The Way I See It . . .: Denver

May 21, 2011: Our first full day in Denver (after arriving late the night before) dawned sunny and promising. These are views from our hotel window:

We were up and out early, doing some shopping and seeing some sights, before heading to the airport to pick up David & Val. After they arrived, we took them back to the hotel to check-in, then we went to lunch at Asian Fusion 101, a restaurant that Jack had enjoyed, and that we went to several times with him. Later, for dinner, we went to Scott & Ellen's home, where we had a great meal, and got caught up with our Denver Family, including meeting little Keston Winter for the first time! It was a great evening!

May 22, 2011: Exploring Mount Evans and surrounding area!

Young deer in molt on Lookout Mountain near Golden CO:

Our plan was to drive to the summit of Mount Evans on the "highest paved road in North America" (elev. 14,265 feet)! But entering the drive at Idaho Springs (elev. 8,700 feet), we were greeted with a sign announcing that the road to the summit was closed, presumably due to snow! But we decided to continue as far as we could, and see what we could see! We were able to go as high as Echo Lake (elev. 10,600 feet) where I took these shots. The first one from right in front of the Lake, and the second one from the 1929 Echo Lake Lodge:

From Echo Lake we continued to drive the only way we could, which was toward the exit at the other end of the park. Along the way, the road wound a bit higher, before leveling off and descending. Here are a couple of viewpoints at approx. 11,000 feet:

Bob & Suzi at Mount Evans Viewpoint (photo by Val)

Having a little fun, after using the Outhouse :)

(photo by Val)

Back down to 7,220', we drove through the town of Evergreen, CO (approx. 15 miles west of Denver) and found ourselves on a winding canyon drive still heading east, with beautiful scenery. At the end of the road, we ended up, much to our surprise, in Red Rocks Park!

Val & Suzi at Red Rocks (photo by Bob)

Bob & Suzi (photo by Val)

View looking toward Denver

After Red Rocks, we returned to Denver and went to visit Aunt Shirley. She just turned 103 in April, and we could see a marked deterioration in her from last year. She had just woken from a nap and was quite confused. She wasn't sure if she knew David and Bob, and said she couldn't see them. We didn't stay very long.

After visiting Shirley, we went out to The Fresh Fish Co. for dinner, another restaurant where we had eaten in the past with Jack. This time the "fresh fish" was disappointing, at the very least. They did right by us when we complained, but we all decided we will not bother eating there again.

May 23, 2011: Visiting Jack at Fort Logan National Cemetery with David, Val, Renee & Baschen:

Renee & Baschen Kalman

Renee & Baschen

Baschen

Bob & David

Bob

Bob & Suzi

David

Val (photo by David)

After the cemetery, we took David & Val to the airport, to catch their flight home. By the time we reached the airport, the sky was looking very ominous, and we could see it was already raining to the southeast!

Swirling thunderclouds seen while driving back through Denver:

After a lovely lunch and afternoon spent with Renee, Marvin & Baschen, with visits there by Jon and Ellen, we headed back to the hotel. Despite the on-again/off-again thunderstorms all afternoon, we saw this striking sunset from our hotel window:

May 24, 2011: Trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.

Despite the threatening weather, Bob and I decided we wanted to take a chance and go to Rocky Mountain National Park, one of our favorite places! On the way out of town, we made a couple of photo stops in downtown Denver to catch the following shots:

Denver Center for the Performing Arts: I love the architecture!

Peeking Bear at the Denver Convention Center:

One of several old trestles in the downtown area, of which I have not yet been able to find any history.

And, impressively, rental bikes! I love this idea!

By the time we left the downtown area, it started to rain lightly, and rained most of the way through Boulder to Estes Park, gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park!

We stopped at a turnoff just before Estes Park, a favorite place to see chipmunks and Steller's Jays. They didn't have much fear of people, and have gotten used to treats from visitors! Luckily we had some trailmix in the car to feed them, and I got some great shots! This little guy stood right up on his hind legs and made little noises that sounded like "gimmee, gimmee"! I love his puffed out cheeks, already full of treats as he begged for more!

Bob had them eating out of his hand:

Steller's Jay

We entered the park at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center, and asked about the best places to view wildlife that we had not yet seen. We were directed to Moraine Park and the Cub Lake/Fern Lake Trailheads. We were worried we might not see much in the intermittent rain, but our fears were totally unfounded.

Moments after arriving at the Moraine Park area, we had a serious snow squall, complete with thunder and lightning, and another one later when driving upward toward Rainbow Curve:

But the wildlife were out ~ abundantly! We saw deer, elk and many varieties of birds we don't see in the east. Here is a very young female, still in molt and a bit scruffy-looking:

Another young elk:

Several older females lying down (with a larger herd behind them)

Several Black-billed Magpies were flying around at the turnoff on Cub Lake Trailhead; we were surprised how very close they came up to us, obviously looking for handouts. Luckily we still had some of that trailmix left!

Closeup of a young elk grazing in the Fern Lake Trailhead area:

More elk near a fence-in enclosure in Moraine Park

A bull elk!

After leaving Moraine Park, we started up Trail Ridge Road toward Rainbow Curve. The higher we got, the more snow we saw. When we arrived, we saw it was the end of the road; everything beyond that was still closed due to snow! Here's a shot on the road toward Rainbow Curve:

Another shot of the foggy mountaintops:

The foggy view from Rainbow's Curve Overlook:

A dozen or so Clark's Nutcrackers greeted us at Rainbow Curve. This squat little gray bird with very short legs is a member of the Jay family. They were unafraid of people, and were hopping the rocks, looking for handouts from the visitors:

This little guy is a Gray Jay (perhaps a juvenile?):

The Trail Ridge Road was closed beyond Rainbow Curve, so we had to turn back. The snow drifts were very high at the turnoff, and apparently up to 22 feet at higher elevations! Here the depth of the snow was probably about 2.5 times the height of the SUV we were driving.

Another foggy mountaintop view on the way back down Trail Ridge Road:

View of Horseshoe Park (valley)

Another view of Horseshoe Park

View of Sheep Lakes

Sheep Lakes again:

This young female elk was finding some tender shoots of grass right along side of the road. We stopped (on the opposite side) for these shots.

It looks as though we could reach right out and touch her,

but actually she was about 10 feet away!

After leaving the Park, we had a late lunch at Wapiti Grill in Estes Park. Wapiti is a Cree word for elk, and sure enough, there was a mounted elk's head on the wall!

From Estes Park we started back toward Denver. When we arrived in Boulder, we decided to take the drive up Baseline Road. We stopped at the summit of Flagstaff Mountain, but couldn't see much of the distant mountaintops due to the heavily overcast skies. We encountered three young hikers and I snapped a few shots of them on top of the rocks:

Back on the road to Denver again, we spied a sign for El Dorado Canyon State Park, and decided to take yet another detour and explore that area. It was a small park wedged in a canyon between two large rocky cliffs.