Saturday, July 27, 2013
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| Beaux playing Bocce |
Thursday Mark and Susie,
Tommy and I took a drive over to Rocky Mountain National Park. It is a 3-hour jaunt
over Rabbit Ears Pass and worth every mile to get there. 
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| neighbors hot tub |
We drove to the apex where
there is a Welcoming Center. Mark and I both stamped our passports. 4 years ago
I purchased a ‘passport’ book at Arches National Park. Each time you visit a
National Park they offer a cancellation stamp for that region. The stamps are
dated and are a nice memorandum of where you visited and when. So far I have 27
cancellation stamps. How lucky am I? 
At the peak we were atop a
lot of cloud cover. As we were standing on the periphery taking in all the
beauty that it offered, a towering cumulus cloud materialized immediately in
front of us. It was unexpected, chilling, remarkable, humid, and hard to
believe all in one. It progressed so rapidly and ferociously. I videotaped it
but I still haven’t figured out to transfer video onto this website. L
We resumed our drive and departed
the park on the eastern side into a town called Estes Park. It is the epitome
of a tourist trap.
A white man named Joel Estes
in 1859 settled Estes Park.
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| The Outlook Hotel |
As in all western history we
lied and cheated the Native Americans and pushed them off ‘their’ land. Remnants
of teepees and fire rings remain along Mary Lake. Joel Estes is famed in the town’s
history for climbing to the summit of Long’s Peak which is inside the National
Park. Long’s Peak tops out at 14,235
feet above sea level. It was written in the newspaper as a wonderful, courageous
feat that placed Estes Park on the map for unspoiled wilderness that all
Americans should experience. 
In 1909 The Stanley Hotel was
built in Estes Park. It lodged a guest
named Stephen King. While residing there he changed the setting for his book,
The Shining. It originally took place in an amusement park. He renamed the
hotel in the book The Outlook Hotel and it still remains up on a hill
overlooking Estes Park. It is nevertheless a running hotel business to this day.
It is beautiful. The infamous maze is not part of the grounds and we could not find
out if it actually was on property during the filming or it was located
elsewhere. CREEPY!!!! LOL! 
After having lunch downtown
we re entered RMNP and took an altered path back through. This time we took a
gravel road that was one way. It was full of switchbacks and great a great
choice because it turned and twisted deep into the mountains with no view of
other roads. We stopped at a cabin that Mark had visited while being a member
of the Sierra Club in High School. It astonished us that he remembered exactly
where this cabin was because he has not been back since he was 18. We were impressed. |
| Marks cabin |
Along our journey we observed
moose, deer, chipmunks and lots of unspeakable beauty. The sun broke through on
our way home and Mark and Susie were wonderful guides. It was a great day! |
| my shot |
Yesterday, Mark and Tommy and
I took a jeep ride on the Green Mill Mine Road. We took some shots with Tommy’s
.22, and I took a lot of pictures of wild flowers. My aim was the closest to
the target which we dubbed as an ‘eye’ in the Aspen tree approximately 30 yards
from where we were positioned. 
Mark’s cousin Michael arrived
in town yesterday and will be staying here for a week or so. His wife, Debbie
and two children, Aaron and Emma will fly in on Monday. We will probably be
moving on in the latter part of next week. Before we do though, we plan on going
for a motorcycle ride with Roy, Kimmay and her dad, JC.
Thanks for reading and please
enlarge the pictures.
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