We are in Utah and I have a lot to tell. We left the Ruane's Monday morning after a great breakfast of French toast. We drove to Castle Rock to visit my cousing Rebecca and her family. We hiked to Devil's Head in Pike National Forest. At the top of Devil's Head is the last fire watch tower in the forest. The view from the watch tower is fantastic. On our climb up the stairs, we were assaulted by a swam of lady bugs. I know we all think lady bugs are cute, but thousands of them at once is another story. I was so worried I would end of eating one. We left Pike National Forest and drove to a mall for lunch with Rebecca, Caroline and Reid. The mall just seemed the most convenient place since we were leaving Castle Rock for Rocky Mountain National Park. In the mall, there is a tribute to the lady who wrote American the Beautiful because the song was inspired by the view from Pike's Peak. After lunch, we had to get on the road. Olivia cried a lot. She wanted to spend more time with her cousin, Caroline. She told me that she had not been able to hold hands as much as she had wanted to. The drive to Rocky Mountain took us through Denver and the resort town of Estes Park. We camped in the Moraine campground. We had a view of Long's Peak, the highest point in the park at over 14,000 feet. We attended a ranger program that night where we learned all about the weasel family. The program was funny and educational. We watched a herd of elk nearby. When we awoke in the morning, it was about 50 degrees. We left Moraine and went on a ranger led hike to Bear Lake, Nymph Lake and Dream Lake. Along the way, we had excellent views of many famous peaks, including the scene on the back of the Colorado state quarter. We had to walk through a good bit of unmelted snow. Olivia engaged a man on our tour in a snowball fight. He seemed to enjoy it. On the hike we learned about the pine beetle infestation that is destroying trees in the park and the surrounding area. Olivia earned another Junior Ranger badge. After the hike we started driving along Trail Ridge Road. This road is the highest continuous paved road in the US. It goes from one side of the park to the other. We were driving from east to west. The views from the road are spectacular: glaciers, lakes, snow covered mountains, elk herds. We stopped to take what should have been an easy stroll to a look out point. We were at about 14,000 feet. At that elevation, only about 59% of the oxygen we are accustomed to at sea level is available. I really could feel the effects of the thin air. My head hurt and I was breathing heavily. Olivia, on the other hand, is singing, doing cheers, running, skipping and so on. She kept asking me to tell her things, and I would say that I was saving my breath for breathing. We wanted to camp on the west side of the park, but the campgrounds on that side are first come first served (no reservations). We drove to Timber Creek Campground and found one site available. Most of the campground was closed because of tree removal due to the pine beetle infestation. We took a guided tour of an old dude ranch (now closed). While there, a moose came right through the property. They are really big! After the tour, we let Olivia dip her (smelly) feet in the headwaters of the Colorado River. After supper, she told Brent and me that she wanted to put her whole body in the river. We went back to the campground and walked to the river at the campground. Along the trail, we surprised an elk eating her supper. We let Oliva skinny dip in the Colorado that ran through the campground. It was so cold that she really only got her feet wet there, too. After the skinny dip, we got cleaned up and headed for bed. When we awakened this morning, there were about seven elk going from campsite to campsite eating whatever they could find, including things that are truly inedible. We filled our water bottles here, but the water tasted as if it had been run through a pencil shaprpener. There was a distinct "taste" of pencil shavings. We headed for Utah around 7:00 this morning. Olivia and Brent are enjoying the pool at the campground, and I am doing some laundry.