It was past noon and the sky was still beautifully clear! One of the rangers said it was one of the best days of the summer, little haze and lots of blue sky! Time to press on. Quickly we descended to the other side of Mummy Range and Fall River. This took us over the Never Summer Mountains and over the Continental Divide. Amazingly, we were at a lower elevation, a mere 10,758’. Nevertheless, we were back in the forestry montane zone. At this road side stop, Milner Pass, we stopped to take our picture by the Continental Divide sign. As we walked east, we saw Poudre Lake, the headwaters of the Cache la Poudre River which flows to the Gulf of Mexico. Near the lake we saw these pegmatite dikes. If we had more time we could have hiked in to see old volcanoes.

Not far from here to the west of the sign, the headwaters of the Colorado River form, which empty in the Pacific Ocean.  All because we were on the Continental Divide.

Here are the Never Summer Mountains on the Western side of the Continental Divide…

We headed on for Grand Lake, the Western entrance to RMNP, about a 30 minute drive. The drop in elevation comes quickly on this side, and my headache started forming...altitude sickness. I seem to have a problem with coming down instead of going up. The day was getting late, going on 3pm. Clouds were starting to form in the west. We decided to head back. There is only one way back! Back up Trail Ridge Road, to the alpine views, to get back to Estes Park!

Once at the top, we saw that the elk herd had made its way closer to the road. I hurriedly got my camera out and snapped some pictures from the car. Since all the cars were stopping for the obligatory tourist photos, I got some good shots!

Can you see the velveety antlers?

Then ds saw him! There he was as grand as could be! To our left, on top of a huge boulder, silhoutted against the sky, was a bighorn sheep in all his glory! But, he too quickly went down the other side of the boulder so I couldn’t capture a picture. You’ll just have to imagine it! Lol

Well, that was the end of a beautiful day!