Day 4: June 11th

The day's events consisted of us traveling through three states. We began our day very early, just before the sun had come up. We broke out tents down around 5 a.m. We were headed Northwest for Utah. To get there we took Trail Ridge Road, which is the highest continuous roadway in all of North America. At the highest point on Mt. Evans we were well above the tree line in alpine tundra. Its funny to find yourself in the tundra after being in the valley just hours earlier where temperatures were in the upper 60s. Patrick explained to us how the disruptive elk are pushing higher in elevation every year closer and closer to this ecosystem. And sure enough i saw an elk laying behind a rock just a few hundred feet from the very top. How and why it was up there baffles me.

My favorite part of the day was when we were at the end of trail ridge road. We stopped in to see La Poudre Pass. This is the very start of the Colorado River starting right at the continental divide. It was so cool to watch this water flow by knowing that it originated in the snow peaks of the mountains in the distance which we just drove through and ends up in the Gulf of California becoming a part of the Pacific Ocean. What I loved most about this spot was the wildlife. There was a moose, a small elk herd, and a coyote. All three species were within 25 yards of each other, it was an amazing experience.

Eventually we drove through foot hills. We stopped at Lake Grand which was the largest natural lake in Colorado. It was huge but it seemed the water level had dropped significantly . A couple hours later we were in Utah and it became a little more dry and more wild as there was less farmland. I saw lots of mule deer and a some pronghorne. We eventually drove into Wyoming for about 10 minutes. Making it three states in one day. Our campsite was great, right on Flamming Gorge in Utah just at the border of Wyoming. About 8 of us decided to go for a swim because we hadn't showered yet on the trip (even though there were showers at this site). The water was frigid. We skipped rocks for like an hour. Took a shower, watched the sun set and called it a night. The sunset was awesome.

It was hard to believe we saw everything that we did in this one day. Probably the craziest day of my life.