Rocky Mountains

We found a place to stay West of Berthoud through Hipcamp named "Farmland with Mt. Views". All parks and national forests were booked solid and one again no place to boondock. Sandra was extremely nice and had a really nice place. Marjorie and Zep got there about the same time as we did. We had lunch and then headed to Estes Park and hiked the Button Rock Preserve. A beautiful hike through the mountains to a reservoir. Lora provided entertainment by a snake encounter. A very large snake jumped off a rock and landed on the trail between Marjorie and Lora. There was an extremely high pitched scream, the thump of the snake hitting the ground, and then the slithering with hands over his ears under a rock. Lots of laughs for sure. Back at the camper we enjoyed dinner and visited under the stars.

Saturday we headed back to Estes. The Rocky Mountain National Park was doing a time release permit to get into the park. Should have looked ahead. So we desided to hike into the park to see it. So we started at the East Portal and hiked to Sprague Lake. We heard the Elk buggling and finally came up on five doe lying by the trail. At the lake we saw the bull coming out of the water and moving on. From Sprague Lake we continued on to Bear Lake. We ate lunch at the lake with a small chipmunk trying to steal our food. Then we had a bird join him sizing us up. Lots of people at the lakes, but few on the trails. On the way back we hiked the Wind River trail. Around 14 miles of hiking. We relaxed at the camper and had a good meal.

Sunday we got up and took the canoe to Carter Lake which is another reservoir and did some paddling. We did most of the length of the lake and then came back for lunch. After lunch Marjorie headed back home and Lora and I did the Peak to Peak drive along the Rockies. We started at Estes Park and went down to Black Hawk. Lots of mountains and pretty scenery but no wildlife. We ate dinner in Evergreen at a park and then drove back through Boulder on the way back. We did see some Elk on the way back.

Monday we got up and headed to Denver. Marjorie gave us a tour of the place she is staying and the area. It used to be the old Lowry AFB. They still have some old hangers there and a B-52 on a stick. It gave me flashbacks of working on them. Lora and I headed South after that. We stopped in Monument for lunch and then drove on to the Garden of Gods Park in Colorado Springs. Really cool place to visit. Lots of rock formations. From there we headed on to Divide by Pike's Peak to camp in the National Forest. 

Tuesday This morning we drove scenic Hwy 24. We saw several mountains: Thirty-Nine Mile 11,593, Saddle 10'794, Trout Pass, West Buffalo 13,340, and Past Pancha Springs Pass. Road construction kept us off Hwy 17. We were following Sangre De Christo Mts with 13-14 thousand foot Mts. In the valleys between the mountains we saw fields of campers and tiny houses. I guess this is the place to live off the grid, but I don't know why here. We got back on 17 after the 112 detour for the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. Didn't want to ski the sand or hike up the dunes. It was hot and too much sand for us. They have the highest dunes in the US. We followed the scenic route with miles and miles of plains to Walsenburg. From there we drove to Aguilar to find SWA Spanish Peaks. Got on 41.7 following GPS and Phone. We took a wrong turn that led up a mountain with steep rough dirt roads. There was a gate at the top so we had to back down to a turn around spot. A little hairy for sure. We decided to leave out the other way when we came across what we were looking for. We had a good night out in a beautiful canyon. We had some hunters for neighbors that were from Arkansas and Texas. We watched a lighting storm in the distance and the stars.

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