Day 5 - Thursday: Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park
Let me state outright that I’m terrified of heights. TERRIFIED! So, of course, we go to one of the highest National Parks in the country. I believe we calculated I made it up to 9,475 feet on Thursday!
How can you go to Colorado and not visit one of the National Parks?
We planned this visit to Rocky Mountain National Park for later in our trip so we could be acclimated to the altitude to avoid altitude sickness. Unfortunately, by the time we decided to go, it was too late to get
timed passes for the
RMNP Bear Lake Corridor, the lower altitude portion of the park.
Our choices were to either getup at 4 AM, drive in a strange area in the dark (hoping not to hit moose or elk) and navigate mountain roads to arrive at the entry booth before time entry begins... or wait until after 4pm when tickets were available. Lucky us! Pulling out of Boulder Wednesday night we were contemplating both options when we scored newly released tickets during the 5 PM lottery on the app - 10 AM entry! Woot!
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| The drive in |
They aren't kidding about the timed entry. You need a park entry pass plus your timed entry pass. We were warned not to arrive early (we watched them turning visitors away) so we headed to the Visitor's Center. After perusing the center and buying souvenir's (plus, of course, a little geocaching), we got in line and arrived at the park entrance minutes after 10 AM!
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| So sad... ROMO: We Are Rangers Multi GC5MGZF |
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| Heading into the park |
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| Moraine Park |
I saw a new life bird! A cheeky bluebird called the Steller’s Jay. He was hopping around the trash dumpster. We came across a family of them later after our hike, too!
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| New bird! Steller's Jay |
The parking lots were full so we headed to the Park 'n Ride - free service, good for the environment, saves wear on our breaks. They dropped us right at Sprague Lake- our target for the day!
Sprague Lake is stunning! No wonder it's so popular! There trails and boardwalks completely bordering the lake so you can completely walk around it, and it was so beautiful from every angle! we spent HOURS here!
And I kept my promise to myself. This trip was to relax, to reflect, to live in the moment. I sat on every bench around that lake!
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| A girl and her frog |
Hard to let life get you down when you experience such beauty in this world. Blessed. Totally blessed.
With peace in our hearts we headed back to the bus stop, where we watched the Steller's Jays frolicking (yes, frolicking!) amongst the pine trees!
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| Steller's Jay |
Feeling daring, we boarded the bus to Bear Lake. Daring, that is, until we realized that Bear Lake wasn't "down the road" from Sprague Lake. Nope. This bus went up! Up! Up! That was the 9,475 feet I mentioned earlier. We didn't stay up there for long!
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| Sub-Alpine Lake is up above the tree tops! |
After another visit to the Visitor's Center (Look! Magpies!), we had a bite to eat outside the park and then shopped & cached in downtown Estes Park.
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| Black-billed Magpie at Visitor's Center |
We also spent the day photographing elk on the main road, in the park, in our motel parking lot, and down by the lake on the golf course. Their bugling was charming… for the first hour, but I didn’t sleep Thursday into Friday for all the ruckus they made!
What two things will keep you awake in Estes Park? The bugling Elk during mating season and The Stanley Hotel, the inspiration for the Shining! Yes, there's a cache there, too!
Exhausted but satisfied, so ended a very special day in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.
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