We left Cody early in the morning and after an overnight stop in Casper, Wyoming arrived at Estes Park, Colorado. We stayed at the same RV Park we stayed at 4 years ago, they still had us on file and gave us a returning client discount but also a Good Sam discount – sweet deal. In addition we got one night free because we booked a 8 night stay. We tried to get them to switch our site to one close to the creek but there was nothing available.
Our first night was just a relaxing night after setting up and figuring out what we wanted to do while we were here as there are so many things to do. We went to bed early as we were exhausted after the drive from Casper.
The Park Manager warned us there was an active bear roaming around the park at night and to keep food and BBQ packed away. It wasn’t until we were unhitched and met our neighbors that we found out the bear had actually ripped up somebodies BBQ and trashed their campsite. Then they told us it was the very site we were parked in – oh great!! Do you detect a pattern here?
The next morning JY was not feeling to well so we decided to just take it easy. Just as a precaution we went to a local walk-in urgent care to get her checked out and the doctor prescribed some medication to take care of any side effect she may be having due to the elevation.
While waiting for the local pharmacy to fill the prescriptions we decided to go to the Stanley Hotel and see if they had any of the super delicious clam chowder they had the last time we were here 4 years ago. If you remember the Stanley Hotel is where Stephen King stayed when he got the idea for writing “The Shining”. It is also the location where “Dumb and Dumber” starring Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels was filmed. Unfortunately they did not have any of the clam chowder so we ordered off of the menu and had lunch. We could tell so many stories about this great hotel.
Peter was anxious to go fly fishing and booked two guided fishing trips on private property where very few people get to fish. He booked them through the same outfitter that he used the last time we were here. The first spot was on a property owned by a cattle ranch. It was a small stream with lots of rocks and fallen trees so fishing was kind of tricky. He caught about a dozen rainbow and cutthroat trout all of which were about pan size. Peter does not like to keep the fish so it is all catch and release. The guide told him to watch out for rattle snakes because they had seen some big ones in this are in the last couple of weeks. (oh great) Peter was wearing chest high waders while the guide wore jeans and sandals. This was rather strange after the warning about large rattle snakes sightings in the past couple of weeks.
On Sunday morning we tried to get our favorite “Sunday Morning” program on the TV but for some reason we could not get CBS so we watched another program while we drank coffee. We went to a Sunday brunch which was delicious. We eat here twice 4 years ago. We were surprised that the quality of the food being served was just as good as we remembered and the price had only increased by one dollar. We had a nice table by the window overlooking a pond with ducks although there weren’t as many ducks as we remembered. After lunch we went downtown and browsed around many of the local stores and souvenir shops.
Peter wanted to take the drive to the continental divide in Rocky Mountain National Park, however it makes for a long day. JY wasn’t too enthused so suggested taking the Tram in town to view some of the local scenery. So that is what we did and it turned out to be a great excursion without the long arduous drive. After a couple hours of taking in the views and feeding the many squirrels at the top we descended the Tram and decided to go for lunch at “Bird and Jims”, a local restaurant not far from our RV Park. It was highly recommended by the locals and some of the other people we had met. They were right and the food was delicious. JY had pheasant chowder and Peter had what else – a hamburger.
After lunch Peter wanted to take a shot at the local “Open Air Obstacle Course.” We drive past this course every time we return to the RV Park. It is like a Ninja Warrior type course and looked challenging. So the little boy inside of Peter had to try it out. There were 32 challenges, half at 10 feet and half at 21 feet off the ground. The course is supposed to take 90 minutes, he paid the entry fee and was eager to get started. He figuring it would be a piece of cake (Ha!) but it was much more difficult than it looked. He started on the bottom 10 foot high challenges and quickly realized this was not going to be easy. He finally finished the lower course and climbed the ladder to the upper course which was even more challenging. It was supposed to take 90 minutes to finish the course but Peter took 3 hours as he did some of the more challenging ones over again. The challenges were rated Green diamond for easy, blue diamond for medium and black diamond for difficult. He had 4 challenges to complete and was exhausted when the safety man on the upper level asked him if he wanted to quit and rappel to the ground. Wrong thing to say to Peter – he told the guy he wasn’t a quitter and proceeded to finish the last 4 challenges. He was completely exhausted, tired and a little bruised when he finally finished and was told not very many people, especially at his age (70), complete all the challenges.
As a reward JY decided to take him to the local Dairy Queen. Across the street from the DQ there was an enormous crowd of people watching something in the city park so we went over to investigate. It was a herd of about 15 cow elk. Even though the park was surrounded by people taking photos and enjoying the experience it did not bother the elk one bit. We have pictures of JY about 25 to 30 feet from the elk as they grazed and laid down. It was a beautiful and pleasant experience and Peter was glad JY got to see it. While walking back to the truck we ran into a smaller herd of elk with a good size 5 point bull elk herding about 6 cows. They were slowly making their way over to the larger herd of elk. When the bull and his small harem finally made it to the park he surveyed the cows and decided the first priority was to run off the small immature bull that was hanging out with the cows. He quickly made short work of him.
Wednesday was our last day in Estes park and Peter had scheduled his second fishing trip which was at a place he fished the last time we were here at Estes Park. It was the place he was the most interested in, on a private ranch called “Waterdale.” The fish were significantly larger than the first place he fished. His guide was very knowledgeable and has made a living as a professional fly fishing guide for over 20 years. He guides about 300 trips a year. He was a little bossy but he sure knew what he was doing. Once again I wore waders and he wore shorts and sandals. He has fished the Waterdale area many times and seemed to know exactly where the fish were. He would tell me where to stand and would tie the flies on the line for me and I would cast out to the areas he pointed out. Peter caught about 8 really nice fish in the Waterdale river and lost about twice that many after they were hooked. The river was shallow and could be waded across. There were some very large trout in the river that could be seen from the shore. But if you didn’t make the perfect cast, with the right fly and get the right drift the fish won’t even rise to take a look at the fly. Peter had a great day – very rewarding and relaxing. Once again, all catch and release.
That night was a pot luck sponsored by the park and JY put together a really flavorful dip with crackers and veggies that seem to go over well with the crowd. There were about 25 or 30 people in attendance which was a good turn out and there was plenty of food. Surprisingly there were several people we recognized from our last stay at this park 4 years ago.
After the pot luck we packed up the trailer so we could leave first thing in the morning for Monument Valley. The first leg of the trip was a five and a half our drive to Grand Junction, Colorado where we stayed overnight. We got an early morning start.
North By Northwest 