We call these vacations “adventures” for a reason. Other than our white water rafting trip in Durango we haven’t had much in the way of adventures on this trip. Well, that ended today. Note to self….don’t ask GPS to get to a national park visitor center, at least not at RMNP. Before we left our cabin, I programmed the GPS to get us to the closest visitor center which was about 50 minutes away. After driving around some backroads we finally got to a park entrance where the ranger let us through with a smile and a wave. The dirt road we were driving on should have been the first clue that we were in the wrong place. By the time I figured it out though we were at the point of no return. After about 1.5 miles (which took forever on the skinny, unimproved, pot-hole filled road) we got not to a visitor center, but a ranger station. Since there was no where else to go, we turned around in the parking lot and went back out the way we came. When we got back to the little house with the smiling ranger, we asked where we were supposed to go. Turns out the main entrance was back to the highway about 35 minutes away. We left the cabin a little after 6am thinking we had plenty of time to get to the park for our 7-9am entrance time but now it’s 7:30 and we still really don’t know where we’re going. We got the the park entrance at about 8:15 but the ranger didn’t even ask for our timed entry tickets. So now we’re thinking, why did we spend time/money (albeit only $2.00) to get the tickets when no one seemed to care. To make matters worse, she didn’t give us a map and the visitor center wasn’t open yet. Now we have no idea where we’re going but hope the people in the car in front of us do so we followed them. About 10 minutes into the park I remember that we have a National Geographic book about the National Parks which has maps. Yeah!! It takes another few minutes to find a place to pull over and at least 10 minutes to find the book in our jam-packed car. But at least we finally have a map. So….we make the turn to Bear Lake road because I know that’s one of the places we want to visit and, low and behold, that was where the ranger wanted our timed entry tickets. Turns out we could have accessed the park at any time without a ticket but could only enter the Bear Lake Road during our time slot. OMG!! It was a pretty stressful few hours but we eventually ended up in the right place at the right time.
We left our car at the park and ride and took the free shuttle to Bear Lake. The walk around the lake was very easy and very beautiful. Here are several pictures from that hike.
After our trek around the lake we went on another 1/2 mile hike to Nymph Lake. While the Bear Lake hike was very flat, the one to Nymph Lake was not. I don’t know what the % of grade was but we climbed about 260 feet in that 1/2 mile. We were also at about 10,000 feet so it was a little harder to breath walking on flat ground. We took our time, resting a couple of times along the way. When we finally arrive it was definitely worth the trip.
We were told that the next lake (Dream Lake) was gorgeous and it was only another 1/2 mile so we decided to make the trip. Unfortunately, the grade was much steeper and was only going to get worse so after only about another 10 minutes we turned around and went back to the parking lot. By the time we got back on the shuttle we already had 7500 steps for the day and felt we had accomplished something.
Once we got back to our car, we headed west on Rt. 34 and 20 miles later, we were at the Alpine Visitor Center. The ride was beautiful.
After leaving the park, we drove about 75 minutes to the Hampton Inn in Ft. Collins. We had delicious pizza with a Navy friend of mine. Rose and I were stationed in Italy together and we at different commands in the D.C. area. I’d only seen her once since I retired in 98 so it was great to catch up with her.
Tomorrow we head to New Mexico to visit Capulin Volcano National Monument. We’ll let you know how it goes.