Warning! No trains in this post, anywhere!
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| Jim, Patti (my wife), David, Laura, Julie (Jim's wife), Karen (David's wife) and me in Boulder |
Who you calling old? These are old friends because we've been friends for so long. 1971... That's 50 years! High School. Explorer Scouting to be exact.
What these old friends did was have a reunion at Rocky Mountain National Park. Why RMNP? Because one of us retired and moved from Michigan to Colorado and the rest of us said, "Watch out! Here we come!" And, so we did for a week in early September.
We spent some time wandering around in Boulder before we left for RMNP.
Estes Park is the town at the entrance to the National Park
Obligatory sign selfie (that I'm too lazy to mirror)
Sheep lakes near the entrance to the park
Patti and Karen pose at the alluvial fan area of the park.
Lunch!
Lunch thief (Stellar's Jay)
We stayed at a cabin at YMCA of the Rockies. They call it a cabin. It was a large house! Very comfortable!
...with a fantastic view of the NP.
Mule deer making an appearance at our cabin.
An obligatory round of mini-golf. No scores kept. We like it that way. (some of us, anyway)
Sunset.
That concludes day 1. Everyone conked out early.
Day two started with a drive up Fall River Road. It is the original road across the park. It's still dirt, but now a one way road.
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| (Shhh. Don't tell the rental car company I had the van here...) |
Near the end of the road, we encountered a herd of elk.
The road ends at the Alpine Visitors Center.
A short, but very uphill, hike take you to 12,000+ ft.
Continuing west, you come to the continental divide. Apparently, this radio equipped moose is in charge.
The road back is Trail Ridge Road. It runs on top of the park - literally.
Lava Cliffs
A lone big horn sheep.
Back at the YMCA, a bull elk had decided to stake out left field on the baseball diamond.
After watching the nightly appearance of the mule deer, we called it a day.
The third day, we had a pass to the Bear Lake area. We had to get up early to hit our timed-entry window.
We took the Bear Lake trail around the Lake.
After walking the trail around Bear Lake, we took the trail to Nymph Lake
Later that day we took a tour of the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. The Stanley Brothers made their money making dry emulsion film plates, invested that into the Stanley Steamer car company and built this hotel in Estes Park to help with one brother's tuberculosis.
The hotel is famous for being the location where Steven King dreamed (literally!) up the plot for The Shining.
This is the room where it happened.
More nightly mule deer and dinner in Estes Park.
This concludes day 3. Day four we hit some spots we missed on Trail Ridge Road.
Many Parks and Rainbow Curve Overlook
Tundra Communities Trail
Then lunch and a walk around the aptly named Lumpy Ridge
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| Lumps |
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| More Lumps |
That evening we joined the crowd at Moraine Park to watch the elk do what they do.
The last day. One last look out the window of the cabin.
...then on to Brainard Lake
The old friends are still doing new things!
