Part of the funny balance of traveling and going to national parks is the balance between nature and crowds. We love the national parks and that is some of the most wonderful things that our country has to offer. However we are not alone in this. And so in many cases as we arrive in national parks we have to deal with the funny thing of heavy crowds wanting to get away from it all. One of the things we always know is sometimes you need to get just a quarter-mile off of the asphalt parking lots to be away from the people. The traffic jams sometimes are really annoying however. Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park is one of those busy places. We know we will be at several more of those throughout this journey so the balance continues dealing with all the people who are there to soak in all of the beauty
That said, we were up early for a lovely hour and a half drive up a mountain canyon getting to Estes Park, where we will be staying two nights. This is right outside Rocky Mountain National Park. The drive into the mountains was so beautiful, much of it in the Big Thomson River canyon. We were mindful that the flooding of this river we were driving along had taken out much of this busy road (on more than one occasion) and had only recently reopened. The cliffs and the rocks as well as the mountain river were glorious. We also saw the signs that warned about floods! No floods today, than heavens.
We arrived at Rocky Mountain National Park, our first National Park on this trip. Lovely! A quick trip to the Visitor’s Center and then off on a great fairly easy hike of about 5 miles and about 4 hours.
Wild flowers, breathtaking views, and nice interactions with other hikers were the order of the day. It is so nice to get back to the mountains! We will soak in these views over the next week or so. People are generally so friendly on these hikes. Lot of families, including babies in backpacks and people of all ages. We even saw a couple of artists with easels set up for painting the beauty. We took, as you would not be surprised if you know us, a LOT of pictures today. At every turn, something lovely.
Our destination, where we planned on eating our lunch was something called “the pool.” We pictured a tranquil pause for the river tumbling out of the mountains. Oh no, not this pool! This was a mad torrent of water pouring through a narrow chute. Dramatic but not tranquil.
We found a great place high on the rocks to eat our sandwiches. Many others were finding similar places and eating their lunches. We even saw one of those babies getting changed. The food attracted a number of chipmunks and jays. We left them disappointed but healthier not having our food. What a lovely place to eat lunch.
As we ate we could see the clouds building over the mountain south of us. We began to hear the thunder so we thought it was time to start down. A few hundred yard down the path the first drops hit us. Pleasant at first, cooling off the heat. The drops became more insistent so we stopped and put on our rain ponchos. As it turned out, that was the heaviest rain we experienced so the ponchos were soon back in the pack.
Going down the trail we had a different perspective on the scenery and the many lovely wildflowers. Of course we had to stop momentarily for more photos.
We were tired and got to have an early check-in at the resort. We cooked a great dinner and then watched Monument Men on DVD. A stunning movie. See it if you haven’t. Then working on photos and the blog took us into the night. We love Colorado!
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