We are back from our trip to Denver and Rocky Mountain National Park. Here are some observations. I'll begin by stating the obvious: air travel is terrible.
Denver is a walkable city, but there isn't all that much to do. While Janet attended her conference (Leadership Exchange In Arts and Disabilities), I went to some museums and stores and relaxed. It's called Mile High because it's a mile (5280 feet) above sea level. You must drink a lot of water to stay hydrated, and we did. It was very hot (90 +)everywhere we went. Because the air is so thin and dry, it was okay to walk around. But it was hot!
The City is plagued with rental scooters, zooming around and unused ones littering the sidewalks. Annoying. It also has real tramcars, just like most European cities. There isn't a lot of traffic downtown.
Our hotel room had a nice view of the "front rage" of the Rockies to the west. There were late afternoon thunderstorms all over the place, local and fast moving. Sometimes we got rained on, sometimes not.
We stayed an extra day after the conference and went to the Denver Zoo. It's supposedly one of the best, but we couldn't help noticing the confined quarters for many of the animals and birds.
From Denver we went to Boulder, where the U of Colorado is located, and had lunch with a classmate and stayed in a funky old mountain hotel for the night. (It's for sale, $4.9 mil, if you're interested.) I left my credit card at the restaurant Friday night and when we went back the next day, on our way out of town, the restaurant wasn't to open until 4:00. I went around to the back, found a back door open and went in and found a kitchen staffer who spoke no English. A few minutes later, an older gent arrived on a bicycle and introduced himself as the chef. He got my card. But the real bonus was seeing the restaurant's kitchen: it was spotless.
It was on to Estes Park, the western gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. The plan was to hike for a couple of days and for me to spend a day with a fly fishing guide. I thought I had booked a nicer than usual hotel, and in some ways it was – we were in town – but the Wi-Fi was terrible, non-existent, the room was small and we had to keep the AC on the whole time. And we drank prodigious amounts of water. The town is 7,500 ft. above sea level and Janet woke with a bad headache one morning for lack of drinking enough water.
I don't get Estes Park. You would think it would be full of stores catering to super-fit outdoorsy types. Nope. It is a honky-tonk touristy town full of t-shirt shops, ice cream stores and souvenir stores, and on the Saturday and Sunday we were there, mobbed with people who were quite obviously in no condition to hike anywhere or do anything outdoors. My overriding memory of Estes Park is people who didn't need any more ice cream sitting outdoors eating ice cream cones. What were they doing there? We did find one decent restaurant, but most seemed forgettable.
On Sunday, it rained all day and so we got into our rental Chevy SUV and drove most of the Trail Ridge Road, a depression era public works project in the park that rises up to several ridges, crosses the Continental Drive and has wonderful views of the peaks and valleys. I believe the last time I stood on the Continental Divide was on one of those road trips Mom and Pop took us on, and there is a photo of us at Berthoud Pass, in central Colorado. How's that for memory?
I don't get RMNP, either. For a park with many great hikes, it's very hiker-unfriendly. There is very little parking at any of the trailheads. So you either get there very early, or ride shuttle buses from town. And the buses are ridiculous. Only one bus goes deep into the park and makes only one stop. From there you transfer to other buses to take you to trailheads. They run only every half hour. Terrible.
I spent Monday with a fly-fishing guide, wading Glacier Creek and the Big Thompson River and getting all sorts of instruction on my casting and reading water from an older guy who is a retired Tennessee corrections officer. I caught some trout, too. All of this with those peaks in the background.
On Tuesday, we decided to skip the buses and drove to the Fern Lake Trail head, arriving at 6:15 and hiking out at 6:30. It was a great hike, watching sunrise on the high peaks. We saw a moose and her two calves (and got outta there in a hurry) and two waterfalls. But after three hours and another 700 vertical feet to go to get to Fern Lake, we turned around. Janet drank all of the 1.5 liters of water (about a half gallon) in her pack. She has been race-walking at home for several weeks, and it paid off.
I've crossed Denver and RMNP off my list and I don't think we'll go back. But once again I saw that we live in a beautiful country.
Denver is a walkable city, but there isn't all that much to do. While Janet attended her conference (Leadership Exchange In Arts and Disabilities), I went to some museums and stores and relaxed. It's called Mile High because it's a mile (5280 feet) above sea level. You must drink a lot of water to stay hydrated, and we did. It was very hot (90 +)everywhere we went. Because the air is so thin and dry, it was okay to walk around. But it was hot!
The City is plagued with rental scooters, zooming around and unused ones littering the sidewalks. Annoying. It also has real tramcars, just like most European cities. There isn't a lot of traffic downtown.
Our hotel room had a nice view of the "front rage" of the Rockies to the west. There were late afternoon thunderstorms all over the place, local and fast moving. Sometimes we got rained on, sometimes not.
We stayed an extra day after the conference and went to the Denver Zoo. It's supposedly one of the best, but we couldn't help noticing the confined quarters for many of the animals and birds.
From Denver we went to Boulder, where the U of Colorado is located, and had lunch with a classmate and stayed in a funky old mountain hotel for the night. (It's for sale, $4.9 mil, if you're interested.) I left my credit card at the restaurant Friday night and when we went back the next day, on our way out of town, the restaurant wasn't to open until 4:00. I went around to the back, found a back door open and went in and found a kitchen staffer who spoke no English. A few minutes later, an older gent arrived on a bicycle and introduced himself as the chef. He got my card. But the real bonus was seeing the restaurant's kitchen: it was spotless.
It was on to Estes Park, the western gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. The plan was to hike for a couple of days and for me to spend a day with a fly fishing guide. I thought I had booked a nicer than usual hotel, and in some ways it was – we were in town – but the Wi-Fi was terrible, non-existent, the room was small and we had to keep the AC on the whole time. And we drank prodigious amounts of water. The town is 7,500 ft. above sea level and Janet woke with a bad headache one morning for lack of drinking enough water.
I don't get Estes Park. You would think it would be full of stores catering to super-fit outdoorsy types. Nope. It is a honky-tonk touristy town full of t-shirt shops, ice cream stores and souvenir stores, and on the Saturday and Sunday we were there, mobbed with people who were quite obviously in no condition to hike anywhere or do anything outdoors. My overriding memory of Estes Park is people who didn't need any more ice cream sitting outdoors eating ice cream cones. What were they doing there? We did find one decent restaurant, but most seemed forgettable.
On Sunday, it rained all day and so we got into our rental Chevy SUV and drove most of the Trail Ridge Road, a depression era public works project in the park that rises up to several ridges, crosses the Continental Drive and has wonderful views of the peaks and valleys. I believe the last time I stood on the Continental Divide was on one of those road trips Mom and Pop took us on, and there is a photo of us at Berthoud Pass, in central Colorado. How's that for memory?
I don't get RMNP, either. For a park with many great hikes, it's very hiker-unfriendly. There is very little parking at any of the trailheads. So you either get there very early, or ride shuttle buses from town. And the buses are ridiculous. Only one bus goes deep into the park and makes only one stop. From there you transfer to other buses to take you to trailheads. They run only every half hour. Terrible.
I spent Monday with a fly-fishing guide, wading Glacier Creek and the Big Thompson River and getting all sorts of instruction on my casting and reading water from an older guy who is a retired Tennessee corrections officer. I caught some trout, too. All of this with those peaks in the background.
On Tuesday, we decided to skip the buses and drove to the Fern Lake Trail head, arriving at 6:15 and hiking out at 6:30. It was a great hike, watching sunrise on the high peaks. We saw a moose and her two calves (and got outta there in a hurry) and two waterfalls. But after three hours and another 700 vertical feet to go to get to Fern Lake, we turned around. Janet drank all of the 1.5 liters of water (about a half gallon) in her pack. She has been race-walking at home for several weeks, and it paid off.
I've crossed Denver and RMNP off my list and I don't think we'll go back. But once again I saw that we live in a beautiful country.
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