Road Trip (Day 4) - 11,000 ft atop the Rockies

Day 4 was probably the best day of the trip so far (and since I am writing this blog on
the afternoon of 5th day), I know for sure that it's gonna be the best day of the Road Trip.
Boulder is a nice little town set in the valley of the Rocky mountain range, about 30 miles north of Denver.

In the morning, we set off to the Rocky Mountain National Park. A 40 mile narrow winding
road runs all the way atop to the Alpine range (13,400 ft) and winds it's way down through
some really scenic snowclad peaks. Along the path you are treated to some extraordinary
landscape, waterfalls and wildlife in the form of elk and moose. The road that takes you
atop has steep gradients and when we reached the rainbow curve at 11,000 ft it was snowing, and there was absolutely no visibility. Infact the road was closed after that point and we could go no further. There was infact a lake at 9500 ft, but the water was real chilly and the surrounding trails were covered with snow. I have never been to Kashmir, but I am sure it's very similar to this.

After spending a good 3 hours in the Rockies we drove down to a mountain village of
Estes. This place was like a hill station and most of the shops were more than 100 years
old. It had a very rustic but scenic settings, set amongst the backdrop of snow clad
mountains. The evening was spent sightseeing the University of Colorado Boulder campus. This campus had a very different kind of style of construction which I haven't seen any other
university before. Devoid of arches, domes and pillars, they were more like castles built
with orange bricks. We aslo drove down to a high point in Boulder and got a panaromic view
of the entire town, and were fortunate enough to catch a wonderful rainbow formation.

In the evening we drove down 35 miles to dine at an Indian Chaat restaurant. We had a
feast of paani puri, samosa chaat, masala dosa and madras filter coffee. The night was
capped off with some editing of photos and videos in hand and planning for day 5. But as I mentioned I am already into Day 5 and things have unfolded in a rather dramatic
fashion.......keeping checking this space !