August 6 (continued)…We picked up our motor home and left Rush Truck Center around 1:15 heading for Estes Park. It took us about 1 ½ hours to get there. The road into Estes Park is windy and the elevation at Estes Park is a little more than 7500 feet above sea level. Garmin did a good job of getting us there; however, she brought us in the back way. Estes Park is a lot like Gatlinburg but not as big. We are next to Joan and Barth and after all of the problems with the motor home we decided to stay here until Saturday and cut one day off of our Douglas, WY visit. Looking out the motor home window, we see a mountain that looks a lot like Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina. Tonight was Bingo and I knew my luck was going to have to change. Joan won one game with 2 other people and I won the last game which was a cover all for a grand prize of $11.50. Driving Distance 78 miles
August 7… We took a day trip, starting in Estes Park on The Highway to the Sky which covers 48 miles between Estes Park on Rocky Mountain National Park's east side, and Grand Lake on the west side. Trail Ridge Road is also US Highway 34. Today was a pretty good day for wildlife; we saw Yellow-bellied marmots, one bull elk and several cows, and our first moose (4 or 5). The highest elevation today on the Trail Ridge Road was 12, 183 feet. Between Joan, Ralph and me, I think we got some pretty good pictures. Hopefully, I'll get my pictures downloaded before we get home. I 've had some problems with my e-mail and can't seem to get the link to Flickr to work. Grand Lake was was the little town just outside the park with a lake that had sand, people swimming, and mountains in the background with snow on them… a very pretty setting. We had to purchase gas in Grand Lake and all they had was 91 octane @ $4.519 per gallon. Driving Distance today in the car 98 miles
August 8… Today was set aside for Bear Lake. We drove to the parking lot and caught a shuttle to Bear Lake. This was probably the prettiest scenery we've seen so far… we hiked around the lake (about ½ mile and got some really pretty pictures of wildflowers. The wildlife we saw today was two ducks and a squirrel. We drove in the area the Big Horn Sheep are usually seen, but one of the volunteers at the Ranger's Station told Ralph that they don't come down until it gets cooler. On the way back we drove back into Estes Park and went to a grocery store. Joan and I went back to town to shop and then took Ralph to Mary's Lake (Barth had already seen it). Rain is in the forecast for tonight so Ralph let the awning in and packed up the car for our departure tomorrow to Douglas, WY. We're watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies tonight. Driving Distance today in the car approximately 30 miles
No comments:
Post a Comment