Rocky Mountain National Park
Well last week we had to take Dave back to Denver to fly back to the winter wonderland called Buffalo. Rather than driving straight down I-25 90 miles to the airport, we decided to dust off the RV and head to the mountains. And then Dave can experience what it is like to sleep at Wal-Mart. While I am talking about sleeping at Wal-Mart I would like to suggest to everyone that if you haven’t slept in a Wal-Mart parking lot before, you should try it. They allow RV’s to park in their lots and stay there overnight for free, assuming that some people will come inside and buy some supplies while they are there. So, if you haven’t done it yet, don’t even bother with the RV, just drive over to Wal-Mart tonight and sleep in your car. It is a fun deal. And don’t bother to go home and shower, go for the whole deal and shower up in the bathroom under the low flow faucets.
So, we left on Tuesday morning headed down I-25 and then hung a right and trucked up towards Estes Park. Along the way in one of the slot canyons and conveniently right at a pull off spot, I spotted a Big Horn Sheep down by the river getting a drink. Unfortunately I didn’t get a good close up shot of him, but you get the idea. He actually didn’t have large horns either. They were there, but not very large.
The flat white area that you see in the 5th and 6th photos is Cub Lake. It is completely frozen over. And when we went over the shoulder above the lake we were walking on a few feet of snow. The fortunate part was that it had been very warm for a few days and several people had snow shoed the trail before us. So the heat helped pack the snow nicely so we didn’t need snow shoes. We broke through from time to time, but not bad at all. Why listen to the ranger when he says “Oh, you will definitely need snow shoes for that trail.”
So the next morning after sleeping at Wal-Mart we went to a local park outside of Denver in some none descript town. And I didn’t pay any attention to the name of the park that we went to. But I thought you might like to see the Bubonic Plague carrying Prairie Dogs. They were fun to watch as long as you don’t get bitten by them. They have another disease but that one you get only if you inhale their droppings. Again, I didn’t pay allot of attention to what that one was. How many people here knew all of the diseases that Prairie Dogs carry and how they are transmitted? There is no limit to what I don’t know but Paula does.
So, we left on Tuesday morning headed down I-25 and then hung a right and trucked up towards Estes Park. Along the way in one of the slot canyons and conveniently right at a pull off spot, I spotted a Big Horn Sheep down by the river getting a drink. Unfortunately I didn’t get a good close up shot of him, but you get the idea. He actually didn’t have large horns either. They were there, but not very large.
Did I mention that it was 55 degrees in the middle of February? Very nice weather. So while we were in Rocky Mountain National Park we went for a good hike. Our destination was Cub Lake which is around 8500’ of elevation. We hiked for about 6 ½ miles and about 500’ of elevation. Not a bad little afternoon hike.
Where we were at was on the east side of the mountains and the weather towards the east was beautiful and clear and the weather up to the west in the higher mountains was looking very stormy which was interesting to watch. You will see the difference in the photos from the east to the west by the sky.
The flat white area that you see in the 5th and 6th photos is Cub Lake. It is completely frozen over. And when we went over the shoulder above the lake we were walking on a few feet of snow. The fortunate part was that it had been very warm for a few days and several people had snow shoed the trail before us. So the heat helped pack the snow nicely so we didn’t need snow shoes. We broke through from time to time, but not bad at all. Why listen to the ranger when he says “Oh, you will definitely need snow shoes for that trail.”
So the next morning after sleeping at Wal-Mart we went to a local park outside of Denver in some none descript town. And I didn’t pay any attention to the name of the park that we went to. But I thought you might like to see the Bubonic Plague carrying Prairie Dogs. They were fun to watch as long as you don’t get bitten by them. They have another disease but that one you get only if you inhale their droppings. Again, I didn’t pay allot of attention to what that one was. How many people here knew all of the diseases that Prairie Dogs carry and how they are transmitted? There is no limit to what I don’t know but Paula does.
That is it for now. But I have lots of material, so watch for more coming soon. I am planning to get back into the blog writing routine again.
R.J.
R.J.
posted by R.J. at 2:08 PM
3 Comments:
Hmmm... maybe for our family vacation this summer we'll just go to Wal-Mart.
Great photos of the park. I attempted the trek up from Denver while out there in Oct 2001, but only made it to Winter Park on CO Rt 26 (?) when they advised me of an impending snow storm, and if I wanted to get back to Denver for my flight the next day, I'd be best to turn around now or likely be snowed in for a few days if they closed Berthoud Pass. I also like the idea of a family vacation to Wal-Mart.
Walmarts are dangerous places. Steer clear I say.
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