We finally left Denver on Tuesday and made our way to the East side of Rocky Mountain NP. What a lovely place! Did some light hiking. The boys had a blast translating the name of "Bierstadt Lake" to the chatty shuttle bus driver. Naomi spent the first 45 min. or so complaining that her hiking boots were too heavy. After I explained to her that they help her walk, telling her where to place her feet (where the water would flow, and not on top of every boulder), and carving her a cool hiking stick she finally came around. At the end she proclaimed that she really liked her boots. Yeah!

Wednesday we drove the windy (meaning much wind, and many curves) mountain road to the West side of the park. The bark beetle epidemic is really dramatic here - up to 70% of the woods consist of dead pines. Also, many Germans. And I met an American lady at the visitor center who not only knew Switzerland from Sweden, but had lived in Pfungen and gone to the Lehramt Gymnasium in Winterthur! In the evening, we spotted some Moose and Elk in the meadows of the Colorado river.

Thursday we woke up to the sight of about 10 Elk cows walking over the campground, as well as a Moose cow with a calf. The rest of the day was spent driving the hinterland of NW Colorado (Craig) and SW Wyoming (Baggs) to the KOA in Rock Springs. It's hard to imagine after Kansas, but the stretch from Craig to I-80 was considerably lonelier. Stunningly featureless flats changed into equally stunning badlands/canyons and back, without a single tree in sight from horizon to horizon. Did a walking tour of the many RV rigs on the campground with the kids. Despite there being more than 100 or so, we win the prize again for having the oldest/grungiest vehicle. I kind of enjoy being the gypsies among all the retirees with their $150k contraptions. We're usually the only ones with kids, doing our dishes outside, hanging a clothesline, and playing our own music.

Tomorrow we're off to Yellowstone. Sorry, our WiFi is so crappy that there won't be pictures today.