Rocky Mountain National Park - Sunday
Sunday morning consisted of another breakfast in the condo and more PB&J’s for the afternoon. We packed up all of our stuff because this was our last morning at Beaver Creek and hit the road back into Rocky Mountain National Park.
This morning on the way to the gate I saw a sign showing Trail Ridge Road was open all the way to Grand Lake! James was cautiously optimistic but I knew it was going to be open. Guaranteed! We went right for Trail Ridge and back to the Rainbow Curve lookout. The plan was to take comparison photos from the day before to really see how much snow had melted. James took this great shot (I don’t know how he got the exact angle) so we can really see the difference!
After Rainbow Curve is where the road was closed on Saturday but, as I knew it would be, it was now open! Up we went. The highest point in the park is on this road which is over 12,000 ft. We were above the tree line and the tundra is beautiful. Again, we had an incredibly clear day with great visibility.
There were many more stops on the way down the other side of the mountain. It is surprising how many people we saw biking up and down the road. I can’t image being strong enough to bike up, let alone brave enough to bike back down!
Once at the bottom, we stopped at Lake Irene. There weren’t many people at this one and the path was a bit snowy still. Once we got out to the lake there was only a couple there, the man was doing some fishing. It was a very serene place and we wandered around what we could of the area.
After getting back out toward the car, we decided this was a good place to have our lunch. We had a bird visitor trying to sneak a bite of food but were otherwise left alone. We made another stop at a small historic area within the park. This spot had an old house from the pioneer days and an area you could explore but we chose not to go any further. It was a great trip and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. Honestly, I preferred to see snow on the mountaintops and I’m so glad we got to see it that way and still had an opportunity to experience the full thruway of Trail Ridge Road.
At this point, we started our drive to Colorado Springs. This was another 4 hour journey so we could avoid going into Denver and the traffic there. After leaving the park we saw a few larger lakes by the road and the leaves are starting to change!
I drove for a very short amount of time once we got away from town. On the side of the road there was a reservoir you could tell immediately was super low. They have been having droughts which contributes to the spreading of fires. Steamboat seemed to have normal water levels, at least from what we could see, but you can tell we have caught up to the drought areas now.
We made it the rest of the way to Colorado Springs without any issues and checked into the Hilton Garden Inn hotel we are staying at until the 15th. There is a restaurant connected to another hotel right down the road we checked out for dinner, JB’s Burger Kitchen & Bar. I had a quesadilla and James had a burger. The food was good and his drink looked very strong so I would say it was a decent place.
Monday is Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods!
