Rocky Mountain High
Seeing family and friends was truly great, but we were chomping at the bit to get to some mountains. After the debacle in Texas and spending a HOT night at an overlook, we both needed some cool, high altitude air. We turned our sights North and hauled as fast as we could. We broke up the drive by stopping in Angel Fire, New Mexico for a night (which was great) then scooted up to Leadville, Colorado (one of Alicia’s favorite places on earth). We walked the main street, stopping by historic saloons, the Melanzana store, and ended the evening at our favorite pizza joint (so far), High Mountain Pies. We spent that night at an amazing campsite at Twin Lakes, CO, where the whole valley seemed to open up below us. I CANNOT stress how nice is was to not go to bed sweating. We woke up to the sound of songbirds and the sun coming over the horizon behind snowy peaks. We had some coffee and took in the view for a few minutes, but we had a mission that day. Our Softopper still had a gaping hole where some bum took a knife to it (read the Texas Trials blog for the whole story). A few days prior I had called the Softopper office in Boulder, explained the situation, and paid for the replacement component- all we had to do was make it there, pick it up, and install the replacement. So after packing up camp, we were off, winding down mountain passes back to civilization. We arrived at the Softopper manufacturing center, spoke to the office attendant who brought our part to us, swapped it in the parking lot and we were golden. Our next stop was Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) so we headed north towards Estes Park, stopping in Lyons, CO to cool off in a creek at a local park. After a swim, we continued on where we found dispersed camping near Allenspark, CO, putting us within striking distance of RMNP. We woke up early the following morning because we didn’t have a time slot reservation to get in to RMNP, but when we arrived at the gate at 7:30am there was already a line of cars waiting to get in. We made it through the line 20 minutes later and went to the closest parking lot to assess our day hike options. We decided on the Ute Pass trail, not the whole thing, but we would walk from the visitors center for 3-4 miles then turn around and come back.
I’m going to go on a rant for a second before continuing on with the story.
It is sad to see the National Parks having so many visitors that they need a timed entry system but nobody is on the trails. The visitors center that we parked at was completely packed, but we only passed 5 other people on a 7 mile hike. I understand that many people have young children/disabilities and truly cannot enjoy the trails in the same way that we are fortunate enough to. But it is frustrating that our access to a National Park (where we want to hike/camp/explore) is limited by a bunch of people who never plan to get out of their car. The Parks are for all to enjoy, I’m not saying that those people have any less right to be there, its just makes me want to pull my hair out that you have to pay to enter/have a pass, have a time reservation slot, and then on top of that have a wilderness permit to embark on some of the trails/hikes.
Fees & paperwork…paperwork & fees.
OK, I’m done.
The hike on the ridge line was absolutely stunning- panoramic views of the Rockies, cool air, and plenty of marmots. In the early afternoon when we could see the thunderheads on the horizon we turned around and made it back to the truck. We drove back down towards Allenspark with the intention of spending another day in RMNP but with the weather deteriorating and frustrations mounting about the timed entry system we decided to not go back. The only other part of the park that we wanted to go to was the Bear Lake area, which we would have to be at before 6am since we didn’t have a time reservation. That would mean that we would have to wake up around 4am to make sure we got there around 5:30am, not gonna happen when there are so many other things to see in Colorado. On the drive back to our campsite we started talking about how bad the weather was looking and how both of us needed to shower and do laundry. We started looking for hotels/hostels, but because of our proximity to RMNP during peak season everything was $200 or more a night. On a whim I found a rustic but clean place to stay, Meeker Park Lodge, (that offered laundry services) that supposedly had availability and was around $100 a night. We pulled up at around 7pm, checked in, and I started cooking dinner (steak and asparagus) on a picnic table next to the lodge. It was definitely the right call to sleep in a hard structure that night. Midway through cooking dinner the wind picked up and it started hailing. I hastily got dinner served and bomb-proofed all of our gear. We retreated to our room where after hot showers we went to sleep to the sound of rain and the wind whipping through the aspens.
Onward and Upwards,
Connor
