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:

S ‘23 Ep. 4–Salida, CO (07-19-23)

 After a week in Pagosa Springs, it was time to move on to our next destination, Salida.

We pretty much exchanged one river for another- but this time our campsite was right on the riverbanks –The Arkansas River.

We spent several nights sitting outside enjoying the river, and the wildlife in the field across from us. We originally thought they were elk but now think they might be deer.

Either way they were fun to watch, as were the rafters and tubers floating down the river.

Our first day started out lazy, and we didn’t even get dressed until lunch time. Feeling guilty, we got moving after lunch and headed up the nearby mountain to hike a short 1.2 mile hike to Agnes Vaille Falls

This hike falls into the “exercise” category.  There were some nice views of the mountains, and once in a while, a view of the water. Nearby Mount Antero is the highest gem field in North America.

As for the waterfall, we aren’t sure if you can actually get close to it or not because the trail turned into boulder hopping, and I wasn’t up for that. Paul went ahead without me for a bit, but came back without having gotten close to the water.

Hike done, we continued up the road and ran into the ghost town of St. Elmo. We came across “St. Elmo’s Fire” although it has nothing to do with any other St. Elmo’s Fire- the movie or the phenomenon. By the way, I did a search on “St. Elmo’s Fire” and it is essentially a weather phenomenon created by a corona discharge from a pointed object such as a mast. It creates a blue or violet glow, usually accompanied by a hissing or buzzing sound. It can be a warning sign of an imminent lightning strike. I guess prior to my search, I associated the name with the movie.

Anyway, the town is a typical abandoned mining town, but it has an active general store that sells ice cream.

On the hiking front, our next choice was the trail “Waterdog Lakes”. It is 3.5 miles with 1100 ft of gain, and we were passed by many water dogs, who were rushing to the lake to go swimming.

The trail was a little challenging with some boulder/rock fields, but overall pretty nice, with a few water crossings, which is always nice as long as there are bridges or rocks.  

Originally we were planning on tubing the Arkansas River, which runs through Salida. Two things happened- Paul popped his tube in Pagosa (and we hadn’t replaced it) and the river is running too high to tube.  Our plan B was to raft the river, which we did.  

We chose Noah’s Ark, a nearby rafting company for our excursion.  Almost all of their reviews are 5 star, which made me think twice, but I can’t say enough good things about this company, and our guide Kohl. After the trip I wanted his name so I could write a really nice review, and that’s what he said. Kole, with a K. He could have just said Kohl, like the store.

Anyway, he was fantastic. Our raftmates were a family of 4 with two young girls, so Paul and I got the rear “interesting” seats. Kohl said there would be times when he would essentially yell HOLD ON, and were we ok with that?

I told him I was nervous but would be ok. From then on he was careful to let me know what was coming up and what to be aware of. As he said to me, paddling is important, but staying in the boat is more important- so, focus on that.

He taught us the lingo of what we should be doing, such as GO TWO- that means paddle twice, forward. GO BACK 1 means paddle backwards once.  “Bump bump Bump bump” means we are going to hit an obstacle hard.  He spent a fair amount of time having us practice things like “HIGH SIDE”. That means the raft is going to flip over unless we all jump to whatever side he calls out- such as “HIGH SIDE RIGHT” . We were all pretty well prepared for whatever laid ahead.

 

As it turns out, we didn’t have any issues of our own, but a raft in front of us (different company) flipped- spewing people into the frigid water.

Kohl guided our raft over to a teenage girl who was in the water. As we were taught, the mom sitting in front of me pulled the girl into our boat, and we headed to a calm spot in the water.

 

Unfortunately, where they had flipped was a very difficult section called the Toilet Bowl. You get the idea. Having picked her up, we were situated in a perilous position just before the toilet bowl, with no room to maneuver safely. Kohl made the decision to offload all of us onto the rocks nearby, and drag the boat back far enough to be able to maneuver the rapids.

Paul helped him pull the boat, which was no easy task.

We made it through with no issues, thankfully, and the teenager made it back to her own raft. Kohl, who was the head guide on our 5 raft flotilla, was very impressed with one of his other leaders who had pulled his boat off to the side and walked up the rocks, looking to assist as needed.

Whew, after that, the rest seemed easy.

The river calmed down over the next few days and Paul and I wandered downtown to watch the tubers and surfers.

Yes, surfers. Salida has created several artificial waves that people use to surf. It’s quite a sight to see- and the lines of surfers actually moves pretty fast.

After watching for a bit, we headed to a restaurant on the water where we watched from the vantage point of our table at the restaurant.

Our final hike before moving on was a 6 mile hike, 950 ft of gain, to Browns Creek Falls. The hike itself was nice, crossing several streams before finishing at the falls.

Once we were done, we continued on down the forest service roads, just to explore, but ended up having to turn around after too many “dead ends”.