Our First Trip to Colorado: Day 5, part 1

8/7/13

This day began early in Colorado Springs. My original plan had been to drive to Grand Lake, and then travel Trail Ridge Road to Estes Park. However, we all know what they say about the best laid plans. The night before leaving, we discovered the forecast had changed from afternoon thunderstorms to morning steady rain and afternoon storms. Not wanting to drive TRR in the rain, I had spent the evening mapping out a new route, to best avoid rush hour traffic, and the toll road. Colorado has this one toll road that is electronic (license plate based) only. It can totally be avoided, but it’s the fastest route, because people are avoiding the toll and using other routes, so I had to disobey the GPS, by planning things on my own. The GPS I was using for this trip was a bit...old.

We checked out of the Mining Exchange in Colorado Springs about 6:30 am. We were sad to be leaving such a beautiful and awesome hotel, but excited to be starting the next part of our CO adventure. We headed north on 25, stopping just for a quick breakfast for Nick at Burger King, since apparently cereal bars don’t hold him as well as they do me. It rained until a little south of Denver, where we headed west a bit and the mountains were a bit socked in by clouds until we got close to Estes Park. 

We arrived in Estes Park mid-morning, stopping at the Estes Park visitor center for some brochures. Once those had been obtained, since it was just overcast and not raining, we headed into the park. By Morraine Park we had our first elk sighting, which was VERY exciting! I had seen some in Yellowstone 10 years ago, but for this East Coaster, seeing elk will never lose its thrill. 

Once we'd gotten our fill of pictures, we continued on to the Park and Ride, where we hopped on a waiting bus for Bear Lake. Because of limited parking at the trailheads for the Bear Lake area, there are several park and rides set up throughout the park, with VERY frequent buses, and very accurate signs about parking availability, so that you don’t waste time in parking lots that are full. We both were impressed with this service.

Bear Lake was gorgeous, and it took a long time to walk around because we were stopping OFTEN for pictures.