A Trip to the Top of the World - Mt. Evans Co 17 Jul 2013, plus a bit more

The day after our Rocky Mountain National Park drive, we got up early and headed south from our RV park on the 30 mile drive to the top of Mt. Evans, another 14'er that is accessible via the highest paved road in North America. We wanted an early start, as by about 11 am the clouds start to build up along the Front Range, and we wanted to see the views unobstructed by  clouds.

 This is the last hairpin turn before the parking lot near the summit of Mt. Evans. We were surprised that the entire summit is made up of tumbled boulders, rather than a smooth granite dome.

 These mountain goats were perched on the rocks right next to the parking area at the top of the road. They are really scruffy looking as they shed their winter coats.

 We hiked up the very rough, rocky trail to the top of Mt. Evans from the parking lot - only about 134 feet above the parking lot, but lots of switchbacks, and given that the final altitude is 14,264 feet, we were quite out of breath. This is the view to the northwest from the summit. The ridge visible at the mid-left is part of the trail up from Summit Lake, visible at the lower right.

Summit Lake sits on the north side of Mt. Evans. The trail from the parking lot is visible as a diagonal line from the lower right to upper left of the photo.

Here we are at the summit, with a tired Shelby. I'm not sure she liked the altitude any better than we did! It does feel like the top of the world, with 360 degree views all around.

Back down at the parking area, we again document our highest trip to date (I doubt we'll ever get any higher, given that we're not mountain climbers). This view is to the northeast, toward Denver.

 Just below the first hairpin turn on our way down the mountain, cars were stopped in both lanes of the road to view these mountain goat families. The adults are shedding hair like mad, but the kids look soft and fluffy.

 This is one of the turns on the wider part of the road down Mt. Evans (the narrower part doesn't have a center line). No guardrail, no shoulder, and a steep drop off made for very cautious driving! We were glad we'd gone up early, as by noon the summit was completely fogged in by monsoon clouds building on the front range.

After two days of driving mountain switchbacks, we decided to let the engineer do the driving on the Georgetown Loop Railroad - a narrow-gauge steam engine train that climbs from Devil's Gate in Georgetown (8615 feet) to Silver Plume, 2 miles up the canyon at 9178 feet. The railroad was originally built to bring ore down for processing, and was dismantled after the mining boom ended. It was rebuilt in the 1970's as a tourist attraction.

 On July 19th, we left Idaho Springs and headed farther west on I-70. Here were are winding our way through Glenwood Canyon. The Colorado River is full of red silt from the recent heavy rainstorms. Note how the eastbound lanes disappear under the elevated westbound lanes of the interstate - no room in the canyon for side by side roads!

 These twin tunnels are at the western end of Glenwood Canyon. See how much browner the river is down stream from a weir dam that seems to be trapping most of the red silt.

 We stayed one night at Grande River Vineyards, one of the Harvest Hosts that allow us to dry camp overnight - of course, it ended up being more expensive than a campground because we liked a number of their wines and bought several bottles.

We circled the lower parking area five or six times trying to find a level parking spot, and finally ended up at the bottom of the lot propped up on boards to get level - but it sure beats staying overnight at a truck stop!

Later this week I'll post another entry describing our stay in far western Colorado - Colorado National Monument and the Palisade Fruit and Wine Byway.

Circle Trip around Rocky Mountain National Park, 16 Jul 2013

It's been a long time since we posted to this blog - but after hours of frustration trying to post a Picasa web album, which is now apparently only a function of Google+, which I cannot figure out, I decided to post our photos of Western Colorado as a blog.

After a busy spring and early summer of motorhome rallies, Palmer reunion, and a 1-day RV service visit that turned into 11 days (another story!), we hastened to Idaho Springs, CO, about 30 miles west of Denver. At 8000 feet, it was a lot cooler and dryer than the hot, humid weather we'd been having since early June in Illinois. We did some walking along Clear Creek and geocaching around Idaho Springs, but the highlights of our 6 days in Idaho Springs were our loop trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, an early morning drive up to Mt. Evans, and the round-trip Georgetown Loop Railroad between Georgetown and Silver Plume, both old mining towns.

On July 16, we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park along the eastern side, with beautiful views of the mountains to the west.

This is a view of Long's Peak, one of Colorado's 14'ers at 14,259 feet. Several outfitters run trail rides along the margins of the national park

Once inside Rocky Mountain National Park, we drove up through the forest with numerous hairpin curves. This is a view back toward the east from the Rainbow Curve overlook, showing a few of the hairpins that the Trail Ridge Road, the only road connecting the east and west sides of the national park, makes as it climbs to a maximum altitude of 12,183 feet.

As we climbed higher and higher, we saw a number of cirques where glaciers used to be, but are no more.

When we got above the tree line, vast vistas opened up, The tundra was covered with wildflowers. Trail Ridge Road is closed from mid-October until Memorial Day - the sticks along the road are used to guide the snowplows when the road is being cleared in the spring. We call them "Yooper sticks" after the slender branches inserted along roadsides to guide snow plows in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

 These two elk were lounging in the tundra meadow close to the top of Trail Ridge Road.

 Poudre Lake is just to the east of the continental divide. It is the source of Cache la Poudre River, which flows east to join the South Platte River near Greeley, CO.

We crossed the continental divide at the west end of Poudre Lake, and just a couple of miles farther along Trail Ridge Rd we had a great view from the Farview Overlook toward the Kawuneeche Valley, with the source of the Colorado River among the Beaver Ponds. Notice the large proportion of trees that have been killed by the pine bark beetle. From here, the road winds its way down to the valley through numerous hairpin switchbacks

 We stopped for lunch at the Pine Beach Picnic Area on Shadow Mountain Lake, just outside the western entrance to the national park. We had a lovely view back toward Shadow Mountain to the east. Ospreys had a nest in one of the trees at the point of land in the center of the photos - we could hear them, but couldn't see them.

As we were eating our lunch, two white pelicans circled overhead and landed in the lake just a few yards in front of us. We were very surprised to see pelicans up here in the Rocky Mountains, but it turns out that the white pelicans migrate north during the summer from their wintering grounds on the Gulf of Mexico. White pelicans are quite a bit larger than the more common brown pelicans, and rather than diving for fish they scoop along the surface of the water for fish, frogs, and other small aquatic creatures.