Hike near Estes Park

Hiking in the Colorado Mountains works your bloodstream when youre used to living in the Coastal Plains of Texas. It wasnt a difficult hike but the pace was more than I could handle. I just kept going along with my friends in agony though because to slow down too much just seemed unacceptable. I've hiked longer than that in Austin and never felt so miserable. It's not that youre tired and weak. Its that you think you cant make it another step. This trail starts near an old trading post you see in the first pic. The best way to hike or horse into Estes Park area before roads and cars was this trail. The blight among the trees is wither bugs or fires. Can't remember because both are prevalent in the Rockies. Bummer. And the small lake micro-biome was messed up from a flood recently. Global warming dude.