The Rockies are just special and again, we’ve seen them all at this point in the trip and the Rockies will retain that special ranking. Size, depth, altitude, scale, wildlife and snow caps through summer all contribute to that specialness but it’s the rock laden rivers and streams carving through the canyons in all directions that greeted us with a special hello as we rolled up to town. Driving into Estes Park was a unique experience in the RV. We have curved our way around cliffs and hairpin turns in the Sierras, found some long climbs and descents in the Oregon coastal mountains and Cascades, navigated some steep ravines in the desert south west but climbing into Estes was an unexpectedly easy and stunningly pretty drive along rocky rivers with boulders and jagged granite faced walls for miles. Instead of a pass it’s a snaking climb between mountain after mountain. Also saw 30-40 people trying their hand at fly fishing all the way up the mountain rivers. Estes Park is a great mountain town with plenty of tourist stops like West Yellowstone and West Glacier; however, Estes is called a “Park” for a reason, the entire town is like a rolling city park, including Elk and Mule Deer, which often stop traffic as they move from one side of the road to another (pictures below). It’s a mini urban preserve for deer and elk and they know it, not a care in the world for cars or people when they want to graze on a green shoulder of the road. And did we mention antlers? Both the deer and elk are in the “velvet” phase of growing their antlers but the “rut” is coming and some of those racks are just huge! Hard to figure how an Elk keeps its head up but we found them lounging about in the park and in town. 🦌 We even caught a ride up the Estes Park Aerial Tramway to see all of the valley and enjoy a few of the smaller critters.

HW 34 into Estes Park from Fort Collins is a beautifully rocky and twisted drive.

Elk rule the roads, sidewalks and sometimes the shopping :)

They plant and maintain green grass to give the Elk some nice bedding and a snack…

The Estes Park Aerial Tramway has been in operation for 70 years… and its still worth the trip up for the view!

West from the hilltop we can see our rig at the RV Park.

While we couldn’t get all the mountain range in the camera view, this map and the backdrop was impressive.

Mini rock scramble atop the mountain and Robert looking cool while we enjoy the squirrels and chipmunks scurrying about.

We came across this tired rodent sleeping under a rock edge. He woke and hoped off but we could not figure out what it was. Searches produced Deer Mouse, Shrew and potoroo. We still aren’t too sure what this little guy is but he was cute.

The Estes Park YMCA is… huge! They average over 5000 visitor a night and cover a large portion of the side of a mountain outside RMPN. Highly recommend the YMCA if you’re looking for a fun spot to stay in a cabin or dorm style accommodation. TONS to do around campus.

Antonio’s Pizza is an Estes Park, NY style pizzeria and it came advertised as “the best”. We have sampled pizza from NY to LA and honestly, this was the best pizza we’ve had. The peperoni Sicilian was a favorite for the boys and Michele and Vince loved the Spicy Calabrian… SOOOO GOOOOD! Service was a touch odd and difficult to navigate the online ordering but the robot service was fun. Also, don’t breath a word about any allergies, they will tell you they can’t serve you. Touch odd but the pizza was delicious.

Robert has a new happy place… ACE Hardware. Robert is working on his science fair project, building a lamp and learning about the electricity to light it. This ACE specialist go more than he bargained for helping Robert :o)

This amazing wooden sculptures were around town in a few locations. They are main from wood pieces harvested off fallen trees in the mountains. Kind of amazing.

Peyton has become quite a self-taught bike mechanic. He has converted this 12 speed mountain bike into a single speed and stripped it down to the frame for the rebuild. He’s putting his birthday presents to good use! Now we just have to figure out how to reign in this emerging gearhead on bike parts… they are expensive!

Full rebuild of this classic Gary Fisher!

The Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) is another amazing park nestled into the Rocky Mountain Range, which stretches from New Mexico to Canada and includes our last three Glacier, Teton and now Rocky Mountain National Parks. Each is unique despite their common link and we explored with 2 goals: 1) find animals & 2) hike the alpine tundra. We accomplished both but first we explored the Bear Lake Rd and its many meadows and lakes.

Boys got their Jr Ranger badges but thought the uniforms were a tight fit for these growing boys :)

Lines to get into RMNP were about 15 min way from 8-11am. It also required a Timed Entry ticket purchased in advance so plan ahead folks, its not just a walk in the park.

Hollow Park and Glacier Basin are off of Bear Lake Rd, which requires a more restrictive timed entry pass. There are a few dirt roads back into the picnic areas curving through the meadows. There are a number of “exlclosures” which are fended areas protecting the native flora and shrubs, which were being overeaten by the large elk herd. The exclosures protected the wetlands but still allowed deer and smaller animals in to feed but pushed the elk herd down range a bit to find more pastures.

Sprague Lake was advertised as a “have to stop” but we were told it was for moose. We didn’t see moose but the lake is a beautiful mile walk and there were some male mule deer feeding along the path. I saw a report of a large bull moose visiting the day after we went so guess its worth a few trips.

Robert was posing on top of boulders all the way around the lake… he’s a fun kid!

Made it all the way to Bear Lake parking but dusk was settling in and we didn’t’ get to hike Bear Lake. Some great dusky views of the mountains and canyon though.

Charlie out for a sunset walk near our RV park.

A big treat, multiple Moose sighting at Sheep Lakes, off of the Fall River Rd entrance. Yes the lakes are named for the Big Horn that cross this territory late spring and early summer but we found moose there almost everyday, and no sheep. The best of which was a big Bull Moose with an impressive rack that sauntered cross the road and into Sheep Lakes for a late lunch. We saw a young male and female the night before and heard reports of a female and calf that also frequented during the evening. If you’re in the RMNP around sunset we recommend bringing a chair and hanging out at the Sheep Lakes overlook! 🫎

This was a LARGE bull moose that came in for a lake lunch. They feed off the plants in the lake and the cattails around the edge. We could hear the munching from a good distance :)

Zoom in on the right side of the lake… moose!

A small male and female for a sunset feed. Limited light so not a great picture but fund to watch them search the Sheep Lakes for their favorite snacks.

The mule deer were displaying some impressive racks. All still in the velvet but by the size, the rut is coming!

The Old Fall River Rd is a well graded dirt road that switchbacks its way up to the Apline Visitor Center the “old fashion way”. 4x4 recommended but doable without as long as it’s dry. The road is One-Way from the bottom so we don’t recommend driving the paved Trail Ridge Rd on the opposite side of the valley up to the Alpine Center and expect to go down the old Fall River Rd… we found out the hard way but the drives were fun regardless and we saw more animals driving it twice 😉 Gorgeous on both sides just a bit more adventurous and less people on the dirt road.

Alluvian Fan is a water fall over a fan of boulders. This is the result of a ruptured glacial dam and a subsequent glacial flood around 1986 from an additional melt. Amazing how much rock was expelled from the mountain by this flood. Also a great scramble for kids and families.

Old Fall River Rd is one-way up the mountain and worth the trip!

Yellow-Bellied Marmot laying in the road liking the ground. We think someone passed by and poured out coffee or something really tasty because this guy was laying in it and liking it like a morning caffeine addict! :O)

Approaching the Alpine Visitor Center the views and rock formations are amazing.

Alpine Visitor Center Cafe was the most scenic lunch we’ve had for sure.

Zoom in and you’ll see elk spread across the valley below the lake. Further down there was an entire herd of 30-40 but out of our camera’s capacity.

We explored a mile of the Colorado River Trailhead in the alpine tundra. We wanted to do a hike in the tundra and it was awesome! Saw a bunch of marmot and some birds of prey from a distance but the view of this unique habitat was worth it!

One of the big benefits of this trip has been catching up with old friends. We have been blessed to cross paths with some amazing people throughout our lives and we hope that meeting some of these people will leave an impression on our boys. The impression we pray the boys are seeing that God uses people to grow us and to prepare us for our future. Sometimes it’s just having fun and other times it’s iron sharpening iron but the hope is that our boys are seeing purpose in learning with, through and from those God provides along our life path. Brian and Robyn were our first reunion, friends from our Sterling College days and it was a refreshing reunion a few decades removed. They couldn’t be any more cool than they were in their 20s… but they were 😎

Last but not least is a second friend and AIA/CRU Missionary Coach, Chris Rainwater. We have supported Chris for almost 2 decades and remain dedicated to helping his ministry at Metro State in Denver. Chris is a PBA graduate and former employee when we worked with him in the early 2000s. Chris joined us for lunch as we passed through Denver headed toward Kansas and again, God has blessed us to know some amazing people. A faithful servant and heart as big as… a baseball field at least, it was great for our boys to meet Chris and hear about his ministry. If you are interested in learning about Athletes in Action or Chris’s work at Metro State or his summer baseball league work, check out his ministry page and donation link!

https://chris-rainwater.epistle.org

Donation Link if you’re interested in supporting Chris.

https://give.cru.org/0587551

We and the pups have been spoiled with mountain temps… coming down into Denver to meet Rainwater for lunch and the pups were sweating it out! 95 degrees

We mentioned Kansas and that starts our speed tour of the Plains States. Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota… all in 3 weeks. Hoping to reunite with a bunch of old friends and see some of the best of what the plains have to offer ❤️

Colorado: Estes Park & Rocky Mountain National Park

Wyoming: Grand Teton National Park