jeep up another trail. This time we headed up Saxon Mountain. We quickly climbed high above Georgetown.

The road was just as rough. as the day before.

Look at all the many switchbacks we drove up:

The views were just as wonderful as the day before also.

After about 2 and half hours of driving(and it was only 6 miles!) we finally reached the top.

This little guy was busy gathering food for winter which comes early in the mountains.

After a long drive to get back down the mountain, it was time for lunch and a little shopping in the quaint and historic downtown area of Georgetown.

After leaving Georgetown, we hopped back off the interstate at Idaho Springs. We continued on an unpaved country road known as the "Oh My God Road." Actually it was probably the least scary road we drove on and while the views were nice, they weren't anything amazing.

We did pass through the ghost town of Russel Gulch. There were many abandoned buildings and mines in the area. I had to laugh at the "Home for Sale" sign in front of this "fixer upper". It's pointing to a different house, but I thought it was not the best sign placement.

Once we reached Central City, we hopped on the "Peak to Peak" scenic byway and followed that to Estes Park.

Late that afternoon we finally approached Estes Park, our final destination for the remainder of our vacation.

I have more photos to share later from Rocky Mountain National Park so stay tuned.