Rocky Mountain High

May 14, 2009

Day 17 Colorado Springs Co to Loveland Co 122 Miles

This morning we left Colorado Springs and headed north on I25 toward Loveland, near the Rocky Mt. National Park. Almost forgot what a pain in the ass it is to get through a major city, like Denver. We remembered really fast. The area just south of the city certainly has grown in the 6 years since we’ve been here. Traffic got icky (technical word there) so we chose a newer toll road that encircles the eastern side of the Denver area.



Quite expensive for a toll road, and we’ve got four axles…about a $1 per mile. But good for the nerves! We took it to get around the worst part of the city then cut back over to I25 and on to Loveland, just north of Denver.

We arrived at noon, had lunch and headed out in the Jeep for Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Why we needed to be up 14,000 in the air again today is beyond me. Probably because Norman wanted to experience snow…. So we took him.

We promised Norman snow


The bad news was – We could only go about 14 miles into the park, the road was closed due to snow. The good new was - we could only go about 14 miles into the park which was BELOW the tree line…see yesterday’s post. We were only about a 10,000 elevation, which is fine with me.

We tried

While we were at the visitor center up at the road closure site, we encountered three ladies (from Texas…southern Texas I’m sure) who wanted to take a photo of of one of them in the snow. One climbed onto a snow bank and was shocked ‘I didn't know that it’s slippery!’. Duh, it’s ICE! I can’t imagine how she thinks skiers get down the slopes!

Yes Virginia, snow IS slippery

The way to and from the park from Loveland was beautiful. We took two different routes, the first at the bottom of a canyon following a trout fishing river and on the way back we were half way up a ridge overlooking lush, grazing lands. Although, it’s sad to see how the old way of life, farming and ranching, is being squeezed out by urban sprawl.

Yikes! Saw this sign in the canyon on the way to the Park

Shopped for a few supplies on the way back. Made a tasty supper out of stuff thrown together. TRIED to get on line, but one has to be a computer geek to figure out all the authentications, encryptions and key index out. They make it impossible on purpose to keep people off, I'm sure. First time in ALL our travels for a WIFI like that. Also, no cable and only a couple of channels that had poor reception. I would NOT recommend JC Corner RV Resort in Loveland. I also think the evaluations in the camping books were a little offf.


Tomorrow headed to Wyoming. Hope to get through most of it.