Tamara's Journey

Our 2008 Western Vacation Part 2

I woke up early the next morning. And after unzipping the two perpendicular zippers on the door to our tent I stepped outside and this is what I saw in the photo on the left. That’s my wife and our youngest daughter. Our oldest is taking the picture. I was literally spellbound by this view of the Rockies. But not only that, we were surrounded by mountains. Some were so close such as the one I called Mountain Momma from the song “Country Roads” by John Denver that you could take a few hours and go hike up it. But some were way off in the distance and only looked close.

Estes Park, Colorado is a really unique. It’s kind of like a really big small town that grew out of the popularity of Rocky Mountain National Park. Well, I grabbed my bathroom gear in my bag and while dodging the piles of deer crap around our tent I headed for the men’s room to get cleaned up. This was an RV Campsite so they had all of the amenities: running water, hot shower. Hell, they even had a swimming pool, hot tub and a dance hall where you could learn how to square dance.

So, after our spartan breakfast of oatmeal we headed out for RNP. It’s twenty bucks a carload to get in so we bought a annual pass for eighty since this wasn’t the only national park we were bound for. In addition to rnp we were going to see Monument, Grand Teton, Canyonlands, Arches and Yellowstone so for eighty bucks we were getting a good deal.

Just by virtue of being at the entrance to the park you’re already up more than a mile above sea level. And it didn’t take us long before we were up around 10,000 feet. This was the end of June and there was still snow on the mountain peaks and so one of our stops was where this delicious stream of snowmelt was cascading over the masonry on the side of the road. I couldn’t resist so I walked over there, got real close and cupped my hands and drank some of that beautiful water. Then I washed my face with it too.

Then we drove some more until we got up about 11,000 feet and this is what we saw. Then we drove a little further when we came to a traffic jam. Why the hell would there be a traffic jam in the Rocky Mountains. Well, when there’s a herd about to cross, people stop their cars so that they can get out and look.

Off to the right of us was this herd of Elk. There were at least fifty of them and most of them looked to be female. There was the head female Elk out in front. She was looking at the cars that had started to slow and pull to the side of the road. Then when she determined that it was safe for the herd to proceed, they crossed and then went on their way down into the valley. I’d say that was pretty neat for our first day in the Rockies.

We got back to our campsite around four in the afternoon. I took my daughter to go swimming in the pool and then took a dip in the hot tub. Then we decided to go back into the park so that we could see some more. My wife wanted to check out all of those side roads that branched off from the main road. One of them led us down a road where there were some pretty Aspens. There was still another side road we took that led us along this pretty river. See the gold color from the rocks on the bottom of the river. No, it’s not gold. Quite frankly, I’m not sure how it got that color but doesn’t that water look lovely? I took a walk along this grassy river bank near where there were a group of Mennonites having a picnic. It was a really interesting spot where the river had branched out and ran through these two trees where it was shallow. Shallow enough to walk through. So, I took off my shoes and socks and waded through it. Man, was it cold. It had to be at least 40 degrees, so cold that it numbed my feet.

It was starting to get dark so we headed over to our final destination for the day. Bear Lake. Bear Lake was created by a glacier that came through here a long time ago and left this moraine field of boulders in its wake. We took the hiking trail around the lake and there you see me enjoying myself in this pristine wonderland. Well, actually, you really don't see me. Damn, I ran out of disc space so I couldn't put that photo in. Guess I better upgrade. It's comin'; don't worry.

When we got back we decided to go into town. Estes Park is kind of neat. It’s a walk-a-round town with a lot of specialty and curio shops. We were getting really hungry from our sojourn into the Rockies that day. Who’d a thought. Everybody seemed to agree on Mexican so as we were walking down the street I went into this bar and saw this guy with a beard. Looked like a local. I asked him where the best Mexican restaurant was and he said, Casa Grande. And he wasn’t kiddin’ either. A wonderful restaurant. Good food, excellent service and very lovely décor as well. If you love Mexican food and you’re ever in Estes Park or wherever else you can find one, you’ve got to go.

And with our stomachs satisfied and with as much shopping around as I could tolerate, (Girls love to shop. I’m the only guy, so the guy has to get into it too and I do but was I happy to get back to our campsite.) I was glad to get back for more reasons than to get away from the constant barrage of curio shops. After a couple of nights of clouded skies it had started to clear up and I was looking forward to see what the stars looked like up here. You know what? It would have been great if it wasn’t for the fact that we were in an RV park. There were so many lights on there. Lights from the front office, the square dance hall and the mens and women’s bathroom. I was wishing that for just fifteen minutes, perhaps, that there would have been a little brownout in the town of Estes Park so that I could see those starry skies. But my star gazing dreams would have to go unfulfilled until we ventured a little more westward.

Part 3 of "Our 2008 Western Vacation"