Blogs from Rocky Mountains, Colorado, United States, North America

3rd May - I went swimming and made friends with a 5 year old...we are on the same level 4th May Jon took an early lunch so he could drive to the airport to collect his friend Rico, who was visiting for the weekend, while on a trip to Vegas. After getting very lost, we eventually found Rico and took him back to Jons apartment, where he promptly fell asleep for a few hours (while Jon went back to work). When he woke, we had a few beers and chatted until Jon came home. Dinner at Ted's Montana Grill (awesome salmon) 5th May We got up at 7.30am and were in the IHOP for a hearty breakfast by 8.15am. Food drives boys. We then drove to The Rocky Mountain National Park for a day of hiking ... read more

Time to hire another car, since I hadn't figured out how to get on a day tour up to the Rocky Mountains. Hiring a car would make it easier, and probably at around the same price too. So just before 8am, I headed down to Enterprise. I hired myself a Ford Focus. Pretty slick car. I had time adjusting to the traffic conditions here; this was Denver and it was a major city. From what I experienced with the traffic here, I had a few more near misses than I normally would. I first made it to Boulder, at the foothills of the mountains. I was getting very upset with my GPS at this point, but eventually I managed to have it lead me to Estes Park, the town just before the entrance to the Rocky ... read more

We’re in the mountains and winter isn’t far away. The temp was 26 during the night and thank goodness we had a site with electric last night, the heater kept us from freezing to death. There is frost everywhere outside, painting a portrait of what is to come. Oscar had breakfast and went back to bed. We had a quick breakfast, packed up and headed off to Rocky Mt. Nat’l Park which was only 3 miles away. There was a stand of aspens begging to be captured with a camera. Pictures….. A side note about aspens; they are called a stand because they share the same roots. That is why they grow in clumps or groups. When there is a forest fire the trees are destroyed but the roots survive and shortly after they shoot up ... read more

September 04 Arapaho National Forest-Rocky Mountain National Park-Cheyenne, Wyoming I drove back down the mountain from the dispersed campground and into Hot Sulpher Springs. I decided to do a little exploring and discovered a nice campground called Pioneer Park Campground. I asked how much it was to camp there and they said it was free. So I will keep it in my pocket for future reference. In the town of Hot Sulphur Springs you turn off Hwy 40 like you are going to the Resort and just over the bridge turn left into the campground. It was a pretty nice campground right on the Colorado River…..and free. After exploring Hot Sulphur Springs I drove to the Rocky Mountains National Park. It was awesome and although this is the third time I have been there I was ... read more

Another long drive bought us to our next National Park – The Rocky Mountains. We entered via the west which is the quieter side so it was nice not to be welcomed by a mass of cars; well I say cars, more like trucks!! It was quite late on when we arrived and got our bearings, but we wanted to do something before we pitched the tent so we went for a walk in Coyote Valley and decided it would be nice to see if any wildlife surfaced at dusk so went and got our tea to eat there; this was a lovely place there was nobody else about and it felt really relaxing. In the end we saw a couple of Elk in the distance but in the end we were drove out by the ... read more

A road goes nearly around Rocky Mountain National Park that starts down in Boulder, thru Estes Park and then over a 12,000+ summit and onto the west side. The road, at 12,000 looks down onto most peaks full of snow and glaciers. We thought that we’d drive up to the Alpine Visitor’s Center just past the summit on our last day in the Rockies. A plus is that part way up is a Junior Ranger Headquarters and Christabel could get her Jr. Ranger Badge here. We started out and it is a drive that I highly recommend. Near the summit the road is above tree line and mountains are visible to the west. It is amazing to look down onto mountains that look so high from Denver and see the peaks. Herds of Elk were at ... read more

Needless to say after a day of workshops, a very boring afternoon I may say, I hopped the hotel shuttle for the airport. I didn’t have much to eat during the day as there wasn’t much gluten free food and I was anxious for dinner and a cappuccino. Security was empty so I rushed thru to get to the food only to find that I was on the far end of the airport in a very small wing. There was only one vendor with pre-made sandwiches, some bananas and canned sodas. GURR! I started to blog but then the battery started dying and the outlets didn’t work. Oh well, I got to read the book I’d brought along “Packing For Mars”. Thunderstorms were once again in the Denver area when we took off but by the ... read more