9-18-17 Eastern Rockies and Good Friends (Eastern Slope of CO)

Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

We left South Dakota, and headed south and west toward Colorado.  Rather than drive one long day, we decided to take two days and add another national monument park to our trip.   



Covered Wagon at Scotts Bluff National Monument, NE

We spent one night at the Scotts Bluff National Monument in Gering Nebraska.  The bluff is along the Platt River and was a tall landmark used by settlers on the Oregon, Mormon and California Trails…all heading west.  We actually hiked along the Oregon Trail and could see the wagon wheel carved banks of the pass.  The air was filled with smoke again…from all the northwest forest fires and visibility was poor.  From the top of Scotts Bluff, we should have been able to see Chimney

Chimney Rock Ntl Historic Site, NE

Rock National Historic Site 20 miles to the east.  This was the landmark used by the westward traveling settlers just prior to Scotts Bluff.  It is hard to imagine walking all the way from St. Louis to Oregon, California, or Utah! The wagons only carried the food and water needed for the trip, along with any possessions needed to set up a farm or mine at the final destination.  It took a year or so for the trip, and many people did not make it.  These people must have had strong motivation to be so committed to make that trip in spite of the hardships! 

Church on the Rock, Peak to Peak Hwy, CO

Our next destination was the fabulous Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) so we parked our motorhome in Estes Park, CO. We arrived during Labor Day weekend, so instead of fighting the crowds in the park, we decided to take the Peak to Peak Highway our first day.  It turned out to be crowded also.  We drove past the beautiful Longs and Meeker Peaks and south to Golden.  We wanted to tour the Coors Brewery (Bob did that in 1968 shortly after Coors opened), but the line was over 2 hours…so we passed and bought our Coors with lunch. 

Historic Storefronts, Central City CO

Instead we drove to two historic mining towns in the foothills:  Central City and Black Hawk.  Both turned out to be mostly casinos….with only historic storefronts kept for looks.  Very disappointing….the last time Bob was there, these were true historic mining towns.  The beautiful historic Elks Lodge cannot compete with free drinks at the casinos (a revenue generating function for many Elks Lodges), so it is only open for meetings. 



Headwaters Colorado River, Rocky Mtn NP, CO

We drove the entire RMNP road system, starting with a drive up the Old Fall River Road, the first auto road opened into the park in 1920.  The dirt road is so narrow that it is one-way traffic only up to the Alpine Visitor Center, the highest Visitor Center in the NPS.  The views should have been spectacular, but again the smoky haze prevented us from even seeing nearby mountains and appreciating the glacial valleys. The pine forests are not looking very healthy; the mountain pine beetle has already killed about half the pine trees (they were weakened by the long drought).  There are a lot of dead trees at higher elevations.   We did have the opportunity to see the headwaters of the Colorado River at the Continental Divide, and actually walk across it as a very small creek.   



Dream Lake on Early Morn Hike to Emerald Lake, RMNP

The last day there, we hiked the Bear Lake area.  It is very popular, and like Yosemite, you had to be there before 8am in order to find a place to park.  When we arrived, it was very cloudy and overcast.  We started the four mile hike up a steady 10% slope up.  We passed Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and finally reached Emerald Lake.  The sun finally came out and we could see the beautiful high peaks surrounding the lake and us.  We could understand why the hike is so popular…   



Male Elk Guarding "His" Heard, RMNP

The elk herds grazed in the valley, just outside Estes Park, and the males were in rut with the prime male with each small herd of females and juveniles.  We heard some elk bugle…but no contests for male supremacy.  Our favorite (and only) stop in Estes Park was the porch of the Stanley Hotel, another wonderful historic hotel.  When we first went there in the early 90s, it was by itself on a green hill with the lofty mountains above it.  This time, it was surrounded by suburbia….but still lovely.  We enjoyed a glass of wine on the porch while looking across at the mountains and the lake in town.   

Rocky Mountain Sunset from Porch Stanley Hotel, Estes Park

Sue Vargo and Linda, 39 years later.....

Between 1992 and 1994, Linda worked in Boulder and Bob worked in Denver.  We built a house in Broomfield on the open space between Denver and Boulder.  We had a beautiful view of the flatirons (foothills) and the white/snowcapped mountains (over 14K ft high) of the Rocky Mountains (with the smoky haze, we couldn’t even see the flatirons).   After leaving Estes Park, we had the opportunity to have lunch in Longmont with Sue Vargo, Linda’s co-student while getting her masters at the University of Maryland, 1977 and 1978 (Sue lives in Lyons).   

"Private" RV Park, Markel's Pasture, Broomfield

We also spent a wonderful couple of days with our long-term friends Dr. Bill and Jean Markel in Broomfield.  We used their horse pasture behind their house as our private RV “Park”. We really enjoyed our walk with Bill and Jean from their farm on the open space path behind our former house. It was satisfying to see that our design and work of 25 years ago were unchanged and still looking good. According to Jean, their friend’s son bought our house and still enjoys living there. 

The Back of Our Former Broomfield House, Great Views to the West

Dr Bill and Jean Markel, and Bob

Construction of Coors Field for the Colorado Rockies baseball team was started while we lived there (we watched the Rockies play in Mile High Stadium their first two years). So we went to Coors Field to see the Rockies get slammed by the Giants, but the beer and hot dogs were still good.  We then spent a wonderful day with Jean and Bill and enjoyed a great dinner on their patio (we picked the vegies one hour before dinner from their farm garden-fresh).  It is always so nice to see long-time friends (we don’t call them old friends anymoreJ); one of the wonderful parts of our 3 year adventure is seeing as many friends  as possible.    

AF Academy Chapel

We headed south from Broomfield to Colorado Springs for our last stop along the eastern slope. We camped on the US Air Force Academy and had a wonderful time visiting the academy. We could not believe how HUGE the Academy base is – it takes a long time just to drive around.  The chapel is beautiful and actually houses 4 different chapels.  The upper chapel is the Protestant Chapel and the largest with all the roof and side wall stained glass windows.  Below it are the Catholic, Buddhist and Jewish Chapels…  There are 23 different religious denominations that worship in those 4 chapels at various times.  The AF Academy STRONGLY encourages each cadet attend one.  They build leadership skills based on faith-based or non-faith based moral values and ethics.  One wonders how they can continue to do this in today’s anti-religious environment. The Academy’s soaring program is incredible and would really be fun to fly in – the primer to becoming a USAF pilot (but we have to say:  Fly NAVY!) 

Stained Glass Windows, Protestant Chapel, AF Academy

We were lucky to see the chapel as it is about to be closed for repair of the stained glass windows.  While beautiful, they have a tendency to leak.  We were told that the original contractor almost went broke trying to install them according to the original design.  Apparently, it is time to redo them – hopefully they will retain the original beauty.   

Linda and Our Cog Railway Car, Pikes Peak, CO

We have both driven to the top of Pikes Peak via the Pike Peaks Highway (Bob drove it long before it was paved in the 1990s due to dust and environmental reasons).  So we played tourists, along with busloads of seniors (I guess that includes us too) and took the Cog Railway to the top…great views of the canyon on the way up.  The visibility at the top was a little better than we had in the Rockies, but still not as good as we had seen in the past.  The fires throughout the west were still hurting the air quality.   

Garden of the Gods NM, Colorado Springs

Another crowned tourist stop (trap?) is the Garden of the Gods, a small park of beautiful tall spires of red rock. While the sandstone formations are scenic, our brief stop was somewhat disappointing – not the way we remembered it.  The loop road took less than 30 minutes. 

Linda at Seven Falls, CO

We then headed south to Seven Falls and the Broadmoor Hotel… another historic hotel.  The falls were interesting: a steep canyon with a single waterfall with 7 different plunge pools and sections.  To see it all, we hiked up 300 steps alongside the waterfall; it was so steep, it was more like a ladder.  The hike only whetted our appetite for a nice glass of wine at “The Hotel Bar” in the historic hotel (pretentiously billed as the “Best Bar West of the Hudson” – although we did not agree and thought it far from that claim!).   

Bob Next to Fossil Redwood Stump, Florissant Fossil Beds

Our last visit was to the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument west of Colorado Springs.  The fossils were preserved by a shallow lake, formed by a volcanic lahar that blocked a river.  Most of the fossils are quite small: insects, plants, etc.  We spent a little time in the fossil lab, looking through microscopes to see various fossil forms (we loved the passion of the young paleontologist, but a little microscope goes a long way).  The only big features were huge fossilized stumps of redwood trees that had been buried alive in ash during the volcanic activity.  The surviving stumps indicate trees that were 250 feet tall.  Many of the fossilized stumps have been vandalized and taken by tourists prior to the area being protected as a National Monument. 

We continue to pray for the recovery of our friends and family and all those in Texas and Florida.  We are looking forward to getting back and doing what we can to help. 

For those unaware, our “Ramblin Adventures” actually started in 2005 with us cruising our sailboat to the Bahamas (1 season) and the eastern Caribbean (4 years). We have a strong attachment to the Caribbean islands and feel sad for their post-IRMA situation.  We know from our personal situation, most boat owners in the Caribbean are not wealthy.  It pains us to see the devastation to the charter fleet and private boats as well as properties.  We pray for all the residents, ex-pats, and cruisers as they try to rebuild the lives and recover their investments.  

We are now headed to the southwestern portion of Colorado and the four corners area, and then on to the north rim of the Grand Canyon and Arizona.  We thank God for his blessing and remain thankful to be able to continue our travels and exploration of this wonderful country.   

Feel free to pass the blog link on to anyone who might be interested.  

Best to all,

Linda and Bob