Someone anonymously blessed Mark and me with a badly needed weekend away -- ALONE -- to Estes Park this weekend. A friend watched the kids, and we were off ...
We stayed in the River's Edge Retreat, a room (studio apartment) on the Fall River managed by the McGregor Mountain Lodge. It was so nice -- kitchenette, fireplace, patio, sounds of river ... and unfortunately, sounds of partiers on the other side of the river ...
On Saturday we went into the Rocky Mountain National Forest, did some very easy hiking and some driving. We stayed on the eastern side of the forest. Next time we'll take the long route and go to Grand Lake.
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| View within Rocky Mountain National Forest. |
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| Alluvial Falls |
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| Mark and Jodie at Alluvial Falls |
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| Hallett Peak and Flattop Mountain |
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| Foot prints on forming ice on Sprague Lake |
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| Wooden bridge at Sprague Lake |
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| Reflections |
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| Broken ice |
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| Gnarly stump ... I love the texture of gnarled wood |
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| View of Otis Peak, Hallett Peak, Flattop Mountain and Notchtop Mountain from across Sprague Lake. |
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There were several folks flyfishing in Sprague Lake
and the creek leading to it.
I think the fish here is a spawning male steelhead trout. |
After spending some time in the forest, we went into Estes Park, walked around some of the shops, then drove around the Stanley Hotel. As we came around the backside, we saw a gang of three bull elk. Woohoo!
Then we saw another bull elk outside a restaurant where we were going to eat dinner.
These things are HUGE! Elk are the second-largest land mammal in the U.S. -- second only to moose.
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| View of Fall River from our room. |
On Sunday we went back into RMNF. We thought about heading to Grand Lake, but figured that was going to be an all-day trek, so we went back to some of the places we missed the day before.
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Shot of Longs Peak, which is the highest peak in RMNF,
and one of 53 "fourteeners" in Colorado. |
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And then the storm started rolling in.
We were glad we didn't do the Grand Lake trek when we saw that. |
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| Then we saw a gang of elk cows. |
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| We we went out on Saturday, a ranger told us that the trails around Bear Lake were icy, so when we got to that point, and saw all the people gearing up with serious hiking equipment, we didn't try it. But when we got back to our lodge that night, we found out that the lake is only a few hundred feet from the parking lot, so we went back -- in time for the storm to come in. High winds and flurries. |
On the way out of Estes Park, we stopped back by the Stanley. By this time, the town had the storm, so I didn't take many pictures. As yes, we watched "The Shining" Saturday night. Neither of us had seen the whole movie.
We left about noon for the three-hour trip home. We went through Boulder on the way up, and Loveland on the way home. As we were heading down the 25 toward home, we could see the sun shining on the mountains (drats) as the storm followed us into Denver. It was high 60s when we got back into the Springs.
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| Cool storm clouds as we travelled down the 25. |
Thank you so very much to all of you who made this weekend possible for Mark and me!!!!
