so we kept driving

until we came to Cable's Pub & Grill in Estes Park.  We stopped for lunch.  I normally don't like to stop for food but Cosme doesn't handle being hungry as well as me.  I want to do what I came to do and eat when I'm done, especially if I'm out site seeing.  Food usually ruins it for me.  Feed me and I'm done.  Luckily, salad sounded good so I didn't eat anything heavy with my water.  After lunch we continued on until we finally made it to our destination, Rocky Mountain National Park.

Again, I pulled over at the first stop

and then the second.  Then I told myself I couldn't keep stopping... again.

I honestly don't know what these are.  Elk, maybe?  I don't know.  The sign up the road cautioned everyone to watch for big horn, but these aren't big horns.  Another sign warned everyone of bears, but these definitely aren't bears.  Some of them had antlers and they looked a little fuzzy. 

And then I kept driving up the mountain, getting closer and closer to the snowy parts.

And then, all of a sudden there it was, all deep on the side of the road.  Guess what.  I started to panic.  It's not that I was scared of the snow but I knew how high up the snow was and all that snow meant I knew I was REALLY high.  I'd never make it as a skier.

Luckily for me, the road was closed and we couldn't go any higher than this point.  No, it doesn't look snowy from here.  That's because all that greenery in front of me is WAAAAY down there.

We took this picture and then turned around.  We headed down towards Bear Lake.  Everything seemed normal until we got there.  Snow was everywhere.  I figured a path to the lake was cleared for walking but boy was I wrong.

Had I known I was going to walk on snow/ice/whatever, I probably wouldn't have worn canvas shoes.

Oh, I also probably would've left my camera and 24-70mm in the car.  Talk about cautious...  I don't know what I should've been more worried about, falling while holding my camera and lens or having a stroke from worrying about falling on my camera and lens.  So, most or all of these were taken with my phone.

And then we came to Bear Lake.  How was I supposed to take a picture of the lake when it's all iced over?  This situation had "accident" written all over it so hat was my signal to leave.

I took this picture on our way back to the car.  Don't get me wrong, it was very pretty and I really wanted to walk around in it but I just wasn't prepared.

You don't say.  

We got back to the car to head back to Denver.  We first had to stop in Estes Park at McDonalds.  I needed a Coke (which was the first one I'd had, thank you).  We took another route back to the hotel, the less scenic route, going through Longmont and then south on Interstate 25.  This seemed faster and a straight shot... until we got closer to Denver and stuck in stop-and-go traffic.  Apparently, everyone was headed into town for the weekend.

We made it back to the hotel and plopped.  We were too tired to walk a block over to get food.  Room service, it was.  Room service with water.  Did I mention the ridiculous amounts of Pepsi on this trip?  Pepsi on the plane, Pepsi in the vending machines, Pepsi with room service...

That was the end of day 1.