S ‘23 Ep. 5 -Grand Lake, CO (8-1-23)

 We have been to the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park a few times, and I have been itching to see the west side. The closest town to the western entrance, is Grand Lake, Colorado. Our RV park is about 1 mile from the park entrance.

This is actually a perk, because like some other national parks, Rocky Mountain has moved to a timed entry system.

Essentially you have to “book” a 2 hour window for you to enter the park- and they sell out, so you aren’t guaranteed to get what you want. However, timed entry is required from 9 am to 2 pm. and being so close to the entrance, all we had to do is arrive before 8:30 to get in line. 

Our plan for our first day in the park was to drive up Toll House Rd. (the main scenic drive) to the Alpine visitor center and work our way back, hiking short trails along the way.

 The views along the way are spectacular.

 We got to the visitor center, but then we noticed that there is a one way gravel road that looked interesting, so we decided to drive that before looking at hikes.

The road was narrow, but in pretty good shape, so it was an easy drive. We stopped whenever there was a pull off to check it out. Some had nice views, some had hiking trails. One stop was Chasm Falls, a pretty cool waterfall that was a short walk from the road.  That was one of the more interesting stops.

 As we approached the end of the road (which is 9 miles long) the weather started looking a bit ominous.

We knew rain was in the forecast but we hoped to beat it. Just before reaching pavement again, we saw a bunch of people taking pictures- turns out there were some bull elk nearby.

Armed with my good camera, I got a few good shots before we moved on.

Soon after that the rain started- and the hail- so our plan of hiking went out the window, so to speak. On the way down the hill I caught sight of a bull moose, just a few yards from the road, but Paul was driving and it was a torrential downpour, so, no pictures.

After a day of vegging out, we decided to head in the other direction, towards the town of Grand Lake. Grand Lake is home to the headwaters of the Colorado River. It looks a little different here than it does at home in Arizona. The Lake, and town, are called Grand Lake, because the Colorado River used to be called the Grand River, before it was renamed due to the existence of the Rio Grande.

The town is a small one, typical of tourist towns, with restaurants and shopping along the waterfront. Our first item on the agenda was to hike to Adams Falls, technically a short trail to a waterfall, but the trail continues on, so we hiked for 2 miles before turning back.

I really enjoyed the trail, because every few minutes the view changed and we saw something new.

Done hiking, we headed to the waterfront to check out the annual Wooden Boat festival. There were a couple of dozen wooden boats to look at , which didn’t take long, and then we looked for a place for lunch.

The view from our table was the best thing about lunch. It gave us a decent view of Grand Lake. After a little more shopping, we headed home.

Because our plans to hike the short trails in the park was thwarted by the weather, the next day we did a “take 2” and headed up to the Alpine Visitor Center. Our first “hike” is affectionately known as Huffer Trail.

It starts at the visitor center and goes up. Its very short at .63 miles round trip, but it ends at 12,000 feet. Hence the name.  

There were signs along the way that explained why none of us felt like we could breathe. Although the oxygen level in our air remains constant at 21%, the air pressure is decreased, and the oxygen molecules are more spread out- so, each breath we take contains less oxygen than we are used to...hence the huffing.

As soon as we reached the top of the trail, we realized there were elk in the area. About 14 males, lounging around, enjoying the day. We couldn’t see too much of them except all the antlers poking up from the grassy area.

Once we had our fill, we headed down the hill to our next short hike- Medicine Bow Trail. Round trip is .83 miles, with essentially no gain.

From here we could see the same bull elks we saw before, from a different vantage point.  As we walked the trail, we realized there was a lone female, hunkered down on her own.

Very soon we were back at the truck and noticed people taking pictures. There were two cow elk munching on the greenery nearby.

Continuing down the road, our next stop was Irene Lake . No wildlife here, except the new to me Clark’s Nutcracker- but the lake is pretty and it was only .85 miles to walk around it. It was a bonus that there were nice picnic tables where we could have lunch.

Our final stop/hike of the day was the Holzwar Historic Site. The Holzwar family settled here in the late 1800s, and by 1920 had created a dude and trout fishing ranch. They owned the land until the 1970s, at which time it was the last parcel of private land to be sold to the National Park. One of the conditions was that they retain the historic aspect of the homestead, so several of the buildings are still standing.

Our “push” hike of the week was the 7.4 mile hike(1400 ft gain) to Grand Ditch. Along the way we met up with a small group of college students who were out measuring and making notes about beaver activity or lack thereof.

 

They are backpacking into the wilderness to make these reports. As we chatted with them, I mentioned some flowers and plants I had seen, and they all knew their flora and fauna-by name. It was actually really nice to come in contact with young people who care about our natural world.

In my “down” time, I took some pictures of the hummingbirds:

Two Spots in Tucson (01-09-15)

We spent two weeks in Tucson-the first of which was spent at Justin’s RV park with Mike, Julie, Dave and Nancy.  It was a very relaxing week just hanging with everyone.

  Of course we got together for New Years Eve, and immediately decided that as soon the ball dropped in Times Square, that was close enough to midnight for us (10 pm).  It worked out quite well!


I haven’t been taking many pictures but I did get a few shots of the snow we got on New Years Eve.  Yup, it’s been that cold here in Tucson.

  Our main focus has been on hiking and walking whenever possible.

You may be thinking, looking at this picture, that apparently we had to drive all the way to Canada to get to a decent hiking trail, but no.

Back in the 1970s, when the US was making the attempt to switch to the metric system, this section of Rte 19 was the testing ground for kilometer highway markings.

Well, we all know how well the metric system worked out for us- but the highway signs here are still in kilometers.  In fact, its the only stretch of highway in the U.S. that is only marked in kilometers. A few years ago a move was made to switch the signs back to miles, but the businesses in the area lobbied to keep the metric.  Apparently its good for business because it makes the area unique.

This particular trail in the Santa Rita Mountains was one we were looking forward to hiking, but after driving an hour to get there, we were thwarted by the ice on the trail.  We did attempt it, but after passing over a dozen people coming back down who said they had only made it as far as the next corner, we gave it up and headed home.

One of the perks to Justin’s RV is that our site literally backs up to a wilderness with miles and miles of hiking trails- so if we didn't feel like driving to a trail, all we had to do is walk out our back door- which we did-on many occasions.  We got into an easy rhythm of texting the group when we were headed out back to hike, in case anyone wanted to come along.

When we did drive, we didn't usually have to go too far to find some decent trails. Brown Mountain Loop was just a 10 minute drive down the street and was a nice hike.

Whenever we hang out with our friends, we exchange ideas about everything from modifications to our rigs, to solutions we have discovered for XXX problem, etc. And of course, we show off things we have bought (since none of us buy much). 


Mike and Julie have a hummingbird feeder and Mike rigged it so it is attached to their large rear window.












   After watching all the hummingbirds, I decided we needed to keep up with the Joneses, so off to Home Depot we went.
















So we are now the proud owners of a hummingbird feeder.

We have already discovered that hummingbirds are not the only creatures interested in the feeder. It took this guy a few tries, but he did manage to hang on long enough to drink the nectar.

This particular creature has been trying to launch himself through the glass to get to his buddies, the birds.  He even calls to them in his version of “bird talk”.

Eventually he gave up, exhausted, and needed quite a long nap to recover from his attempts.

I have been practicing taking pictures of the birds and I have gotten a little better, but still have a long way to go…











And, now that I have managed to ramble on and on, about pretty much nothing, the rest of Tucson will have to wait until the next post.