Search for Aspen Gold; Day 2

At 7:20 we were scooting out of Burlington, CO westbound on I-70. It was sunny and 63 degrees. Our route today was I-70 westbound to Seibert, north on 59 to Cope, 36 west, 71 north to Brush, and I-76 and Hwy 34 into our destination, Estes Park.

Just south of Cope, a heard of turkeys crossed the road in front of us causing us to stop. A car coming the other way also stopped. The turkeys acted as though they owned the road. Just west of Cope we spotted two antelope in a field. As we turned north on 71 the temperature also reached 71 so the top came down. Somewhere west of Wiggins on 34 the temperature dropped from the high 70's to 64 all at once and when it dropped to 61 the top went back up.

We stopped at the Loveland, Colorado visitor's center and walked around the grounds.

They had an amazing little robot moving around that cut the grass for them. I took a video of it working so you can check it out by viewing photos with the link below. At the end of the video it appears to get stuck but we continued to watch and it was able to back up, turn, and move on. There was a sculpture titled "Grandmother's Joy" so I took a picture of Grandma standing beside it. Down the road a little farther in Loveland we stopped at 3 Margaritas for a very good Mexican lunch. Then it was westbound through Big Thompson Canyon along the Big Thompson River and into Estes Park.

The aspens are changing. This photo was taken from in front of our hotel room using a zoom lens. We found aspen gold and hope to see much more.

In Estes Park we tried to ride the tram up a mountain but the line was too long and was moving too slow. We decided to do a hike, located a hike online, and had Google maps lead us there only to find the gate closed. It was a very busy day in Estes Park because they were celebrating "Elk Days" this weekend and it was also a weekend for free entry into the national parks. People came from all around to access Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) free of charge. We heard some folks say it was such slow going into RMNP that they gave up and turned around. Driving around Estes Park we did see a huge elk with a huge rack of antlers. I did not try to stop for a photo because there already many cars stopped and people milling around. Yesterday we saw on the news that a lady actually got attacked by an elk in Estes Park.

We returned to our hotel and watched most of the second half of the Chief's game and were happy to see them win in the closing minutes. Then we hit the hotel's hot tub to round out the day.

We drove 263 miles today. The high temperature was 80 and the low was 61. It was a beautiful day, though a little windy, and it is great to see the mountains again.

To see all the photos taken today click on the following link: Day 2 Pics

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Colorado; Day 9; June 30, 2012

Image
The evening of June 29th we saw the play, “Is He Dead” at the Creede Repertory Theater ( http://www.creederep.org/ ).  It was very entertaining,  one of the better plays I’ve seen. When we drove away from Creede at 6:05 am it was 41 degrees.  A short distance south the temperature dropped to 39.  We tried soaking up the cold for what we knew would be a hot afternoon. We rode South Fork and then east to Alamosa.  From Alamosa we took a detour north up Hwy 17 to see the UFO Watchtower ( http://www.ufowatchtower.com/ ).  It is a place for UFO enthusiasts to go to watch for UFO’s.  The lady who runs the place said something about some sort of vortex existing on the property.  Weird stuff, even for an open-minded guy like me. If the UFO Watchtower wasn’t weird enough we saw a male driving a Jeep with eye lashes over the headlights at a gas station in Alamosa, CO.  Hopefully it was his wife’s Jeep and he was just gassing it up for her. We continued east to Walsenburg, LaJunta, and La
Read more

My Last Ride

On January 11th, 2017, I departed on a ride to Kelli's Korner (Paradise, MO - near Smithville, MO) for lunch with four friends (Carl, Gary, Bill and Larry). It was a beautiful day, which was all the excuse we needed for a ride. I was leading the group and we were taking a long way there. Riding north on county road N, about 6 miles north of Hwy 152 and I-435, the road turned and I didn't. I exited the road into a field. Fortunately there were no fences, trees, rocks, oncoming cars, etc. I have no explanation for this except that I was out of it for awhile. I remember crossing the center line but I was looking down at that time, which is weird. I have no memory of seeing anything after that until I was laying in the field separated from my motorcycle. I do remember a sensation of tumbling but that is all. My first thought was to drive my motorcycle out of the field and get it cleaned up so Chris would not know what I did. What a ridiculous idea that was. After I'd been up
Read more

Florida Trip; Day 11

Image
A beautiful, sunny and warm day! After our B&B breakfast we rode away on our golf cart at 9:45 AM. It was 51 degrees. We spent an hour or so exploring Cedar Key again and Chris did a little shopping on Dock Street. Morning is low tide. It was strange seeing boats sitting in the mud at the marina. This next picture is of the marina at high tide. At noon we had to return the golf cart and then we walked to lunch at Tony's. After lunch we walked the Railroad Trestle Nature Trail. We went to the Cedar Key Scrub State Park to walk but found it uninteresting so we didn't go far.  Back at the B&B we watched a movie and then watched the sun set. We drove a whopping 13 miles today (not counting miles in the golf cart) and our high temperature was 68. A very relaxing day! Tomorrow we start home. Click here to see all photos from today - Day 11 Photos  
Read more