Alberta Falls and AMS

As planned we traveled back to Rocky Mountain National Park to go to an area called Moraine Park that is located in the interior part of the NP yesterday. Terrific, awesome, beautiful, breathtaking! We stopped first at the visitor's center to get more information on what trails are 'easy' and manageable. And, where to park the car since it was a gorgeous day and thousands of people were there. We got to the ParkNRide and boarded a bus to go to Bear Lake and then travel by foot to Alberta Falls. Even though there were ALOT of people, we had our alone time and space which was amazing. We opted to go to Bear Lake first, walk the trail, then walk to Alberta Falls about a mile away. Bear Lake - beautiful! This photo shows the lake peeking out at the lower left with the jagged snow covered mountains above. Lovely place. We stopped along the path and had some snacks and water, rested for a bit before heading on the next trail to Alberta Falls. Dave brought his back pack so we had what we needed if the weather changed and carried our snacks and water. Good thing we chose the paths in the order we did - Alberta Falls was all downhill and we could have never made the 16% incline up if we were at the Falls first then hiked to Bear Lake. So much beauty and since this path was not as traveled as the others, we pretty much had the walk to ourselves. We paced ourselves, stopping to take many pictures, and continued on to the Falls. Glad we went - was a pretty place. We met up with a Volunteer Ranger who for the past 6 years has volunteered in the park and he had hiked up to the falls for the last time this summer because he was returning back to North Carolina on Monday - "I had to see the falls one more time before I could go home." All I can say - stunning. Again, we rested, ate snacks and drank water but we were in trouble by then. We had been hiking in 9475 feet above sea level and had not paid attention to our bodies - just felt tired. I was beginning to get a headache, Dave was stumbling and we both felt lassitude - very lazy tired. We hiked back down, really taking our time and got to the bus at the bottom of the falls' walk and drove back into Estes to get home. There was alot of people in town due to Oktoberfest and fall festival, but I am surprised I was able to get us through and home in about 40 minutes. We could not carry on a conversation or do anything - I made us a dinner and we were asleep by 8pm. Today I found out we had AMS - Acute Mountain Sickness - which is common in people who are not acclimated to higher elevations and do not heed their bodies when in trouble. At the first sign we should have stopped, rested for about an hour, then turned around and gone home. Dah. So - will we go back? Of course! Tomorrow - but not hike - only to drive around and take some more pictures. We are at the peak of the aspens changing color and it is spectacular to see the golds and oranges. We have delayed leaving Loveland for a few days, waiting for mail to be delivered before we move on.

One tidbit - as I was maneuvering through Estes Park on our way home, traffic was halted and Dave was trying to figure out why everyone was taking pictures of a tree. Turns out a bear was in the tree! I hope Dave was able to capture the picture of the bear - I almost captured a ticket because I would not move faster than the police officer said. Ooops.