days 2 and 3 in RMNP

June 3 – Saturday - Day One of the Journey

Today was mostly miles, rain, and refilling diesel. We pre-staged everything for a “clean launch”.  I woke up at 2:30am and was ready to roll. Final loading cooler, brewing coffee and on the road at about 3:15am. All of us wondering “now what did I forget?”.

The ride into Estes Park was uneventful. No flats, no meltdowns, no big deal, really. 

Estes Park greeted us with snow on the mountaintops and elk in camp. No kidding.  They got a “serious dusting” last week, that put two feet of snow in town, and (reportedly…..) 14’ on some of the mountaintops.   Sounds like BS, but there sure was a lot of snow up there, and today is still June 3^rd!

Chicken nugget salad for dinner, a walk through the town, and an early scotch had us in bed fairly early.

June 4^th – Sunday – Day two

Woke early and cooked pancakes and sausage for breakfast.  Loaded family into Big Red (pickup) and headed to Fern Lake Trail.  The trailhead was cleanly marked and easy to follow, but had a decent bit of vertical gain. Too much for flatlanders on day two. =/  Hiked about 6 miles round trip and saw some awesome waterfalls. Tremendous showing by animals. Elk all over the place, including one cow right here in camp, I believe the total headcount JUST FOR TODAY was about 38, including 9 bulls, all of which were near the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center. Nice bulls there, but not at all a hunted population. Hunting these would be like shooting the family dog.

Oddly enough, we’re having elk for dinner via frito pie. J

June 5 – Monday – Day 3

Plan to drive around park stopping and “touring” while going easy on our feets. I didn’t make any friends on yesterdays family hike.  At least….. not in my family.

We drove “Trail Ridge Road” (aka Co Hwy 34) from Estes Park all the way to Granby today.

 AWESOME views from the ridge. TONS of elk, many muleys, and a good number of moose.  Lots of pictures.

hows that for a profile picture?  above treeline, alpine tundra, two bulls

snowy mountaintop, and the woman with whom I'm having a torrid love affair.... :)

We got involved in a traffic jam on the road, caused by a nice 5x5 bull elk walking right down the yellow line at…… well, an elks pace.  J

nice bull in the middle of the road!  no rush....

One of the highlights was picking up a couple dudes who were SKIING from the top of the ridge down to another portion of the road about 1200’ lower.  We hauled them back to the top, and they thanked us for being their “ski lift” that trip. Very cool.  

skiers we hauled up the hill

It snowed on us quite a bit. Top of the road was around 11,800’ of elevation.

Tomorrow, we launch for the Tetons. Deanna is looking forward to more Huckleberry Soda, which is brewed in Jackson, WY.