Rocky Mountain National Park

Sunday August 10, 2014
Glacier Basin Campground
Rocky Mountain National Park

 

 

We decide to give Winnona a break driving up into the Rockies.  So I drive Ruby.  We had planned to take US 36 to Estes Park and on into the Glacier Basin Campground.  All was well until we came to Lyons about 60 miles up the road and find that we will have to take a detour of 16 miles up Colorado Route 7.   Now this two lane road is a scenic highway for sure but it is not RV friendly.

At one point after being slowed down to 25 miles per hour to deal with the terrible road conditions, Winnona had a line of cars behind her.  David said she was the head of the parade.

One motorcyclist couldn’t wait for a pullout, of which there were few, and went flying around on a double yellow.  Looked like a blind curve to me.  That’s pretty much what the road was, one curve after another with a great mountain stream on one side and rocky side walls on the other.

 

 

 

 

As we get closer to Estes Park the road becomes wider and flatter.  There are a ton of cars parked along the road on both sides.  Amazingly there is room for Winnona and her dolly so David says he’s pulling over  We use walkie talkies when we drive separately.   Turns out it is an Elk Jam. I take this picture when I get out of the car.

 

The elk pay us no mind but they must think we are totally crazy.  Tons of people with cameras.   BUT this sighting is a good omen for our 12 days here.  The first picture shows where they were just off the side of the road.  Look for the two little brown things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We never usually stop with Winnona along the way to “sight see” on our trips but today we do for some reason.  I guess so the traffic can get around us.  

Second stop is Lily Lake.  This is a Trail Head for several trails in the National park.  It’s a lovely little Glacier made  lake but my pictures are hampered by a BIG dark cloud coming our way. 

 

 

 

 

 

We see this little family out in the middle of the lake.  Not sure who they are.  Suggestions??

 

 

 

 

 

Here we learn about Enos Mills who is considered the Father of Rocky Mountain National Park  In 1881, at age 14, he left his family in Kansas and the next year climbed Longs Peak, the highest point in the park.  He repeated this ascent more than 250 times usually while guiding hikes  from his homestead cabin or Longs Peak Inn  his nearby guest lodge. 

The information tells us that this area around the lake is  the landscape that inspired him to spend most of his life passionately writing and speaking about the Longs Peak area.  In 1907 he proposed that Congress preserve this region of the Rocky Mountains as a national park.  The park was created in 1915.  Enos Mills died 7 years later at the age of 52.  The picture is of him at his cabin 2 miles from Lily Lake on Colorado Rt 7.

 

 

 

 

The road gets wider and better as we approach Estes Park.  But it does start to rain.

 

 

 

 

This map from the Lily Lake area shows the route we were taking to Estes Park as well as a short cut on Mary’s Lake road which we bypassed because we just weren’t sure.

We later took Mary’s Lake Road and found it to be more suitable for RVs than most of  Route 7.   Driving through Estes Park was really out of the way for us since we were going to Glacier Basin Campground which you can see if you look very carefully on the map just up from and to the left of the ‘You are Here’ circle. 

We go on up Route 7, turn left on Route 36 drive through town and then come down on 36 to pass the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center and enter the park. 

First left turn then heads down Bear Lake Road past the Moraine Park Museum and eventually to that little tent sign for our campground.  RVs cannot go any further down Bear Lake Road than the campground.

Driving through the tourist area of Estes Park would give me the white knuckles but David has no trouble with this stuff luckily.  I’m paying too much attention to all the traffic and all the people to get a picture that really portrays the zoo that this town is.

 

 

 

We arrive at Glacier Basin after more like 100 miles rather than the 72 we were expecting.  We find that it is a 4 loop campground. The loops are very small and the sites stacked on top of one another.  BUT we’re inside the National Park and don’t have to drive far as for hiking as we would if we were in a private park in Estes Park which is the only nearby town.  A park shuttle also runs very frequently if you are willing to hike between 8am and 6pm.

 

 

We are in site 6 which looks like this before Winnona gets there.  It’s a rock lined pulloff just barely wide enough to put out your slides.

This is loop A.  Notice the trees.  Loops C & D have had all the trees removed because of the pine bark beetle which is a serious problem here.  When I made these reservations I was thinking that I didn’t want a treeless campground since we’d be using our generator, but now that we are going to be dependent on our solar set up, full sun would have been helpful. 

 

 

Ruby gives way to Winnona and brings up the rear.  We should have driven around the small campground  circle backwards so that our door could be facing into the ncie sized site and not onto the road. 

But by the time I thought about doing this, we were already leveled up and we decided that we won’t be here much anyway.  We have lots of hiking to do.

 

 

 

We have our dinner outside and are scolded by this Steller’s Jay.  He really is stellar looking isn’t he?

 

 

We’re about ready for bed when we remember the “super moon” and step outside to see it rising in the sky.  A beautiful way to end our first day in Rocky Mountain National Park.