RV Trip'N

Saturday, May 19, 2012

May 19

One last look at the view from our campsite.

Today we woke up to a cold and cloudy morning, we watched the fog roll in over the mountains, we hated to leave this beautiful place but it was a little to cold, the high for the day was only in the 50's and they were calling for rain. We are headed to South Dakota.

We made our first stop in Fort Collins and did a tour of the Budweiser Brewery, that took about two hours and was a lot of fun, we than stopped at Sierra Traders, a large store like Gander Mountain, and did a little shopping.

We ended up calling it a day at about 5:00pm and are camped at Glendo Lakeside RV Park in Glendo WY. It is a very clean campground and the area is very beautiful.

We watched the clouds roll in and leave just as quick.

Beautiful evening at Glendo Lakeside RV Park in Glendo WY.

I hope those are friendly clouds.

Sunset

May 18

This morning we decided to relax and have a nice breakfast, Richard made his famous pancakes and eggs outside on our grill, Delicious. We than went back into Estes Park to check out some of there more interesting stores. We have a favorite restaurant in town that has an outdoor patio that is built over the river. The weather was nice enough to eat outdoors. We than took a long ride through the park and saw a lot of elk and deer.

In the evening we were able to have a nice campfire and roast wieners before the big winds and the rain came.The wind gusts were so bad that we had to rescue our neighbor's tent, it pulled the stakes right out of the ground and would have blown the tent away if the picnic table hadn't stopped it long enough for us to run over grab it, carry it back and stake it back in for her,she was quite surprised when she returned .After that it got cold and rained pretty hard all night.

The river runs right through Estes Park. There are many areas where you can sit and enjoy a meal, coffee or beverage of your choice and relax.

The bar area in Nicky's is lined with hundreds of wine bottles.

Nicky's restaurant sits right along the river with an outside patio extends a crossed the river. Cool.

The Elk and the Deer in the park seem very use to people and aren't easily freighten. I was able to stop the car and get out to take a photo and they could care less.

Not quite sure about this guy other then it is some kind of warbler.

Friday, May 18, 2012

May 17 Still at Rocky Mountain National

Today we awoke to sunshine and warmer weather but because it usually rains in the afternoon we decided to get an early start on our hiking. We have a favorite hike here, the Emerald Lake
Trail. It takes you to four alpine lakes each one higher in alleviation ending at Emerald. The first two lakes were a piece of cake than we hit the snow. The trail was completely covered and in some areas up to around five feet, Richard was smart enough to bring along his hiking poles so we each had one pole which really helped. The snow was packed and the trail wasn't to hard to follow and as you see by our pictures very worth the hard hike in. Emerald Lake was completely frozen over and the wind was blowing so hard it created quite a wind chill, like a cold Minnesota day in January, yikes!

In the afternoon we took a ride in to Estes Park to do the rest of the shopping for our granddaughters. The town is very touristy but very pretty. We will be at the park for at least another day.

Emerald Lake Trail

Dream Lake

On The way To Emerald Lake

Emerald Trail

View From our Campsite

RMNP Campsite

Relaxing after a hard day

May 16 Rocky Mountain National Park

Big Thompson Canyon

Estes Park, CO

Today we drove up the Big Thompson Canyon to Rocky Mountain National Park. Even the drive up is beautiful. At the top of the canyon sits Estes Park, a beautiful mountain town. Estes Park is just a couple of miles from the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.We arrived in the park in the late morning and found a great camping spot on a high bluff overlooking a beautiful meadow, we decided to stay at least three days. The weather here is cloudy and chilly. In the afternoon we took a couple of shorter hikes, an easy hike up to Alberta Falls and the nature trail around Bear Lake we had wanted to do more hiking but it started to rain. The trails are still covered with snow on the northern sides and we're talking about a lot of snow. We have no electricity in the campground so the nights are cold.

Our great campsite

Coyote


Elk

Trail to Alberta Falls

Alberta Falls

Tail to Bear Lake

Bear Lake

Magpie

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Boyd Lake State Park

We left Canon City this morning with no particular destination in mind. We did not necessarily want to go too far however. Once we got on the road it turned out to be flat and four lanes, something we have not seen for a while, and before we knew it we were at interstate 25 heading toward Denver. By then we just wanted to get through Denver as quickly as possible. So after a short stop at Camping World, on my favorite store list, we ended up north of Denver at Loveland. Loveland sits at the base of the Big Thompson Canyon which takes you right into Rocky Mountain National Park.

We are camped for the evening at Boyd Lake State Park. Tomorrow the plan is to climb Big Thompson Canyon and stay in Rocky Mountain National Park for a couple of days. While here in Loveland it is beautiful at 80 degrees but the elevation is 5000 feet, in the park we will be over 8,000 feet and the evenings are still very chilly. There are no facilities in the park so our generator will get another workout over the next couple of days.

I don’t have any photos from today yet; I’ll try and get something before I send this. The view from our campsite is great, plenty of snowcapped mountains but it faces west and the sun will not permit any photos.

Boyd Lake State Park

A root cluster

Monday, May 14, 2012

What is at 11,300 feet you ask???

11,300 feet

Today was a major driving day, we drove form Ridgway to Canon City, home of Royal Gorge. We had to cross the Monarch Pass which was 11,312 feet another white knuckle drive. At the top of the pass there was quite a bit of snow but the sun was shining so the temperature was about 60.

We are camping at the Starlite Classic Campground and all I can say is that the scenery out the front window is beautiful, the campground leaves a lot to be desired.

We drove to the Royal Gorge and saw the span bridge, the Gorge is beautiful, than we drove into Canon City, a very pretty town with a beautiful river walk.