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.