I also wanted to see Judy, Marie's sister, while we were in Colorado. She planned a hike for us on Sunday to the Poudre Valley on the Lower Dadd Gulch Trail. It was a trail that went up and down through a pretty wooded area. We went about 7 miles and got to visit and eat at Mishawaka. It is a restaurant/concert venue along the Poudre River where you can eat and watch floaters go by. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was unique.
To go to Rocky Mountain National Park you must have a pass. I found out that about 40% of the passes are held until 5:00 pm on the day before entry. So, I went online at 5:00 on Sunday night in order to get passes for Monday. Marie suggested that we get the + (plus) pass in order to go to the popular Bear Lake area while in the park. By the time my request went through, I was unable to get the + pass. And, the earliest we could go was noon on Monday. But, we were happy to get to go.
So....on Monday, Marie came to our RV park and went with us to RMNP. We packed a lunch and ate in the Alluvial Fan Falls area before heading to the Trail Ridge Road. We stopped at many stops along our way to the Alpine Visitor Center at 12,005 feet. We climbed the steps at the visitor center to get to the highest part, which is no small feat. Of course, we shopped at the gift shop and had a snack. Then, we headed back down. Just after leaving the visitor center, we saw hundreds of elk along the side of the road.
We learned on the way into the park that we could go to the Bear Lake Area after 6:00 pm. Our goal was to spend time in the park and go in that direction, spend some time there, and then leave the park from that exit. We got to the area about 5:40. Believe them when they say you can't go in until 6:00. They made us do a U-turn and exit that area. We chose to wait at a visitor center until 6:00 and go back in. I'm so glad we did. Marie and I took a walk around Sprague Lake while Jeff waited on us. While he was waiting, he heard something behind him and just a few feet from him was a young moose. It went across the lake where Marie and I were and we saw it in the water and then exit and take the trail for it's evening stroll. LOL
On Tuesday, Jeff and I spent some time driving around the area. We drove to Horsetooth Reservoir and looked around that area. We also did some shopping for our trip home.
I had reserved Wednesday, our last day there, for a hike with Marie. Again, I had to get online on Tuesday at 5:00 pm to try to get a + pass for Bear Lake, where we wanted to hike. We had decided that if we didn't get the pass, we could pick a different hike among hundreds in or outside RMNP. Maybe Wednesday is not as busy as other days, or I was just lucky, but I got the + pass for 10:00 am. Yippee!!
Marie and I chose a hike from Bear Lake to Haiyaha Lake. It is a fairly steep ascending trail of about 2.2 miles to the lake. On the way, you also see Nymph Lake and Dream Lake. It was an amazing day. It started out rainy but quickly stopped raining and was a cloudy, cool hike. We had our lunch and ate it at Haiyaha Lake along the rocky shoreline. And, I do mean rocky. You had to practically rock climb to get near the lake. But, it was a beautiful, turquoise colored mountain lake. After finishing the trail, we dropped out packs, put on our sandals and walked the trail around Bear Lake. It was an easy walk, but started raining again before we finished. We managed to stay pretty dry.
On Thursday, we left fairly early, and decided to take a more northern route. We spent the night at York, Nebraska. On Friday, although we were planning to spend the night north of St. Louis, we saw that we were going to have time to drop our RV in St. Louis for warranty work and still make it home that evening. We stopped at a rest area and quickly unloaded a lot of our stuff into the truck. We made it just before the RV repair shop closed, unloaded the food from the refrigerator, and headed home.
We were gone almost 3 weeks, so we have had plenty of stuff to do at home and in our yard this week. It is very hot, so spending time outdoors is not fun for very long at a time. AC is our friend!
Click on the pictures to read the captions and see the full view. There are several sections, so you will have to click on the first picture to start each section.
Sunday Hike in Poudre Valley on Lower Dadd Gulch Trail
Monday - Time in Rocky Mountain National Park
Tuesday - Drive to Horsetooth Reservoir
Wednesday - Hike with Marie in Rocky Mountain National Park
staying at Riverview RV Park, Loveland, CO