Having sussed out the weather pattern we decided to get up early and use today to visit the Rocky Mountains National Park (RMNP). We took a very pretty road that followed a river up through the foothills to Estes Park at the park entrance, where we found coffee/tea and wifi, the sun was still shining. We drove into the park, which was quite busy considering. RMNP does not have any specific feature, it is just a very pretty piece of the Rocky Mountains which (a) they hope to preserve and(b) want to make accessible to people from the East. It is only about a couple of hours from Denver airport, so anyone wishing to experience the NPS would see this as a first call.
The access we got was limited by the snow (again) as the high mountain pass road was still closed, leaving the Bear Lake Trail as the only option to visit, which we did. The car park was quite busy, though it was Sunday. However on reaching the Bearl Lake Trail we found that this is where the snow starts. The trail was still under a couple of feet of snow, not too handy for a wheelchair. Fortunately the view of the lake and the mountains was only about 50 yards up the trail through the forest. At this point, in the car park, we had struck up a very pleasant conversation with a couple from ‘Back East’, in Arlington Virginia (home of the famous military cemetery), Chuck and Penny, who were also slightly infirm (chuck was awaiting a knee replacement and you could hear it clunking), so taking it very slowly we four set out on an expedition through the snow covered mountains to Bear Lake, after many adventures we eventually reached the lake edge and were greeted by a very pretty view of the frozen lake with snow covered mountains behind it. We sat for a bit and took pictures, then came back again, saying farewell to our fellow expedition members. By this time (a) it was lunch time and (b) the weather was starting to close in, so we drove to a lower lake, Sprague Lake (nothing to do with the sugar people), where we had our packed lunch, watching ducks on the lake, and rain on the lake and snow on the lake and hail on the lake and lightning in the distance. I have made it sound bad, but it was not particularly heavy, just enough to stop us getting out and walking round the lake.
The access we got was limited by the snow (again) as the high mountain pass road was still closed, leaving the Bear Lake Trail as the only option to visit, which we did. The car park was quite busy, though it was Sunday. However on reaching the Bearl Lake Trail we found that this is where the snow starts. The trail was still under a couple of feet of snow, not too handy for a wheelchair. Fortunately the view of the lake and the mountains was only about 50 yards up the trail through the forest. At this point, in the car park, we had struck up a very pleasant conversation with a couple from ‘Back East’, in Arlington Virginia (home of the famous military cemetery), Chuck and Penny, who were also slightly infirm (chuck was awaiting a knee replacement and you could hear it clunking), so taking it very slowly we four set out on an expedition through the snow covered mountains to Bear Lake, after many adventures we eventually reached the lake edge and were greeted by a very pretty view of the frozen lake with snow covered mountains behind it. We sat for a bit and took pictures, then came back again, saying farewell to our fellow expedition members. By this time (a) it was lunch time and (b) the weather was starting to close in, so we drove to a lower lake, Sprague Lake (nothing to do with the sugar people), where we had our packed lunch, watching ducks on the lake, and rain on the lake and snow on the lake and hail on the lake and lightning in the distance. I have made it sound bad, but it was not particularly heavy, just enough to stop us getting out and walking round the lake.
We did feel pleased though that we had beaten the weather by starting early. We then drove back down through the park and stopped at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center where we were able to watch a couple of very nice videos about the park, better than actually being there!
We decided that as the weather was not going to improve that we would go back via Fort Collins, more specifically via Texas Roadhouse in Fort Collins, which we did. The only incident being that after having a new windshield fitted last Tuesday (today was Sunday) we drove round a corner, on a perfectly good black top road, a car came the other way, and ‘chink’ a stone hit the windshield and we had another chip, right in the middle of the passenger field of view. I was mad. But what can you do? Fortunately the windscreen replacement had a chip guarantee and a replacement policy, so we tried to find the people to do it in Fort Collins, with no luck as businesses were closing for the day. We returned to the trailer, where I applied sellotape to the chip to stop it turning into a crack. Another nice day in the Rocky’s.
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