around Estes and RMNP part 2

I am hoping to wrap up the trip with this post. So hold on, it might be a bumpy ride long post. : )

So Tuesday rolls around and hubs has been behind the wheel, well, A LOT. So I had read about an aerial tramway in Estes Park. Right on the middle of town. It was family built and owned there for many years. I am not a huge fan of this sort of thing. I can’t decide if I’m scared or I just don’t want to think about dangling from a wire in the sky. But anyhoo, we rode it. And it was fun. And the scenery was great.

I met a lady on the tram when they were doing the “where are y’all from” chit chat as we headed up the mountain. Lo and behold, she is from my neck of the woods…as in just a few miles from here. So we ended up exchanging street intersections near our homes to tell what we are close to. Very weird. Reminded me of riding up Pikes Peak in the cog and the man directly across from me worked at the elder care center three houses down from me. So this was déjà vu all over again. : )

Anyway…pictures!

There is one on the way back…

And here we gooooo…

It was pretty at the top. : )

We walked around a lot and hung over all the platforms taking pics of every possible angle of the skyline and the mountains. Just so pretty. There were little walking paths along the top of the mountain and we enjoyed the birds and chipmunks too. It was nice up there. But after a little while we were ready to come down. We decided we would eat lunch and piddle around town a bit. So we looked in all the little shops, bought our souvenirs and had a bite to eat. We saw this pretty sight at the edge of ‘downtown’ Estes. 

And then we wondered what we were going to do with the rest of our day. So we looked in the guide magazine for Estes and the surrounding areas and took two scenic drives. One takes you through so very pretty countryside and some small towns. And the other goes along Big Thompson Canyon…a stunning drive I’ve been through a couple of times as a kid.

Big Thompson.

St. Malo Catholic Church. Dates back to 1935. Pope John Paul II has visited there.

After all the driving, we chilled out back at the cabin. My peeps favorite thing about the cabin..an old school Nintendo system. Duck Hunt!

Wednesday morning we had a decision to make. According to the web site for the park, one of their most popular scenic drives is closed most of the days because of road construction. But they will let you in before 9am or after 4pm. So Wednesday morning we high tailed it into the park way before 9am so we could take the Bear Lake drive and hike. You can see we weren’t the only ones with that idea. : ) We had to be in before 9 but could leave throughout the day. So once we were in, we were good.

We are not big hiker people. But we hiked Bear Lake..which was a whopping half mile (and almost no vertical gain) all the way around. But it was lovely!

Oh, snap.

In case you’re wondering if we saw any bears…no. We did not. Thank you God, for no bears. But I follow the park on twitter and this past Sunday, there was a two year old black bear in the parking lot looking for food. So we only missed him by four days. Whew.

Y’all, we walked around this lake and I could post 20 pictures just from that. Every place there was a small clearing, the girl and I were snapping away with our cameras. The water was clear and the sky was so blue and it was just gorgeous.

We took a couple of other walks along the same trail head that were labeled moderately easy. Bear Lake had almost no vertical gain, but the other two were huffer and puffers as far as I was concerned. A lot more ‘going up’ time on the other trails. But I did ok.

There go my peeps..up the hill.

From the trailhead. We were resting in between hikes. : )

A total poser…he was so happy just to sit there and be photographed.

Smiling, even though we were walking hard there for a little bit.

After we completed all our hikes and our picnic lunch, we drove back part way UP again, to see if it was less hazy and let me hop out and take a few more pictures. And that was the end of our time at RMNP.

We went back into town to rest a bit, then found a place to eat dinner. Rock Inn Tavern. Best meal while there and of course, I did not take my camera and the place was adorable. Just exactly like you think it should look…rustic and dark. Great food.

The weather while we were there was great. 50’s when we were waking up to 70’s in the middle of the day. Niiiice. : ) But of course, being in the mountains, it was pretty unstable. It sprinkled or rained every day, but it never ruined our plans. I kind of enjoyed watching it come down on our patio…it smelled so clean. Loved it.

I will say that I am much better shape this year than last. Our cabin was at a higher elevation than the high point in Tennessee last year. And I was huffing and puffing in Tennessee. : / I just ran right up the steps to my girl’s room without giving it a second thought. I did have to stop a few times and regroup when we were hiking. But because of the way I do my cardio…intervals…I recovered nicely and could continue on quickly. Woot.

It was nice to get out of our every day routine and experience something else for a little bit. But I am realizing that I carry my recent health issues with me where ever I go. And I guess that is ok. I just see life through a different lens now.

{on a funny note…the foobs got bubbles in them when we went up. It took them a couple of days at home to return to normal. We joked that if we went any higher, I would turn into Dolly Parton. Well that didn’t happen, of course, but it was a good laugh. Ha!}

And with those little notes, that brings us back to where this started.

RMNP…day one

The biggest reason we went to Estes Park was to go into Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). But the funny thing is, we’d read a little bit online, but we didn’t have a clear picture of what we were going to do once we got there. Basically we were flying be the seat of our pants.
So that picture you saw in my last post of my hubby sitting at the table…that’s pretty much a daily scene. Looking at the map or the magazine or the guide book and plotting our next day/move. And believe it or not, it worked out pretty well for us.

I know I have been to RMNP, but I was very young. So this was all new stuff to me. I love going places I’ve already been, but experiencing something new is exciting for all of us.

I can’t say enough amazing things about the park. It’s stunning. It’s got it’s own weather and it’s own vibe all the way around. And the people in the park are so friendly to each other. It’s like we all stand there looking at those mountains and realize we’re all a tiny part of something very big. And it changes us. Even if just for a second.

Enjoy the pics…and the narration. Ha, I can’t help myself. : )
We encountered a bit of a bummer on what I call our ‘high’ day..the day we drove past the timberline into the tundra. There was haze in the air from wildfires elsewhere. (no idea where..not in RMNP)  Anyhoo…made the scenery very dull. But after many years of vacationing in various mountains, you get what you get…weather there is it’s own thing. So on this day, we got haze. : /

We used to be driving on those roads….waaay down there!

Cuteness. : ) There were chipmunks all over the place and we had so much fun watching them.

allrightythen. {gulp}

It was a wee bit windy..or a lot…and a wee bit chilly…or a lot. : )

We late lunch at the Alpine Visitor’s Center…and it was UP THERE.

And you should be so proud of me…I got a veggie sandwich on whole wheat bread..but it tasted awful…so I had brought {emergency} food and ate from the trunk of the van. I wasn’t going to eat unhealthy stuff. Even there. Ok..I did eat that bag of bbq chips…and they were so good. But I got some other things to make a healthy meal from the van. And notice that bag of chips…very puffy stuff. This kind of altitude does weird things. Science in action. : )

More elk.

Evidently they draw a crowd.

At one time there were two ranches owned by the same family. The land was turned over to the park system with the stipulation that the oldest ranch would remain intact as a museum. The newer ranch, with slightly newer buildings etc, was demolished to return the field to it’s natural splendor. The ranch that is only alive in pictures was called The Never Summer Ranch…clever name. And back in the day, way back when, people would spend money to go there and enjoy the weather and pretend to be a cowboy on a dude ranch.

Site of the newer ranch. A gorgeous meadow area.

And this is the museum. It has volunteer docents from the parks service acting as guides and telling about all the buildings on the ranch and the family that made it all work. All I can say is they were very hardy individuals. The eldest lady of the family continued to come and spend her summers there way on into the later parts of her life. Amazing and hard working.


I can’t imagine these sorts of homes in the middle of summer…much less the middle of winter. This was almost like a little town. The husband did a mail order course and got a degree in taxidermy and would mount things that their guests killed. Just a fascinating life.

Check out that elevation. Woot.

Yes, it was cold when we were in the tundra. Every time we stepped out of the van it was colder than the time before. Very cold and very windy. We did not spent much time taking pics before hopping back in the car. Brrrr.

It was gorgeous in a barren sort of way. Amazing how it was a whole different eco system at every elevation.

We pretty much did the high road scenic drive in its entirity. And it took us the better part of a day. But we were taking our time. By the end, we were glad to head ‘down’ into Estes as the altitude was beginning to give hubs and I a bit of a headache.

That was Monday.  Stay tuned for Tuesday and Wednesday. : )

Co Springs and Estes Park

So we went to Estes Park, Colorado, which took us two days to drive. On the second day, we knew we were running a little bit early to be let into our cabin, so we stopped in Colorado Springs for a little bit.

On our last visit to the Garden of the Gods, we didn’t have very long to get out and walk around, so we feel like filled in those gaps last week. 

Enjoy the pics.

Tiny red dot in the middle of the pic below is a rock climber. Crazy.

WE on the other hand, stayed on the sidewalk. ; )

We arrived in Estes around 2 and were able to check into our cabin. We stayed at a small group of cabins/resort sort of thing called Solitude Cabins. In a word, they were great. Super clean and comfortable. With everything we would think of needing plus a little bit more.

The kitchen from upstairs.

Dining area…and hubs mapping out our day.

Living area…the only thing I wasn’t crazy about was the direction our cabin was situated…the sun was a bit much sometimes.

Our cabin was called…

…Black Bear Cabin. And the owners carried that theme subtly throughout. Cute.

Our little cabin from the outside. : )

Mule deer are common around town. I spied this little sweetie right outside our cabin.

And so are ELK. This pic was taken a couple of blocks from our cabin. And the next one was taken in the yard right outside. There were several mule deer and elk together, but this one was content to just lounge in the yard. 

And that doesn’t even count what we saw in the park!

I walked around to the front of the resort to take the pic from this post, and had to be careful not to step in elk poo. You know you aren’t in Texas Kansas anymore when you have to watch for elk stuff.

We stayed in Estes but several of our days were spent inside Rocky Mountain National Park. More to come…