May 14, 2013 - Rocky Mountain National Park

Although we only spent 3 days at Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park, Co the beauty of the park speaks for itself. Some areas of the park were closed until Memorial Day, however, we were able to see spring taking place in the locations we visited. It is not unusual to hear many languages being spoken in our national parks as it seems that the U.S. is unique in the variety of settings in our parks, but most of all the sheer enormity of the park system, often a single parks is larger than the entire country of many of the foreign...

Oct 21, 2012 - Colorado Springs, CO to Estes Park, CO

Day fifty one: Destination- Estes Park Soundtrack- Steppenwolf and AC/DC Another Packer Sunday away from our 65" T.V. We took the bartender's advice and went to Tony's for the game. It was the most packed bar we have been to. There were so many Packer fans, and there was, of course, a Rams fan. There always is one, huh? Fortunately, the Packers put on a fantastic show for us, and the Rams fan was a bit quieter after halftime. Then we drove from Colorado Springs to Estes Park. It was another gorgeous drive through the mountains. Colorado is...

Oct 20, 2012 - Estes Park Rocky Mountain National Park

I have never been to the Rocky Mountain Estes Park. What a treat. Skies were sunny, weather was just a perfect temperature and the winds were not all that bad. I will say up high like this you do want to hold on to your hat. There is not much I can say about the park other than how nice and beautiful it really is. I looked up a few links for you that will describe the park in much better detail than I could. I just enjoyed a day of driving and site seeing in Estes. The good news is I have a National Park Lifetime pass so it did not cost to...

Sep 25, 2012 - Maroon Bells - Put it on your Bucket List!!

9/25. One thing I had seen while doing my research on this trip was a picture taken at a place called Maroon Bells. They are a pair of 14,000+ ft. mountains with a lake at the base. They are the 2nd most photographed mountains in the United States. I had to see them - it is the only reason we stopped in Glenwood Springs. The weather had been poopie, but broke on the drive to Aspen. The lady at the visitor’s center recommended we head right up to the mountains, because the weather was supposed to move back in later in the day. It was about ½...

Sep 25, 2012 - Why they call it Aspen

9/25 We thought we weren’t going to have a great day today. We woke up to clouds and rain, so we did some housekeeping and business work. About 11am we headed out for Aspen. The drive took about 45 minutes. We went into town first. Think Ellicottville but add a couple of extra zeros to the end of your income to be able to live there. There were houses up on the mountains that were to die for. You will see in my pictures why the town is named Aspen. They are everywhere, and this time of year it is breathtaking. We headed for the tourist...

Sep 23, 2012 - Rocky Mountain NP

9/23 Our last day in Estes, we’ll be on the road tomorrow. We did fall in love with this area. Today I did some cooking in the morning. Put a pot roast in my new crock pot (thanks Kelly, John, Jillian and Owen!!!) and made a pot of spaghetti sauce. Then we set off to the park. We decided to take a drive over a road which was opened in 1920. It’s called the Old Falls River Road. It’s a one-way gravel road with lots of ruts and switch-backs. The speed limit is 15, but sometimes that seems a bit fast. There are no guard rails, and it is a...

Sep 21, 2012 - Day 5

Okay, I know this one is a day late but we had internet issues last night lol. Apparently mother nature prefers us to be without technology for this trip cause nothing is behaving! So this day found us driving into Denver. Smog city, ugh, nothing pretty about it. We stopped just outside the city and took a tour of Hammond Candies, it was pretty cool and we realized that one person can make 3000 candy canes in a 8hr work shift (just in case you were wondering about that one day). We bought some goodies then decided we wanted to reach the...

Sep 21, 2012 - Estes Park

Drove from Manitous Spring to Estes Park, just outside Rocky Mountain National Park today. Not a particularly pretty drive until you get near Estes Park. Denver is a nice and clean looking city, but if you live on the east side it seems you don’t have much of a view. When we got through town, near Boulder, that is when the Rockies made their presence known. We went into town after we got settled. Again, were in another great RV park. Our site is about 40’x80’ so it’s great for the dogs portable invisible fence. We also have a beautiful...

Sep 21, 2012 - Pictures Estes Park

9/21 I just wanted to show you some pretty scenes. The aspens are at their peak for fall, so between the elks bugling and the tress Estes Park is really crowded. Here we thought we’d have the whole place to ourselves, but it took us about ½ hour to drive through town which is about 8 blocks. It was bumper to bumper.

Sep 19, 2012 - Estes Park Colorado

Estes is full of Elk! This small town is at the base of Rocky Mtn National Park. The Aspen trees are turning and it is beautiful. We have seen lots of Elk, in town, in peoples back yard, and at the Park. This evening we saw two elk fighting, and a cow nursing a calf. Hundreds of Elk.... The weather has been great, in the 70s every day.

Sep 12, 2012 - Westminster to Estes Park, Colorado

What a difference a day makes! It rained heavily overnight, breaking the 146 year old rainfall record for Denver. By the time we left the hotel around 10am (Nick went to get an oil change), it had slacked off to a light rain. We headed northwest to Boulder, which is a lovely town. Very compact, and new buildings are designed to blend in with the environment...hence, stone is used extensively for building foundations, walls, walkways, entrances, fountains, etc. VERY EARTHY! At this point, we had a decision to make...do we go over the...

Aug 19, 2012 - Last Day in Estes Park

We stayed in town today. First we went to church at a Presbyterian Church in Estes Park. It was a very positive experience. The church is located on the outskirts of town and is on a beautiful site with great mountain views. The minister's message was good about persevering and finishing what you start, the choir sang, the pipe organ was ably played by the organist and the congregation was very welcoming. I love to see historic buildings that have been restored so next we went to the Stanley Hotel which is perched on a hillside. It is huge...