Thursday, 1 May 2014

30 April – Denver to Rocky Mountain National Park

We headed out to Camping World to get some parts for the RV before heading out of Denver. Camping World was amusing – it has everything the RVer could want, including plastic flamingos on stakes to set up outside when you set up camp.

We drove through rolling hills with the sharp peaks of the Rocky Mountains jutting up to our left side and Denver visible on the plains to the right. Denver is known as the Mile High City because at just over 5000ft, it is a mile high. We drove through Boulder and past the Uni of Colorado – looked nice.
About half way to the National Park, we were detoured due to road works and went via Saint Vrain Canyon which was a lovely drive through steep rocks alongside a river. There had obviously been a flood recently as the river had been dug out and the road repaired in places. All along the banks were hunting / fishing shacks and some of them had been quite undercut by the flooding.

As we neared the NP, the trees got more alpine looking and the mountains snow capped. 

The fishing shacks gave way to real hunting lodges and hotel style mountain retreats. We arrived at the City of Estes Park at the gates of the NP and checked in at the Visitors Centre. We found the campsites were still without services due to the cold – its going to be -5 degrees tonight, but we headed into the NP undeterred!

After parking up at a very vacant campground, we went for a walk. Rounding a bend we found the most amazing Elk meadow. There must have been 40 or so Elk lying resting or grazing in the meadow beside a river. We sat on rocks and watched them for ages with the mountains and conifer trees behind them. Lots of photos. 




Finally, at risk of wind chilling we headed back to the RV for dinner. We kicked the generator in the guts and after a few coughs and false starts it got going just fine, so we have heat and light until the 10pm curfew. We are going to heap the blankets on tonight!


After dinner we looked out the window and saw a herd of deer passing by the RV. Some quick pics before they disappeared.


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