An American Rocky Road Trip - Part 3

This post will cover the final part of our Rocky Mountain adventure - Steamboat Springs, Rocky Mountain National Park and the Colorado Rockies. To see previous sections, check out Part 1 and Part 2.

Strawberry Hot Springs, Steamboat, Colorado

Strawberry Hot Springs was probably the most glamorous part of our trip (if you don't count hiring a limo to take us down the Vegas strip...). We were given a very private camping area next to a babbling brook, and just a short walk away were the hot springs themselves, carved out of the rock. We stayed there so long it was soon pitch black, and we had to fumble our way back to our tents, apologising to inanimate objects for knocking into them.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

The rain caught up with us again at this point, so we began our visit to Rocky Mountain NP with some ranger talks about how to identify different types of bears, and a surprisingly interesting one about how pine tree-eating beetles and forest fires are actually a necessary evil that keeps the forest healthy in the long run. Who knew?

Deciding that the rain was too heavy, we called it quits, but when the rain let up we decided to head to Mt Evans, the highest driving route (although not the highest point overall) in the whole of America! We hiked the final stretch to the very top, where the altitude started to affect some of us.

What, you think this was posed? Mt Evans

Gothic, Colorado

Aside from being the best name for a town ever, Gothic is near-ghost town and also the start my favourite hiking trail of the trip. This hike took us through Gunnison National Forest and out into the most beautiful alpine meadows I've ever seen. Hiking here was like a cleanse for the soul. And if that wasn't perfect enough, that night, in our Gothic campground, we watched a meteor shower decorate the sky like fireworks.

Beautiful hike in Gunnison, Colorado