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| Back at one of our favorite places in Colorado! |
Saturday evening we left the beach for some mountain time. We'll be enjoying the cooler temperatures and the mountain views of Colorado for a little over a week. We've flown through Denver several times over the past few years on our way to other places, but this is the first time in a few years that we've spent any time roaming around this neck of the woods. We're looking forward to it!
We arrived late so we opted to spend the first two nights in Westminster, a northwest suburb of Denver. As is often the case, even though we got in late and were pretty tired, our internal clocks woke us up pretty early this morning. Getting an early start was a good thing, since it gets dark around 5:00 PM at this time of the year.
Our Day 1 adventure was to revisit a couple of places we've enjoyed several times before, Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park. From our Westminster hotel to Estes Park was a little over an hours drive. Estes Park is a small town with a population of around 6,000 people that is a summer resort area (there are no ski areas nearby) and the headquarters for the Rocky Mountain National Park. Thanks to our early start we were there by 9:30. We decided that our best strategy would be to head directly to the national park and save the town for the afternoon.
Estes Park
Rocky Mountain National Park
According to the National Park Service, Rocky Mountain National Park was visited by over 4.5 million people in 2018. This made it the third most visited park of our sixty one national parks, trailing only the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and Grand Canyon National Park.
There are four entrance stations to the park. Two of these are located at Estes Park. Given it's close proximity to Denver, most visitors enter the 415 square mile park through Estes Park, earning the town the title of "Gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park".
Although it is somewhat "off season" and parts of the park, including the main road (Trail Ridge Road) is closed for the winter, we didn't have the park to ourselves. However, we got through the entrance in just a couple of minutes and had no trouble finding parking at some of the more popular areas. During the "peak season" this often isn't the case.
We enjoyed visiting Bear Lake, but due to recent heavy snowfall the trail was too icy for us to hike around the lake. We did slip and slide for a bit down to the waters edge and got some nice pictures of the lake, which is now covered with a thin layer of ice with snow covered mountains in the background. We also visited the Many Peaks area along Trail Ridge Road, which is as far as you can go along this road until spring when the snow at this high elevation melts and the east and west sides of the park are once again connected.
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| There is a great trail around Bear Lake. The elevation here is 9,500 feet. It was too icy to hike......but.... |
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| when you can't hike you can sit and enjoy! |
After exploring a few more areas, and making numerous stops along the side of the road to simply enjoy the setting, we made our way back to Estes Park for lunch and a little walk along the creek and through the downtown. While most of the shops and restaurants were still open, a few had already closed for the winter. As on past visits, one of the highlights of yesterday was the huge herd of elk that tend to hang out on the local golf course. There were hundreds of them helping keep the fairway grass low as they grazed peacefully, some of them occasionally crossing through the small stream only to graze on the other side, upholding the age old saying that "the other elks grass is always greener".
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| Downtown Estes Park |
Over the next couple of weeks the number of visitors to Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park will continue to drop as winter strengthens it's grip on the area. Visiting Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park is always a treat. However, if you're planning a visit and can do so, consider coming at this time of the year. The temperatures tend to still be comfortable (it was around 50 yesterday), the crowds are smaller and the deals are better. I don't see a downside to any of those!
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| Thank You, this Veterans Day weekend and everyday! |
