TRAIL RIDGE ROAD

Last Friday we took a drive up Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Summit House.  The last time I was at the summit house, the snow was half way up the windows and it was June.  It also was sleeting and snowing the entire time we were driving up and down Trail Ridge and cars were skidding on the road.  I couldn't wait to get down!  This year, it was much different.  I have never seen the weather so clear and so warm on Trail Ridge.  I am not complaining!

There were quite a lot of people in the park on Friday.  It was hard to find a spot to park at all the pull-offs on the way up.  It also took us about 5-10 minutes of driving through the parking area at the Summit House to find a parking spot.  We had planned on eating a picnic lunch at the Summit House but there was no place to sit down.  We ended up sitting anywhere and on anything we could and downing our sandwich quickly.  We walked through the gift shop and Mr. W and I ordered hot chocolate and sat down at the tables that are next to the windows. 

At the Summit House, you are above tree line so there is only tundra but the mountains and the little bit of snow there made everything beautiful.  We sat and enjoyed the scenery until everyone was ready to go. 

We started down and came up on  a traffic jam.  We knew there must be animals.  Sure enough, there were many, many elk out in one of the valleys.  I was surprised to see a couple of people getting out of their cars and walking right up the elk to try to take a picture.  Not a smart idea.  I would have liked to have gone on the other side of the mountain down to Grand Lake and Granby but it didn't work out.  Maybe next time.

Daughter and family (They are the daredevil family!)

They are all standing very close to an edge with a very deep drop off on the other side!

They are sitting and resting at one of the stops where we were taking pictures.  They wanted us to find snow so they could play in the snow.

My beautiful daughter and her husband

We found the snow!

The elk that caused the traffic jam

While I'm thinking about it, let me tell you about our campground.  We stayed in Mary's Lake Campground.  It use to be a county park but I don't think it is anymore.  It had all gravel roads and sites.  It did have full hook-ups in the area we stayed.  They have tent sites too.  They have a pool and a laundry.  As usual in the mountains, the mornings were very nice but it would rain usually every afternoon.  Most of the time we got just a short shower and it was done.  One day we got a downpour and it lasted about an hour.  The road in the campground had a very deep cut/rut in it after that rain and it just continued to get worse.  We paid around $40 per night.  Estes Park has about 5 campgrounds and they all are expensive and don't have the facilities I think they should have for the price you pay.  I guess you are paying for the view.  I would stay there again even though Mr. W liked a couple of the other campgrounds better.  He certainly couldn't like them for what they looked like.  One of them he liked looked run down with run down semi-permanent trailers in it.  Surely it was because he thought the views were better.  If we go back, he and I may be staying at 2 different RV parks. :)