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Rocky Mountain National ParkMay 16, 2009
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What a view
We are still on the ride up
Friday was one of those days that will remain in our memories forever. When I mentioned to Jan that I thought she would really like to see Estes Park, she knew that we were going there in a few days and said that maybe that would be too much for us. She had no idea of what Estes Park means. I reminded her that Colorado is the home to the Rocky Mountains and there is no better place than Rocky Mountain National Park to get the very plain and simple wonder of it all. Sure it was about 75 miles away but each mile was an experience. Thankfully, she listened to her big sister and away we went. Our first experience was the drive through Boulder. What a nice town….. Just like most collage cities, there is just about everything a person could want; especially the students. Of course that means they have what we want also. As I told the gal I talked to at the Visitors Center, “We are old folks that still think we are young.” She responded that they “love our kind. “ Some of our favorite places are when we share them with the young. They seem to enjoy talking to us to. We took hwy. 36 up to Estes Park and continued on to the entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park…. The entrance we chose has super gift shop and a great restaurant. It was lunch time so we decided to eat here before venturing too much further into the park. Our waiter was from Nepal and had just finished four years of collage in Madison, WI with a degree in Hospitality Services. He plans on staying in Colorado to get his masters and will return to Nepal hoping to open a successful restaurant/hotel there. We wish him the best. The food was excellent and the view was spectacular. The hummingbirds were out in full force and I caught a few pics.It wasn’t more than ¼ mile before we came to a field of elk…. Wow, there are so many elk here that I’m sure they might have to get rid of a lot of them. They are everywhere, in town and out. Our destination today was only as far as Bear Lake (9,400 ft)because so much of the road is still under snow…. We made it there but the lake was ¾ buried in snow….. We hiked there anyway even though I was in my sandals. Not a good thing!... I slipped and slid and darn near froze my feet but it was worth every step. It was so beautiful.On the return we stopped at another lake that was at about 7,000 ft and all melted. It was even more beautiful… Hope you like the pictures…..We made it back to the town of Estes Park in time to hit several of the shops, and believe me there are a ton. The town is also beautiful. We all purchased a few things including ice cream that was wonderful. We were not quite at the tourist season so many of the stores were closing…. Next weekend they will start their summer hours and stay open until 9:00 pm. We had just enough time to make us want to come back again next week and decided to take a different route home. We saw on the map that Hwy 7 was a scenic hwy so that is the way we went. It really was beautiful but added at least forty miles to our return trip. It was a real mistake because we were so tired and that we didn’t appreciate the beautiful views anymore. All we wanted to do was get home. We did just that but still didn’t know what to do about dinner. That was soon solved when we went a mile or so from our lot to a pizza place. We put our order in for pizza and while waiting we ran across the lot to a grocery store for bread and milk. King Sooper was such a nice store that we bought a bunch of other things too.Oh boy! Did that Pizza taste good… I haven’t eaten pizza for at least three months. We stacked the dishes when we finished eating and waited until the next day to clean up/ That gives you an idea of how tired we were.What a wonderful day……………………………Later……….
