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We left our hotel at 7:30 to get some information at the Visitors Center to help us decide what in the park to see. The problem was the Visitors Center didn’t open until 8 am. So we went in search of food. For some strange reason the Market didn’t open until 9 am, so we stopped at a restaurant called the Bear Den where I severely over paid for oatmeal and hash browns. Deb had eggs, toast and hash browns with bacon. We made it back to the Visitor’s Center and this time it was open, so we were able to get recommendations from the park rangers along with more information about the respective hikes. Let me say this RMNP is a hiker’s paradise and if you don’t want to hike more than 3 miles round trip there isn’t a whole lot to do. Deb was adamant that she walk around Bear Lake. The problem with this plan is the road was closed due to construction and the first parking lot for a shuttle was full. Up the road to the next closest lot the ranger said it would take 2 hours to get there by shuttle. We had decided to not stop at much on the side of the park we were staying on, in an effort to get to Bear Lake. We did learn that we could drive ourselves to Bear Lake after 4 pm, so now we just had some time to kill. We drove down to the Wild Basin Area trails and did the .6 mile hike to Copeland Falls. By this time it was around noon and we were hungry so we decided to drive into Estes Park. We decided that since we had several hours to kill a movie might be nice. We found a theater in town, they only had 3 showings and Total Recall had just started. We paid the admission $7 each and found a seat in the theater just as the last preview was ending. I was thrilled not to have missed the beginning of the movie as I hate to watch a movie , even if it is one I have seen, unless I can see it from the beginning. I must say that the beginning of this movie is crucial to the understanding of the events of the movie, so we were truly blessed. Once the movie was over we got gas and decided a meal would be a good idea so we stopped for dinner. Deb had a BBQ combo and I had really bland spaghetti with overcooked noodles. The best part of the dinner, for me, was that it came with Salad Bar. |
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We finally made it to Bear Lake about 5:30; driving anywhere in the park takes forever. We hiked around the lake and then up to Alberta Falls. Alberta Falls was pretty and there we met a family with three little girls. The mother took our picture by the sign, as she did so, she explained that they live in Nebraska and come every year and take a picture by the sign. Both Deb and I thought this was a pretty cool tradition. We split up on the way back to the car as my knee was really hurting me and Deb was insistent that I take the shorter path back to the Glacier Basin Parking Lot to wait on her to bring the car around. I was grateful for the shorter walk but even more so excited to see a different path. Just off the path was a batch of blue flowers. I had seen them in other places in the park and thought they were quite pretty, but had never seen more than one or two growing together, so I strayed from the path just a little bit to get this photo. I only had to wait 15 minutes for her, which gave me some time to take in the mountains and contemplate on their creation. |
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The drive back from this area to where we had stayed for the night took almost 2 hours. The roads are narrow and winding and in some places the speed limit drops down to 15 mph. It was full dark by the time we got back to some of the areas that we had bypassed earlier and so we pressed on towards the motel. |
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