Moose and Elk and a Bank Robbery -- A Day Trip

In July my son's family and I took a day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, my second favorite place in Colorado. It is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve.

Its 265,461 acres of forest and tundra is bisected by the Continental Divide, which means that for the most part streams that head up west of the divide join the Colorado River and make their way to the Pacific Ocean. The water of those to the east of the divide eventually makes its way to the Atlantic.

After an early breakfast at home, we had an early lunch in the village of Grand Lake, the park's western entryway.

     

The Sagebrush Bar and Grill is a welcome stop for people hiking the Colorado Trail.
Good food. Good service. And they can leave their back packs and trekking poles
inside the front door. On a visit a couple of weeks earlier I saw one young man
whose pack I swear was at least as big as he was.

That earlier visit was made ostensibly to get a Lifetime Senior Pass for $10. It's good for all our national parks and it's going up to $80 August 28. You can get them online, but it was a good excuse to go, right?

So I handed my pretty, floral card to my son as we approached the entry gate. What? No rangers in sight. Just a sign that said to proceed. They didn't check my card. They weren't charging the standard day fee of $20.00 per car. And there I was all prepared to save money.

Built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (a Roosevelt New Deal program during the Great Depression) Trail Ridge Road runs 48 miles from Grand Lake at 8,369 feet above sea level to Estes Park, the east gateway, at 7,522 feet. Eleven miles of it are above tree-line, the highest point being 12,183 feet.

As you travel the road, the climate and ecosystems change as you change altitude. From marshy river valley through montane, subalpine, and into alpine tundra at its highest.

The best opportunity to see moose is in the Kawuneeche Valley of the Colorado River just up the road from Grand Lake, at relatively low altitude, though still well above the mile-high mark.

Kawuneeche means "valley of the coyote" in Arapaho. You can tell when there are moose or, indeed almost any large wild creatures in sight of the highway. People stop their cars alongside the road and pile out to get a closer look. The public is advised not to approach the animals and because the Kawuneeche valley is well below the level of the highway and very marshy, the public behaves. We joined the crowd and did see a moose and her calf. Sorry, I only had my cell phone and they were too far away, so no photos.









Trail Ridge Road is a series of switch backs and steep grades. Around each curve or as you start down a ridge you are treated to a new vision of the world. Dramatic valleys falling hundreds of feet below you or sheer cliffs rising as many feet above. Waterfalls and clouds. Clouds dancing among the mountains and around you.

                                                      

                        

And wildlife.

   
    Elk alongside the highway                 A marmot near the wall at a scenic overlook 

Then down from the mountains, we skirted Estes Park missing the traffic. A stop at Colorado Cherry Company for an afternoon snack -- Cherry pie and coffee for me. Then on to Lyons for a stop at Oskar Blues, a bar and grill complete with a pinball arcade in the basement.

As we got out of the car and my daughter-in-law was divvying up quarters for the pinball machines, we noticed two sheriff's deputies running into a neighborhood -- one with a rifle and the other with a police dog -- their vehicles parked at odd angles in front of a neighborhood bank. Yes, indeedy. My first bank robbery.

We did not dawdle outside to see what happened. The kids played pinball and I finished reading a very good book.

   
Here I am with the grandchildren all lit by a black light in the basement pinball arcade.

According to the next day's Denver Post the robber got away on foot with an "undisclosed" amount of money and had not yet been apprehended.

The Grandkids figured he had a getaway car parked somewhere in the neighborhood north of the bank. I figure, considering how many tourists were in town, he probably couldn't find a parking place any closer.

Anyway, after the children ran out of quarters, it was home again for us, completing our 210 mile loop through the mountains. All-in-all, a good day trip.

Red Rocks -- A Day Trip

July 27, 2015
from center front clockwise: Silas, John Riley, Sonja,
and John Ryan

That's my son, his lovely wife, and their two brilliant sons. They live in Texas, so they particularly enjoyed our relatively mild mid-day temps. Their daughter was in Alabama for a mission trip. We missed her, but maybe she can come up later this year.

Red Rocks was 'discovered' in 1820 by a U.S. Army expedition. (The Ute apparently knew it was here long before that.) The Beatles played Red Rocks 51 years ago this month on their first American tour. And, after living 6.5 miles from it for almost four years, we've added it to our list of favorite day-trips. 

Running the steps in the amphitheater is a popular pastime with the locals. I make do with hiking the trails and taking too many photos.

And maybe sometime soon I'll add it to night trips. (Movies on the Rocks--live music, a comedian, and a classic movie. All for $12. BYOP--Bring Your Own Picnic.) 

The Rocky Mountains are primarily granite,    but scattered about in Colorado are magnificent  outcroppings of sandstone, testifying to the area's ancient history as a great inland sea.


And yes the sky is exactly this blue. 

Because we are in the rain shadow of the Rockies, our climate is that of a high plains desert.

And our native flora are often as architectural as the mountains. 
This is Common Mullein and, although it was the
end of July, it was not yet in bloom. That tall, leafless bit
at the top boasts brilliant yellow blooms now.

Many of our other wildflowers were showing the wear and tear of our fierce sun
and sporadic rainfall.

Pineywoods Geranium                              Toadflax                                     Dwarf Golden Aster

This year is being considered a 'wet' year. Keep in mind, however, that even during our wet years we measure rainfall in fractions of an inch and rain events rarely last longer that 20 or 30 minutes. 

While we were in the park we met a young man from Illinois. I explained about our arcane water laws. By interstate compacts with our downstream U.S.neighbors and international treaties with Mexico, we may keep only one-third of the water that falls on Colorado. It is illegal to catch and hold rain water that falls on our property. It is illegal to dig a water well without permission. That water is all spoken for.

And, this year in particular, our neighbors in Utah, Arizona, California, and Northern Mexico are in particular need. The young man from Illinois could not understand. When it comes to water, his home state is a land of plenty. The Southwest United States is not.

This is as close to lush as we come,

and we love it.