June 9, 2012 - Trail Ridge Road, Estes Park and Home. We had a change of plans - as if this trip involved much planning to begin with. We thought we might finish by a side trip to Bent's Fort and the Sand Creek massacre. That would have involved a 125-mile drive south to Pueblo, then through the back roads of eastern Colorado and western Kansas.
I am like a barn-sour horse, you know, one which picks up speed when it thinks it is going back to the barn. A couple of things were drawing me back, one related to work and one related to family. So, we cut the swing down south and headed east after driving Trial Ridge Road and spending some time in Estes Park. We camped near Ft. Morgan, CO, then drove home today. I am typing this in front of the Royals' game on television. They're losing.
After one last picture from Stillwater in Arapaho National Forest, the trip over the mountain tops was much as you would expect. Annie leaned toward the middle of the car, administered admonishments, motioned with her hands, called me bad names and was, generally, a nervous wreck. Those small distractions aside, the drive was as beautiful as any I have ever driven. There is nothing like being on top of the world on a clear day. Snowfields were everywhere. The sky was knock-your-eyes-out blue. The temperature was cool, but the sun was warming. It was a perfect day on Trial Ridge.
We did see something we've never seen before. There was a traffic light on the road. Yes, I said a traffic light, as in a stop light. Park employees were working along the side of the road, limiting traffic to one lane. There were two solar-powered stop lights, one in each direction, which took the place of two flagmen/flagwomen. It was a first for me.
Twenty-five years ago, we stopped on the Many Curves Overlook and took a family picture with Longs Peak in the background. Annie and I recreated that event yesterday, our 44th anniversary and her hurumph-hurumpth birthday. We then lunched at the Baldpate, one of our favorite places, to celebrate our anniversary.
We took one last pass at the Y Camp before leaving Estes. The new mini golf course is finished and they were putting the finishing touches on the promenade. The walkway is in place and the landscaping is nearly finished. I think you will like it. I did. The flowers are a nice touch, very colorful.
Finally, we couldn't pass through Loveland without thinking back to 1988 when I drove off and left our oldest daughter at Wendy's. As we were leaving, she peeled off to use the restroom without telling us. Her custom was to go to the bed in the back of Clyde, our 29' motorhome, so no one noticed she wasn't with us until we had turned north on I-25 on our way to Cheyenne. Not surprisingly, Annie and I had two equal and opposite reactions when we finally noticed she wasn't with us. She was about two clicks short of a full-blown attack of hysteria. Mothers are like that. I couldn't stop laughing. That didn't set well either.
Thirty minutes after driving away, we returned. Our oldest was sitting on the curb, hoping we would come back. She later said she came out just in time to see Clyde pull into traffic and drive off. She first thought I was joking with her. But then, we kept going until we were out of sight. She figured we'd come back sometime, she just didn't know when. She was fifteen at the time. She was also a surly teenager who deserved to get left behind.
So, that's it. We logged about 4500 miles over the last month while driving 107 hours. We averaged about 15 MPG and used about 300 gallons of fuel. Our eastern most stop was separated from our western most stop by 1600 miles. We were on the road nine days on the first trip east, home five days then out fourteen days for the trip west. It was good to be away. And, it is good to be home.
I'll be back when we next take to the road, likely in January, 2013. So long for now.
June 7, 2012, Waterfall, Grand Lake and Flowers. Dave Thomas came calling at 6:45 this morning. After breakfast at the Commons, we hiked a short trail to a waterfall on the SMR property. The water glistening in the sunlight was beautiful. The fall is not great, about 25 feet or so, but it made the early rising and walk worth the effort. Other hikers reported seeing a moose. For our part, we were content with whitetail deer sightings and overlooking nearly a dozen beaver dams and ponds.
We drove to Grand Lake this afternoon and did some store hiking. After some homemade ice cream, we stolled and admired the beautiful flowers.
Tonight, we are back at Stillwater Campground at the Arapaho National Forest, between Grand Lake and Granby. We'll cross over Trail Ridge Road tomorrow and revisit Estes Park before beginning our meandering trip home.
June 6, 2012, Snow Mountain Ranch, Dave and Carolyn Thomas. Dave Thomas serves on the YMCA of the Rockies Board of Directors. He and Carolyn will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in July of this year. Carolyn and Dave lived in Saudia Arabia for 21 years before his retirement. They spend their summers as volunteer staff workers for the Y. They are remarkable people who aren't content to while away their retirement. They want to give back and help the YMCAR, a place and an organization which has meant so much to them and to their family.
The Thomases worked at the Estes Park Center last summer and breathed life into the lifeless library there. They are doing the same thing here at Snow Mountain Ranch this summer. Carolyn does a blog which promotes SMR with wonderful and colorful stories about the many activities and places here. Both created geocaching and have planted about a dozen caches all over the ranch. It is a little like a scavenger hunt where clues are given to a cache. If a searcher finds the cache, he may remove one of the trinkets from the cache and replace it with one of his own. He then signs the log and moves on to the next cache. The motivation is that it will take guests to parts of the 5000-acre ranch which would otherwise go unexplored. Great idea.
We found Carolyn this afternoon and spent several hours catching up on their activities since the last Board meeting. Tonight, they took us to dinner at PI, a bar and eatery in Parshall, CO, about fiftheen miles west of Granby. We took the backroads to Parshall and saw some great relics of past ranching operations. We passed a tractor-trailer rig loading cattle from some free range land on the way. In Parshall, we saw a tepee crafted with elk antlers and another ski fence.
Afterwards, as day turned into night, we went to the Rowley homestead located here on SMR. The pictures above show what life was like in the Colorado Rockies in the late 1910s and early 1920s. Almost all of the structures have been preserved and much of the equipment used to scratch a living from the rocky soil are still there. It is a facinating place. We made our first trip to SMR in 1976. We've been back more than a dozen times. I did not know the Rowley homestead was there.
Carolyn and Dave are stalwart ambassadors for YMCAR. Annie and I are very proud to call ourselves their friends.
June 5, 2012, Lake Granby, Arapaho National Forest. We moved today from Leadville to Granby. The drive up Highway 91, our first time, was beautiful. Green fields, whitewater rivers, snow capped peaks reaching to the heavens. Just west of Granby, the Colorado River is both placid and churning. In places it is as still as a lake. Twenty miles further, it has cut a 300-foot canyon. It isn't the Grand Canyon, mind you, but it is impressive.
Some readers. you know who you are, have told me that I've been too hard on Annie the last few days. So, today, I'll be good. I'll limit my remarks to the scenery.
Some of the pictures require an explanation. Several of them were taken at Snow Mountain Ranch. There is a seven-bedroom cabin like the one we will have the week after Christmas when the family comes to SMR. Another photo shows the old farmstead at SMR and another the devastation wrought by the pine beetle. That critter, more accurately, millions of those critters, have destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of lodge pole pine trees in this area. SMR has not escaped. The 5000 acres there has been decimated. Beautiful green pine forests have been destroyed. The locals try to put a positive spin on the tragedy. They'll tell you that the vistas are "breathtaking" and that the clear land allows visitors to enjoy the flowers and the aspen which were passed over. I still miss the pine forest.
Another photo shows the old Silver Creek ski area, now named SolVista Basin. It is where our kids learned to ski before moving on to Winter Park and other large ski resorts. It is where some of our grandchildren will learn to ski this winter. To borrow a phrase from Daniel Webster, "She may be small, but there are those of us who love her." Of course, he was referring to Dartmonth College. For Angie and Carrie, I have included a photo of Camp Chief Ouray. I don't know where the tepees are.
We settled tonight in Stillwater Campground on Lake Granby. It is a lovely place and we were able to take our first shower in three days. Annie smells a lot better. The picture of the sun setting over the mountains is just for you.
June 4, 2012, Molly Brown Campground, again. To bed early last night, up late today - ah, the life of a camper. It is hard to beat. We are still in the Leadville area on Turquoise Lake. Today’s pictures combine some from yesterday and others taken today on walks around the lake. Yesterday, we did a 3-mile walk to the north end of the lake.
Today, we walked to the dam on the south end. The walk to the dam was along a nature trail. There were a gazillion mosquitoes along the trail. When I stopped and look skyward, I could see literally thousands of them swarming above. They put off a high-pitched hum that could be heard as we walked along the trail. Amazingly, I had not a single mosquito bite. I don’t think any even landed on me. I must emit a manly aura that frightens creatures of the woods. Yes, I think that’s it.
Annie needs some of that aura. Then she could leave her ever-present and deadly bear repellant at home. When we started our walk today, she stopped fifty yards from the camp site. “I forgot my bear spray,” she said in an alarmed tone of voice.
“You don’t need it. You’ve got me to protect you,” I responded. She turned around and walked toward Harvey. Moments later she returned with her bear repellant in her shirt pocket. You’ll see me pointing to the repellant in one of today’s pictures.
“You must not have heard me, I said you don’t need it, you’ve got me to protect you,” I said again.
“I heard you, I just don’t like the odds of you against a 400-pound bear,” she said.
“Hummpf,” I snappily retorted. That is one of my best come-back lines. It is hard to believe that I graduated high school, finished seven years of college and “hummpf” is the best I can do. I could do better if Annie would let me use cuss words.
But, back to my story; after finishing the nature trail portion of the walk, we were faced with a decision to return the way we came, or walk back along the road. Annie saw a sign that said it was two miles back to camp along the road. We had just walked two miles along the trail, so we (read, she) decided we would avoid the mosquitoes in the woods and walk along the road. The walk along the road seemed much longer than two miles. Walking with Annie is like walking with a pre-schooler. “How much longer is it? Why do they put all these hills in the road? I wish I had some water? Why didn’t you bring water? How much further is it? Stupid sign maker; if it is longer than 2 miles, why did the sign say 2 miles? Are we getting near? Stop getting behind me! Stop getting ahead of me! Talk to me!! Are we almost there? Oh, why do I ask you, you don‘t know any more than that stupid sign maker.”
So, it was a delightful walk in the woods today. Wish you could have been with us.
