Trail Ridge Road: Rocky Mountain National Park Part 1
Much like the sea, there is something about the mountains that just sort of calls to you. While we were in Denver, CO you could often see them off in the distance and it was almost a magnetic pull anytime you were outside. At least for me anyway.
After the debacle with the National Park Timed Entry Pass that led us to Eldorado Canyon State Park I think most everyone in our group was pretty content with our trip so far. There was still something gnawing at me though. As magnificent as they were, the formations in Eldorado Canyon were really just foothills.
I couldn't leave Colorado being this close to the mountains and not actually visit them.
I talked to @mrsbozz about it on Monday and I said I don't care if no one else comes with us, on Tuesday we are going to drive up to Estes Park and try to get into Rocky Mountain National Park. We didn't really have anything else going on, so she was pretty cool with that. At the Rockies baseball game I logged into the National Park site and tried to get us a timed pass for Tuesday morning. The best I was able to do was noon on Tuesday.
The National Park system has a bit of a loophole though. If you get to the park before 9 AM, they let you in without a timed pass. She wasn't happy about it, but @mrsbozz suffered through another early morning and before we were soon making our way to Estes Park. My brother in law and sister in law decided to tag along as well, but our nieces stayed home and slept.
It was a dreary rainy drive from the Denver suburb of Thornton to Estes Park and it took about an hour and a half. Once you get off the expressway it's a pretty narrow winding road to the entrance of the park, but that was nothing compared to what was in store for us.
Estes Park is kind of considered the gateway to the Rocky Mountains and it sits right at the base of the park entrance. It's actually cute town and it gets a ton of tourist traffic as you might imagine.
It's also home to the famous Stanley Hotel which was the inspiration for Stephen King's novel The Shining. I thought we got a photo of it, but I guess not. We did see if from the road though. Full disclosure, I was driving, so most of these photos were taken by @mrsbozz. She did a great job as usual.
There are many areas to the Rocky Mountain National Park, but we decided to travel the trail ridge road. I had been on this road when I was in high school, but that was on a charter bus. It's a much different ride when you are driving yourself!
The trail ridge road is the highest paved road in the United States, so I now have the distinct pleasure of having driven on that road!
Thankfully, the further we went into the mountains, the more the weather started to clear up for us which actually isn't that uncommon if you are familiar with the area.
We even got to see a moose or elk or whatever. I know it's probably hard to make out, but he is there in the center of the photo above. There was a huge back up of cars on the road, but we couldn't see what or why they were stopping. Because the road is so treacherous and has many blind curves, passing the cars wasn't an option. It turns out they were all stopping to look at the elk. As soon as we got up in view, one of the park rangers walked up and said we had to keep moving, so @mrsbozz was only able to snap the blurry shot you see above.
I'm sure the people ahead of us got much better shots.
The town of Estes Park sits about 7500 feet above sea level. The Alpine Lookout which was our final destination on the Trail Ridge road sits at just about 12,000 feet above sea level, so you can imagine the drive up from Estes Park is quite a trip! If I had to guess, we probably topped out at around 13,000 feet on our drive.
The mountains literally take your breath away. It's absolutely amazing. I was just in awe the whole time I was driving. My brother in law next to me had his eyes closed a lot of the time because he is not a fan of heights. The crazy thing about this road is that it has no guardrails, so many times you are looking down into a deep deep chasm. It's safe to say I was hugging that yellow line pretty closely quite a few times during our drive.
We took some snacks with us for the drive and everyone was a bit surprised to find the effect the rise in elevation had on the bags. We actually had one or two bags of chips pop on us because of the change in pressure. Good thing I was ready for it, otherwise the sudden pop might have startled me!
These are just some more photos of the amazing views. The switchbacks on the road were pretty easy to navigate, but I still had to use a measure of caution in my driving. I couldn't help but stare at some of the valleys and lakes off in the distance. I think many of them you can hike to if you are healthy enough and you have a full day to spare.
I was reading about one hike that leads you to a mountain lake and it was seven miles round trip, but it took you most of the day to do it because of how arduous the terrain was. Maybe in my younger years I could have handled it!
Just up the road from Alpine Lookout is the Continental Divide which would have been cool to see, but since we had already traveled an hour (from Estes Park), we turned around at Alpine Lookout and decided to head back down.
There is an area at Alpine Lookout where you can climb steps another thousand feet to reach the top of the peak. We started too, but soon realized it was going to be a bit too much. The fact is, the altitude was getting to us and it was just too cold. They say the temperature drops 3.5 degrees F for every 1000 feet you go up. The car was showing our temp somewhere between 35 and 45 degrees.
Many people didn't plan very well because they were running around in shorts and tank tops freezing their butts off. We planned a little better wearing long pants and coats, but the wind was tearing into us and knocking the breath out of our lungs. When my sister in law who runs marathons decided she couldn't handle the climb, I knew there was no way I would make it!
So we bought some souvenirs and then piled back in the car for the drive home. We did make a few more stops though and I will cover those in my post tomorrow! Be sure to stop back!
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
😲 wow amazing photography and wonderful view 😍😍😍
Thank you, this part of the country makes it really easy to take a good photo though!
PS why are you being downvoted every so often?Have you been bold @bozz ? Mess with the wrong cat? 🤣
No, I think it's just smooth not agreeing with the post rewards. Well within his right and actually the way the system is supposed to work.
Jesus bozz we were in the wilderness for long enough . It’s about time you got some decent rewards do you not think ?
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The air really thins out up there! I recall how tough it was running in Cloudcroft, New Mexico, at just 8,500 feet. I can’t even imagine what it’s like at nearly 12,000 feet
It was quite crazy. I don't remember it being quite like that when I visited in my teens!
Wow - that looks fantastic, and I'm amazed at what happened to the bags of chips (although it makes perfect physics sense !). I'd love to see that park.
It was totally awesome. I am so glad we made the drive. I think it would have bugged me forever if we hadn't at least tried.
Thank you for sharing a glimpse of this paradise. 🥰 The scenery is giving! So nice to hang out with friends. 🥰
It was absolutely stunning! I miss it already.
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That looks like quite a drive. There's nothing anywhere near as high in the UK, but a friend did a motorbike tour in the Himalayas where the air got a bit thin.
Those houses built on the mountainside look precarious. Have to hope they were well built.
Those houses are probably worth more than I will make in my entire lifetime! Just for fun the other day I was looking up how high Everest is and I was floored to find that it's about twice as high as we were here at 28,000 feet. We actually saw a guy riding a bicycle on Trail Ridge road near the 13,000 foot mark.
I think he went over this pass at 19,000'. I expect the motorbikes are tuned for the altitude. Did you car cope okay? I have seen on the Pike's Peak mountain race the electric cars do well partly because they don't care how thin the air is.
Cycling at that altitude is next level.
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I love this photo out of everything that you posted. I bet you had a great time at the national Park. The Funyuns, looks so tempting at the moment. I think I’m gonna get a pack of chips as I read your next post.
Funyuns are the best. I have a snack bag of them in my lunchbox and I plan on busting into them in a couple minutes here. That is a really great photo. My wife did a good job while I was focusing on the road!
Man, what a trip you guys had. The mountain view is amazizng. I can;'t believe the affect it had in the bag of FUnyuns. And the drive without guard rails? Wow, thatis crazy. Glad you had some fun though.
Yeah, it was a good time. Probably one of the most fun drives I have taken in a while. I was cautious but loving it all at the same time!
Very beautiful place 😃 I would really like to visit this place one day. Congratulations on the excellent photographs. Thanks for sharing 😃
Thanks, it was my pleasure. It's a beautiful area of our country. I hope to get back there one day myself!
You have to pay full attention, while driving in these roads. I see at least the road is marked pretty well with the lines, much better than ours. Are there places to stop over to enjoy the views ? or you just drive and enjoy ?
Yes, they have pull outs at strategic places along the road, but they are usually packed with other cars and people. I kept a firm grip on the steering wheel the whole time!
I know that feelings :)
Heyyy, @bozz it has been a long time I saw your post and it is still splendid. I have been away for sometime and changed my account.
I have the same feeling as you described, that feeling of been drawn to the mountains or the seas, I am not yet comfortable with been in water, but I love to climb heights, so I will, for now, respond to the call of the mountains.
I remember the first time I hiked a mountain by myself. It felt so special, like ascending to a higher plane or something. But there was this unique excitement overflowing from within me.
It is a wonderful thing to be around nature, and I am glad you have had a good time immersing in nature.
Thanks! I wish that I could have done a bit more hiking here, but we were on a fixed schedule and the weather wasn't being very cooperative! I could have sat up there all day and just enjoyed the view.
You are welcome. It is fine, I am glad you had a wonderful time. Hopefully the next one will be much better.
They look amazing . Proper Mountains. Those homes on stilts are mad. I was in Cape Town a few years ago and the Table Mountain looking over the city took my breath away. I live between 2 mountains myself in a valley so I have a penchant for an aul mountain! :-D
That sounds like an idyllic place to live!
That is awesome! Once you're that high up the air gets pretty thin... I don't like being over 8000 feet anymore, when I was younger 12,000 would have been nothing!! lol How times change
Beautiful scenery, I'm glad you got the chance to drive to the highest paved point in the lower 48!
The continental divide would be cool there. If you cross it in southern New Mexico it's all flatland, no mountains anywhere!
pinterest.com
I've driven past there more than a few times!
Oh wow, I guess I never realized it would drop elevation like that. It makes sense now that I think about it. Duh!
Loving those views but I don't think I'd ever get a house that looks like it's ready to fall off the side of a hill lol
They were pretty precarious!
Beautiful view!
Thanks!
The place looks so good
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NO DOWNVOTES FOR MARKY MARK'S SELF VOTING !WEED
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[-]acidyo (82) 3 months ago
Haha at "I shouldn't make commercial" :D Maybe something to worry about when you have more youtube subscribers! Quite interesting content though, these things should get more subs on there and here.
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[-]gogreenbuddy (67) 3 months ago
Yeah thought that was funny too
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HE MAKES CURATION REWARDS WITH ALL HIS ALT ACCOUNTS BURNING TOKENS LIKE THIS DOES NOT TAKE OLD TOKENS IT MINTS NEW ONES AND BURNS THEM
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cwow stop the drink and drugs
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Zac the man with the scam plan
lol the Marky mark keeps dreaming
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[-]themarkymark (80) yesterday (edited)
Farming? Show me where I am farming, I post like one post a month at this point, and all buildawhale is burned. As you say transactions don’t lie. And don't say curation rewards, I'd get those no matter what I vote on and if you expect I will be the only person on this blockchain to forfeit curation rewards, you are dumber than we know you are.
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cwow stop the drink and drugs
Can't you see the problems on Hive?
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LOL
It seems like THEMARKYMARK is dealing with some personal drama and mental issues, which might be causing them to spam us and others with baby pics, GIFs, and questionable content he's been doing the same for years. The fun doesn't stop there, as this seems to be a recurring theme with multiple online personas. The real question is, do we want to trust these drama-magnets with our hard-earned funds or any significant influence on Hive?
On Hive a significant issue exists with automatic upvotes consistently rewarding the same individuals day in and day out
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We hope that those who genuinely care about Hive will reconsider their actions, as continuing down this path could inadvertently harm innocent users who are unaware of these issues
lol the Marky mark keeps dreaming
Marks dream
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themarkymark (80)in FreeCompliments • 2 days ago
No.
I downvote spammers, you are a spammer, you get no monies. It’s very simple.
In the meantime go get some help. You obviously have some issues going on.
2 days ago in FreeCompliments by themarkymark (80)$0.00
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[-]bpcvoter1 (-4)(1) yesterday · Will be hidden due to low rating
GET HELP
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[-]themarkymark (80) 4 hours ago
I have a personal chef, maid, and a captain for my yacht. What other help do I need?
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