Our campground while visiting the western part of Rocky Mountain National Park in September, Winding River, had a Grand Lake, Colorado address, but it was actually a few miles to town. Since we'd taken such a long hike the day before, our hiking muscles (and feet!) were ready for a something a little more relaxing, so we decided to hop on our Bike Fridays and pedal down to explore this cute lakefront town. A bonus of our ride was some gorgeous views of the aspens dressed in absolute peak foliage. If only the sky could have been blue for us too. Ah well, can't have everything. A double bonus was seeing a row of stopped cars up ahead at one point and realizing they were seeing elk off in the woods. Cool! We stopped for photos, of course. We love seeing these magnificent beasts. I didn't realize until I zoomed and cropped the photo that there were bait stations drawing them to this area. But no matter, it was great to see them. The road into town is a steep downhill; our campground was at 8650', so we'd be doing some climbing to get back. The main downtown street in Grand Lake is so charming, and after descending the hill into town, it's nice and flat so makes for great cruising on a bicycle or walking up and down and window shopping. What do you wanna bet there are fewer cars once the leaves have all fallen? We sniffed out this bakery using Barry's finely tuned baked goods radar! They even had a bike rack for us. So many yummy choices! Since we're often on the move or boondocking without electricity, baking isn't something that happens very often in Pearl, so it's nice to make an occasional bakery run to restock our goodie stores -- these are great for our longer bike rides and hikes. Instead of Dairy Queen, in Grand Lake we have Dairy King. Too bad it had closed for the season. With the warm temperatures on this day, a cone would have been a nice treat. Re-entering the park, we stopped for a sign photo, and a friendly tourist offered to take our photo. He did a great job! A final stop at the western Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) Visitor Center for a magnet for our board, and then a quick ride back to our campground 1.5 miles down a side road completed this short but sweet ride. Stay tuned for our drive through RMNP and more stunning fall foliage -- and some wildlife too!
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We only did one long hike during our short time on the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park, but it was a good one. The best part was that we were able to hike directly from our RV park just outside the park starting on a trail along the mighty Colorado River, a popular horse trail. But we had it all to ourselves on this weekday in mid-September. We started here in Sun Valley at an elevation of 8680'. We hiked alongside the beautiful Colorado River before turning to the east to make our way to the Green Mountain Trailhead. We would hike to Granite Falls. We saw quite a few folks on the trail who were hiking to or from Big Meadows but only a few carried on to Granite Falls or beyond. The Granite Falls hike is rated moderate and gains 1046' in elevation. It was a chilly morning, so we started off pretty bundled up but peeled off layers as we went. Here is Big Meadows, along the way. We looked in vain for larger wildlife but saw only birds. There weren't many obstacles on the well-maintained trail, but this one tested one's knees. Tonahutu Creek ran alongside much of the trail after Big Meadow and was so clear. We passed through a large portion of forest that had been burned in a wildfire. It was surprisingly beautiful and dramatic in its own way and such a contrast to the lush green woods that the fire spared. We made it! Here is Granite Falls. At this time of year, the flow was pretty low compared to other photos I've seen online. I am sure it is much more dramatic in the spring from snowmelt. Barry climbed up for a closer look. The hike back down the trail was certainly easier than the way up. This gorgeous foliage was at the trailhead. We were both relieved to be back on the River Trail. Since we hiked to and from the RV park, we ended up hiking 15.4 miles total, our third-longest hike ever! And at this elevation; yep, we were tired pups after this one! Stay tuned for our bike ride to Grand Lake featuring stunning foliage -- we were in this area at just the right time.
As we headed out of Routt National Forest in beautiful northern Colorado, we had an absolutely gorgeous fall day, and the foliage was putting on a great show. We bid a final goodbye to Rabbit Ears Peak, with the best view of it yet, as we headed down the road away from Dumont Lake Campground. See the "ears" way up top? After driving through a rocky canyon, we continued our descent (though not that far down as our next spot was still at over 8000'). We had the pleasure of driving alongside the Colorado River for quite awhile on the way to our destination for the next couple of days, Winding River RV Resort in Grand Lake. We chose to visit the western part of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), as we'd read and heard how busy the eastern part is, even after Labor Day. The western part gets many fewer tourists, and as such, was more our speed. The Winding River Resort is located just down the road from the visitor's center for this part of RMNP, and hiking trails are conveniently located right outside the resort. Although it's called a "resort", Winding River was casual and western in feel. The main draw here is horses. Some of the campsites even have individual corrals for people who bring their horses with them, and there's a large barn and corral with horses that can be rented to ride on stock trails on and off the property. They also rent ATVs, but since it was late in the season, we didn't see much action there (yay!) The resort has lots of activities for families with children during the summer, but since we were there after "back to school" time, not much was going on. It was only about half full and very quiet. The resort is so large that we had to take our laundry to the small but clean laundry room (two washers, two dryers) on our bikes! The roads in the resort are unpaved but well packed so good for bicycling or walking. Since we'd been dry camping (aka boondocking) for awhile, we chose a full hookup site. Even with our Good Sam discount, it was on the pricey side, but full hookup sites at $49 before discount are only $14/night more than primitive sites, so not so bad, given the location so close to a National Park. We might have chosen to stay in one of the National Park campgrounds, but this late in the season, only one that could accommodate Pearl was even open, and it was totally full when we made our decision to visit the park not very far ahead of time. Our site, #7, was close enough to the horse corral that we had a couple of adorable visitors on our last morning at camp. This is "wildlife" you won't see very often in a campground! The Colorado River runs by right outside the resort entrance; thus the name Winding River. Paisley enjoyed heading down for a sip of that sweet western agua! We had a really nice afterglow from the sunset on our first night. Stay tuned to see what we did in Rocky Mountain National Park!
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Emily & BarryWe're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base. After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible. Archives
July 2019
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