We just got home from Colorado last week! What an amazing trip! We always love visiting there, but this time seemed extra special. An extra day really made a big difference! The first two days we spent in a couple of our favorite places: Saturday it was Rocky Mountain National Park and Sunday morning, the Denver Zoo! On Sunday evening, we had dinner with Ellen & Scott's family and friends. On Monday we spent the entire day with Renee and her very curious, incredibly bright and always-moving grandson Baschen (now 18 mos). We had a great day that included visiting Aunt Shirley (who has trouble remembering but is still hanging in there at age 102), a quick lunch with Ellen who works from home several days a week, and an afternoon at the lovely Denver Botanic Garden, checking out the Henry Moore Sculpture Exhibit. The day was topped off with a visit to the cemetery to say hello to Jack, and then a great dinner and great conversation with Renee and Marvin at their home. On Tuesday, we had a totally awesome day with DP friends, Keith & Diane! They live in an amazing "cabin" up in the South Park Highlands (10,000+ ft) right outside the town of Fairplay. This was a very special visit for me - to spend some time with new friends and get to see in person all the amazing places that they have posted photos of on Daily Pics and Facebook! Needless to say, I felt like I was in photo op heaven! I was snapping photos everywhere I looked, and added a few hundred more to my stash that day! Thanks so much to them for driving us all over the region, and feeding us a great dinner at the end of the day!
Day One: May 22, 2010:
Day One: May 22, 2010:
Our first day there, we visited Rocky Mountain National Park, about 2 hours north of Denver. We drove there via Boulder and Estes Park. A scenic viewpoint just before reaching Estes Park is home to chipmunks and Stellar Jays that eat out of your hand. There's also a tourist photo op in front of the Estes Park rock! A very nice man took our photo, after we took one of him and his wife. He had a much better camera and lens than I do - but it's not the equipment that makes the photo, it's the photographer - he cut my foot off in the shot! I did better with his shot, and centered them both nicely in front of the view. But I'm glad I have this photo, so I won't complain!
Nestled at the foot of the mountains in Estes Park is the Stanley Hotel. A 38-room Georgian hotel, the Stanley offers panoramic views of the Rockies. The Stanley is also said to have been inspiration for Stephen King while writing The Shining. Contrary to some published accounts, King was living in Boulder at the time and did not actually write the novel at the hotel. However parts of the mini-series version of The Shining were filmed there. The hotel and its surrounding lands are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Just after entering the Park, we stopped at the Visitor Center and found out that our intended northern route - Trail Ridge Road - was still closed for the season! That route, which we had taken the only other time we'd been in the Park, leads to a high alpine tundra area that I find fascinating. Instead, it was recommended that we go to the Sprague Lake/Bear Lake area to the south, and I'm glad that we were "forced" to do that instead. It was great seeing a part of the Park we hadn't seen before, and we had many wonderful surprises along the way.
Our first pleasant surprise after leaving the Visitor Center was seeing dozens of Bighorn Sheep and Elk grazing in Sheep Meadow. These photos represent my first attempt with my new 2x Teleconverter Lens and a tripod. These animals were 500+ feet away, so I am pretty pleased with the results!
This little guy was eating out of people's hands:
Here we are:
Nestled at the foot of the mountains in Estes Park is the Stanley Hotel. A 38-room Georgian hotel, the Stanley offers panoramic views of the Rockies. The Stanley is also said to have been inspiration for Stephen King while writing The Shining. Contrary to some published accounts, King was living in Boulder at the time and did not actually write the novel at the hotel. However parts of the mini-series version of The Shining were filmed there. The hotel and its surrounding lands are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Just after entering the Park, we stopped at the Visitor Center and found out that our intended northern route - Trail Ridge Road - was still closed for the season! That route, which we had taken the only other time we'd been in the Park, leads to a high alpine tundra area that I find fascinating. Instead, it was recommended that we go to the Sprague Lake/Bear Lake area to the south, and I'm glad that we were "forced" to do that instead. It was great seeing a part of the Park we hadn't seen before, and we had many wonderful surprises along the way.
Our first pleasant surprise after leaving the Visitor Center was seeing dozens of Bighorn Sheep and Elk grazing in Sheep Meadow. These photos represent my first attempt with my new 2x Teleconverter Lens and a tripod. These animals were 500+ feet away, so I am pretty pleased with the results!
Bighorn Sheep: Adult & Yearling
Bighorn Ram (look at those amazing horns!)
A couple of yearlings:
The elk were still wearing their shaggy winter coats, much the worse for wear:
Bull Elk resting:
Young elk~or deer? I'm not sure...!
After we passed Sheep Meadow and I'd gotten my fill of photos there, we drove on to Sprague Lake, a beautiful spot on Bear Lake Road (elevation 8,720 ft). We hiked the half-mile trail around the Lake, which proved to be much more strenuous than longer hikes at lower altitudes. I was feeling light-headed and there was some huffing and puffing going on with both of us! But it was so worthwhile, because every bend in the trail offered another spectacular view! Interestingly, even in the fourth weekend in May, there were still many large patches of snow on the trail at this elevation. It wasn't only limited to mountain tops!
The distant mountains in the background form a portion of the Continental Divide!
Snow along the trail at Sprague Lake:
After Sprague Lake we journeyed on a bit up the road to Bear Lake at the end of Bear Lake Road (elevation 9,600 ft). The mountain tops were so close we could practically touch them. Here's a shot from the parking lot - there just wasn't a better vantage point without hiking a ways!
Eventually leaving the Park, we drove into the town of Estes Park, looking for a place to have a bite to eat. Estes Park is a typical ski resort town, and rather crowded with tourists, even in summer. We found a cute place to eat, called the Wapiti Pub. (Wapiti is a Native American word for elk) I had a salad with a great piece of salmon on it, and Bob had an excellent piece of trout with some of the best fries I've tasted in a while!
Wapiti Pub in Estes Park, CO
After our meal in Estes Park, we headed back to Denver, and decided to stop in Boulder to drive up Baseline Road, one of my favorite spots! Every time we go there, we find something new; this time we found some places at the top of Flagstaff Mountain that we hadn't seen before, including an amphitheatre, and this amazing lookout point! The elevation here is only 6,978 feet, but it feels like the top of the world!
And that was pretty much a perfect ending to a perfect Day One!
Day Two: May 23, 2010
On Sunday, we decided to visit the Denver Zoo again - we really enjoyed it last year when we were here. It's small enough to do in several hours and there are some great photo ops! Here are some of them:
Black bear sleeping in the morning sun....let sleeping bears lie!!
Happy Elephant!
Young Giraffe
Tiger, Tiger!
That evening, we had dinner with Scott & Ellen, Renee, Marvin & Jon, and a neighbor couple of Scott & Ellen's. Another great ending to another great day!
Day Three: May 24, 2010
Monday morning we met Renee and Baschen at Shirley's apartment building, and had a nice visit. She doesn't really remember who we are from year to year, but she's still pretty amazing at age 102.
Shirley & Baschen / Bob & Shirley
After a quick lunch with Ellen, we went to the Denver Botanic Gardens, where they are featuring a Henry Moore Sculpture Exhibit. Many of his pieces were of various reclining figures. Here are some of my favorite pieces in this exhibit:
Bob, Renee and Baschen in the Gardens:
After the Botanic Gardens, we made our way south to Fort Logan National Cemetery, to pay our respects to Jack Kalman (Bob's Dad, Shirley's younger brother, Baschen's namesake:
Dinner with Marvin & Renee at their house topped off another great day!
Day Four: May 25, 2010
Last day! Tuesday morning we packed our bags, checked out of our hotel, and headed to visit Keith & Diane in Fairplay ~ a small town in the mountains about two hours southwest of Denver. Beautiful scenery punctuated by tiny little towns accented our climb in altitude on CR 285. When we reached Kenosha Pass, we were awe-struck at the scene that lay before us, it was as unexpected as it was breath-taking!
Kenosha Pass:
The first glimpse after going over Kenosha Pass makes it seem as though the whole world has opened up and flattened out in front of you. This is the South Park region, a high plains spreading out for miles. Beautiful snow-capped mountains, towering at 14,000 feet and above ("fourteeners") surround the area on all sides, with grazing lands dotted with ranches that raise horses, buffalo, cattle and yaks.
From http://www.fourteenernet.com/southpark/: Wildlife viewing is a nonstop attraction, with bison herds growing in size in the Hartsel area. Antelope are abundant, and the sharp-eyed visitor can often spy mule deer, elk, an occasional coyote, black bear and even mountain lion. Birds range from the brightly colored bluebirds of spring and summer to the always-present magpies, grackles, plovers, migrating cranes and herons, seagulls, pelicans, red-tailed hawks, golden eagles and yes, even bald eagles.
We personally saw antelope, bison, deer, elk, bluebirds, magpies, eagles and vultures, in addition to domestic yaks grazing near Fairplay.
We personally saw antelope, bison, deer, elk, bluebirds, magpies, eagles and vultures, in addition to domestic yaks grazing near Fairplay.
Driving into the South Park/Fairplay area:
Keith & Diane's gorgeous three-level "cabin" !
For some strange reason, for which I now kick myself, I didn't take any photos of their place, so for reference I am using the one Keith sent me pre-trip,with his map and driving instructions. (Note: there was no snow on the day we visited - it was sunny and clear!) After a tour of the cabin, we set off in their truck for a tour of the area. What fantastic tour guides they are!!
Here are a few highlights from that tour:
The first part of our tour definitely brought to mind that old song:
"Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play":
This bison was scratching his itch against that pole,
and just wouldn't move away to afford me a better shot (sans pole):
and just wouldn't move away to afford me a better shot (sans pole):
Pronghorn Antelope
We stopped to photograph this lovely view of the valley and outskirts of the small small mining town-turned-resort community of Buena Vista with the Collegiate Mountains in the background. The 14,000 foot mountains were first summited by alumni from Yale, Princeton, Harvard, and Columbia, who named them for their respective alma maters!
Along "Raptor Road" we saw several raptors, and some vultures circling the area. Keith got some good shots, but I don't have the lens for the kind of shots he got! But Diane and I both got a pretty good shot of this pretty Mountain Bluebird (above) sitting on a fence post!
After getting some "famous" ice cream in Buena Vista, and checking out some deer grazing in a residential area (below) we continued our tour along the Arkansas River and up into the mountains to the old mining town of Leadville.
Not far past Leadville, we stopped for photos at the Climax mine. This mine was a major source of molybdenum (an alloy used in producing very hard steel) and in its heyday was the largest molybdenum mine in the world. For many years, it supplied three-fourths of the world's supply of the metal. It closed down for a time after World War I, then reopened again in 1924 and operated almost continuously until the 1980s, when molybdenum was found to be useful in the steel alloys needed for the turbines of jet engines. The mine is currently inactive.
Mine view:
Hey Diane, where ya going?
Lake and mountain vista near the mine. When not snow-and-ice-covered, the trailings from the mine turn this lake into a many-hued rainbow of color!
From Climax mine, we continued into Breckenridge:
Then, over Hoosier Pass (elevation: 11,539 ft), and back over to "the other side" of the mountains! And posing in front of the Hoosier Pass sign are the four explorers: Bob, Susan, Diane & Keith!
After a great meal prepared for us by Diane & Keith, the nearly-full moon had risen, and it was time for us to head back to Denver to get our 12:55am flight back to New York, but not before spotting a large owl on our way back down their road ~ it was the first owl I've ever seen in the wild, and regretfully it was too dark to get a photo, even in the moonlight!
sFarewell Colorado! Until next time...
Thanks for the wonderful memories!
Thanks for the wonderful memories!
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