Colorado 2023 – 01 – Travelling with the Schinglers

We meandered our way across the country and stopped in Kansas to visit this memorial to the 9th Calvary Regiment, also known as the “Buffalo Soldiers” While we were there, we called Michelle, realizing that Eric was from Kansas. We asked if we were anywhere near his hometown. We found out he grew up just down the road . . .in Oakley.

We took a detour to Oakley and spent some time going through the small town. We visited on Eric’s recommendation, the Fick Museum and discovered that the docent at the museum went to school with Eric, new all about him and his restaurant endeavors. It really is a small world.

We finally made it to Estes Park in Colorado albeit a day early and parked in our space for the night. It was raining in the morning so we decided to “walk the town” which is something we usually don’t do. We did stop at the Estes Park Museum and saw this bust of the town founder, Joel Estes, 1806-1877. I dashed outside in a drenching downpour to get this photo and quickly returned to the covered entry.

We entered RMNP (Rocky Mountain National Park) early in the morning (to avoid crowds) and quickly began to see the expected wildlife, this mule deer was wandering alongside the road.

We spotted this guy on our way to the Old Fall River Road which was closed due to heavy snow. He walked around our truck and I was immediately “lit up” by a park ranger. Apparently I got too close to the moose, and my argument that the moose approached me did not seem to hold water. Eventually he let me go with just a warning.

I did climb down a bit to get a shot of this guy (no ranger in sight) and quickly returned to the truck.

Elk were everywhere.

More elk.

Cathy showing the depth of snow near the Fairview Curve at the Alpine Visiter Center. This is where the Old Fall River Road ends up. I guess it really was “snowed in”.

Hike #1 was cancelled. This is the start of the trail to the top and was closed for some reason.

I always get a kick out the restroom instructions.

We were able to hike halfway around Bear Lake. The remainder of the trail was covered in snow and ice.

Hike #2, to Flattop Mountain was cancelled due to apparent trail conditions. We hiked this trail a couple of years ago to Bierstadt Lake

This little guy was hopping all around us. There apparently was some cookie parts falling out of my pockets?

We were able to hike the Alberta Falls, as this trail had very little snow.

We drove over to this alluvial fan to see how much it had changed in the past couple of years. There are some nice swimming holes further up the canyon, but the weather was coming in and we did not want to hang out in this area much longer.

The weather was turning really ominous.

Even the moose were bedding down for the approaching storm.

This was our view from the motorhome in the morning.

Since the rain and snow had stopped for a while we decided to hike the Lower Ute trail. I checked with the rangers and it was open from here down.

There was a little snow towards the top. You can see the trail cutting through this field.

Cathy, in full snow gear, is slowly crossing this snowfield.

We had an audience for part of the hike. These guys don’t eat cookies. Don’t ask, I just know.

Heading back to the truck we spotted these three guys stalking us.

They got a little closer before crossing the trail and heading downhill.

Sometimes when you look down you spot something other than trail. There were a lot of small wildflowers trailside, but you had to look for them.

We still had our team covering our retreat.

This sign is in about a block from the trailhead. Most people make a quick detour to climb a rock overlook of the valley below and never actually make it this far. I had tentatively planned on hiking to Beaver Meadows on this trip but was not prepared for the weather.