Contentment by design - Living

Our legs and lungs are getting more used to the mountains now that we've been hiking up there for last couple of months, since the highways reopened, so we took a longer hike today, up to Fern Lake, an old friend, and then beyond to Spruce Lake, a new acquaintance.

This was the first time we revisited this area since a fire, the biggest in the history of Rocky Mountain National Park, burnt in the area in the fall/early winter of 2012, and since the floods of last September. I wasn't sure what we would find, but it actually was amazing. Some of the canyon walls had fire damage, but the area the trail passes through was mostly fine. We did see a couple areas where there were flash floods that tumbled down the steep canyon walls and across the trail, but no major damage.

The thing that is most amazing is how well the forest is doing as a result of all the rain we've had this year. The underbrush is lush and green, and there are wildflowers everywhere. This is the best I've seen things looking up in the Park in years.

Early in the morning, we were greeted by a stand of Bee Balm.