June 10. First day at Rocky Mountain National Park

 Pam was able to secure us entry passes to the Bear Lake region of the park.  They are timed entry and ours are 8-10AM.  We are warned to not time it too closely, as the cars can line up and make it so you can’t get there as quickly as expected.  I pack us a picnic lunch, Pam gives us crampon type things to put over our hiking boots in snowy, Icy areas.  We get to the park a little before 9 and the line is short.  The turn off to Bear Lake is almost as soon as we enter the park.  It is about a 30 minute drive up, up, up,  a curvey, narrow road.  We are lucky and get a parking spot.  

We talk to a ranger volunteer about different possible hikes.  After some debate between Nick and I, we decide to do the longer, harder hike today which is to Dream Lake.   First we come to Bear Lake which is very close to the parking area and small enough for us to walk around it in about 30 minutes.  A delightful family with 3 kids are stopped to look at something.  It’s a marmot.  Would have walked right past without seeing it if they hadn’t been stopped. 

There is another lake on the way to Dream Lake.  Nymph Lake.  We asked the ranger if it was worth going to.  His answer was, “Not unless you’re going on to Dream Lake.”  It was a nice excuse to take a rest along the trail but not a destination.  

The path again becomes quite steep and there are a few patches of snow and ice.  We’re glad we have the strap on crampons from Beth.  We first come to some falls emptying out of the lake. Than the lake itself. There is still quite a bit of snow around it.  The next lake along the path is Emerald Lake.  But it has a lot more snowy, icy patches and is another .6 miles there and .6 miles back. More than we want to do.  

Our next stop is Sprague Lake where we eat our picnic lunch.  Hmmmm.  Seems that the clouds are rolling in.  We start our walk around this lake and it starts sprinkling.  Oh dear, that’s not water!  That’s 1/4” hail!  Rush back to the car.  There is enough that it looks like a dusting of snow in the grass.  

Definitely time for car-hiking.  We take the Trail Ridge Road up to the snowy Alpine visitor’s center.  The road is really kinda scary but the views are amazing.  And OH IT’S COLD and WINDY.

On the way back down, we stop at the Tundra trailhead.  I go about 1/2 mile on the trail.  There are interesting little signs along the way that are good excuses to take a break.  At this high altitude, they are quite welcome. 

Back to our comfortable cabin and the hot tub.  We go to a local place called the Rock Inn.  We were sitting right next to the music - an acoustical guitar.  It was nice and even being right next to him, it wasn’t too loud.  I had some good local trout.  

WWhen we get back Pam and Charles are starting a fire in the pit and have s’mores makings.  Pam had some chocolate filled marshmallows.  Sounded promising but the chocolate didn’t melt.  Everyone agreed that they appreciated the idea but it needs improvement.  About 8 people ended up around the campfire.  When I first joined the campfire, there was only one person there.  First comment out of his mouth was a negative Yankee comment.  Oh no!  Could be a long night or maybe I should leave right now.  He turned out to be better than my first impression and we stayed until bedtime.

June 9. Arrive at Estes Park

 We only have about a 4 hour drive today so we’re pretty leisurely about getting on the road.  Nick heats up our leftover pizza on the grill outside our KOA cabin.  I’m so glad we haven’t been staying in these places very much!  But it was nice to not have to take the tent down this morning.  

This part of Wyoming is flat, flat, flat.  We’ve seen lots of flat land but most of it has been with sagebrush and dry.  This is flat and green.  Still sparsely populated.  Northern Iowa and parts of Illinois are flat like this but growing corn.  Then there is the flat like this and growing wheat in Kansas.  

Hidden Brain entertains us through the flat miles.  

Then all of a sudden everything changes and we’re in the mountains again.  

We follow a pretty mountain stream through the valley for an hour or so.  How is it through all those curvy, beautiful miles, I didn’t take any pictures….

We go through Greely, Co.  Wow.  People, cars, chains that I recognize.  Haven’t been in a city this large for a couple of weeks.  On to Estes Park.  Oh, all the tourists and all the tourist shops.  But we’re not like them.  We don’t stop to poke around in the shops.  We go through town to our digs for the next 3 nights.  Oh we have arrived at civilization.  A hot tub in our room, a king sized bed.  A shower in our room.  Even a microwave and refrigerator.  And a gas fire place.  Pam, who checks us in gives us some ideas of restaurants and a hike to do this afternoon.  Oh and if the elk are wandering through between our cabin and the main house, go around behind the house rather than next to them as this time of the year they can be quite aggressive.  Three mule deer have wandered through since we arrived.  They are a bit bigger than the deer that come through our yard at home and have bigger ears and a thicker coat.  

We haven’t had lunch so go to “I Need Pie bakery and diner” that was recommended by Pam.  We were warned that the servings are huge so we share a meatloaf platter and each have a piece of pie.  They were out of rhubarb but did have strawberry rhubarb.  Nick had a peanut butter pie.  

We then took the suggested hike/walk at Lilly Lake.  It is a part of the National Park System but located outside of the main park.  

 

A bag of popcorn, soak in the hot tub and we’re happy campers.  Hmmmm, make that happy cabiners at the Mountain Shadows resort.

June 8. Driving day on the way to Rocky Mountain National Park

 We wake up and it’s raining.  Packing up a campsite in the rain is the pits.   It slows down to a light sprinkle.  Let’s forget about making breakfast, pack up as quickly as we can and get on the road.  Working together,  we got the camp completely broken down and the car packed up in about 30 minutes.  We stopped at the camp store where Nick could get some coffee.  It also had a gift shop area.  I think the coffee place and the gift shop are in cahoots as it took a really long time. For Nick to get his coffee.  In the meantime, I racked up over $100 at the gift shop.  I didn’t buy things at the earlier National Parks because I didn’t want to lug them all over creation.  And  Andy is going to be here in a few months and will need to take Miami gifts back to Japan.  Those little pot scrubbers shaped like bear and elk are light and will pack easily.  Been thinking about getting David a stuffed animal, a mug and some earrings for me….. We had to go to a different camp store to get a book that I saw there and hadn’t seen anywhere else.  “Whose Baby Butt is it?  Hopefully all 3 of my grandchildren will like it.  

Even in the rain, the Tetons are beautiful.

 Today we’re driving to Douglas, WY which is just a stop to break up the drive to Rocky Mountain National Park.  It’s about a 6 hour drive.  Early in our drive, we come across colorful, eroded bluffs.  Remind me a bit of the Badlands.  Towns are far apart.  We planned ahead better and filled the gas tank as we were leaving the Tetons.  Population of Kemouth - 8!  I knew Wyoming was sparsely populated but wow! Can’t even marry the girl next door.  

We. Have lunch in Riverton. This actually is big enough to have some chain restaurants.  Yelp helps us find a local place that looks interesting.  Beans and Cuisine.  Good choice.  I had a gyro and Nick had a chicken curry sandwich.  

Now we’re in the. Flatlands.  We can spot the. Showers from miles away.  We listen to an entire Nero Wolf  detective book.  Guess what? He figures it out!

We’re easing back into civilization by staying at a KOA in a cabin.  At least I get a hot shower.  Oh it feels sooooo good.  Second private campground where the pool isn’t functioning.  But there is a miniature golf course.  Sure am glad we haven’t been staying in  KOAs this whole time.  There is actually an Indian restaurant here connected to a motel.  They serve steak and curries.  We go for the Indian cuisine and are quite happy with our decision.  The waiter, who looked like he was from India, kept asking us if the food was ok and seemed extremely pleased that we liked it.  Could be a hard sell in this part of the country.  I have noticed since we got to Wyoming that it is very common for people to openly pray before they start eating their restaurant meals.  

June 7. Second day at Yellowstone

 We’re in for a lot of driving today.

Our first stop is  at Yellowstone Lake which is the highest crater lake in the Americas.  It was formed by two separate volcanic eruptions several thousand years apart.  There continues to be hydrothermal  activity at the bottom of the lake which keeps the temperature of the water a bit warmer than just melted snow.  There are several hot pots next to the lake in the area where we stopped and some just off shore.  A bagel of kayaks paddled by.  That does look like a beautiful place to paddle.

  We stop at the Southern Rim lookout but it is starting to rain.  We decide to catch it on the way back.  We have been very lucky weather-wise.  Really mostly clear days everyday!  

Our drive takes us up over the continental divide at 8859’ at the Dunraven Pass.  The expanses below are good places to spot wildlife.  There are pullouts with people lined up with cameras and special equipment for spying those elusive bears, elk, buffalo and deer.  A sign saying to be careful as wildgame is on the road.  It’s a moveable sign and a little further on there are buffalo ambling along side the road.  Okay, I’ll take a picture of that.

We find a nice picnic area and enjoy the lunch we packed this morning.  Little ground squirrels are waiting hoping that we will drop some crumbs.  

There are lots of waterfalls scattered around the park.  We stop at Tower Falls.  These are beautiful falls but we’ve seen so many really impressive ones that we just say, “Very nice!” And move on.  

At the top of the “8” is Mammoth Hot Springs.  Coming up to it, it looks like a HUGE snow wall.  I’m thinking that it is going to be something like the hot springs we saw in Turkey.  Nick’s back is hurting and the sight of all the stairs up is daunting.  There appears to be a middle level.  Nick thinks he can do that much.  We get there and it just isn’t the cool place I was envisioning.  The road to the upper section was closed  so the only way to get there was all those wooden stairs.  We’ll never know if at the top it was super cool.  We have seen so many super cool things on this adventure that if we miss one, the world won’t fall apart.  

At this point, we turn back and start retracing the Eastern side of the “8”.  There are some places that we held off on for the drive back.  At Canyon Village we try the South Rim again where it was raining this morning.  Well, it’s still sprinkling there.  (I think it may be the only part of the park where it is raining) It is an out and back road.  The end of the road is called Artist Point.  well, we have to see that!  It is really nice and the people’s emotions just seemed a bit more relaxed and happy.  People are generally friendly everywhere at the parks but there was something special here.  Everyone was smiling,, offering to take pictures for people.  

We head back to our campsite in the Tetons and plan to stop at a pizza place that is on Jackson Lake and has good reviews.  By the time we get there, it’s raining.  Glad we’re not planning to cook a meal at the campsite.  We see a bus pulling out as we pull in.  Seems that there is a back-up of orders.  We ended up getting the last 2 personal sized pizzas.  All the other sizes were already sold out.  I felt bad for the people who came in after us.  I think the bus threw their predictions off.  Also, it’s early in the season and they doxn’t have it quite down yet.  

What to do on a cold rainy evening when camping?  Hmmm.  There’s a laundromat at the visitor’s center and not only is it heated but it also has internet and we have a boat load of dirty laundry.  Now we have a pile of clean clothes and it’s bedtime.