13 Jun Settling into the Llama House

This summer I will have the privilege to call Rocky Mountain National Park my home. Rocky Mountain National Park or Romo for short, is made up of 415 square miles of protected federal public land that supports a wide variety of plants and wildlife. Surrounding the east side of the park, is the town of Estes Park. I am excited to begin this season and learn new things. The scenery in this part of Colorado is amazing! On my first day at Romo I saw moose, elk, and mule deer. Everything around me is green and some mountains are still covered with snow. The diversity of plants in Romo is overwhelming, there are more than 100 plant species that I will try to Identify this summer.

I have hiked  the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California before, but the Rocky Mountains are giants! I will be living at 8,000 feet of elevation, which is a drastic difference from my hometown of Manteca located at 36 feet above sea level. Going out on my interpretive hikes will definitely be a workout. I should have super strong lungs by the end of the season. Despite being 90 minutes away from Denver, I was lucky to find that Estes Park has a Safeway and various stores are within reasonable distance of each other. I can totally understand why 4.6 million people visited the park this past summer of 2018. There are beautiful mountains, a grocery store, and hotels all within 15 minutes of each other.

I will be staying at a newly built facility we nicknamed the Llama house, because our next door neighbors are 3 Llamas. I have 6 awesome roommates and I can’t wait for the season to officially begin!