Being our last day here, Leslie did not want to miss seeing the eastern edge of RMNP. We loaded up and drove over to Mary’s lake and then to Lily Lake and a bit beyond. Longs Peak was in the back ground. We then topped off to fill up on fuel and stopped at Smokin Dave’s BBQ for the last night’s dinner, just like we did in 2019.
We planned to hike along the eastern edge of the RMNP on the 11th. David was tired, so he went to bed early. Leslie stayed up and before she headed to bed, so took Keira out for one last potty break. As they were coming up the stairs back into the Wanderer, Keira raced up the steps and knocked Leslie off the stairs. She hung onto the door but landed on the grill table and wacked her left foot really hard on the stairs. David woke up hearing a loud bang and the trailer shuttering. When he got dressed and investigated, he found Leslie sitting on the chair looking at large welt on the top of her left foot. Fortunately, nothing seems broken but the top of her foot is badly bruised and will take a while for the swelling to go down and the bruising to clear up. That was the end of our hiking plans for the rest of the trip. We are working on teaching Keira not to do that ever again! The next morning, David took Keira out for her morning walk and there was a herd of Elk with a huge Bull in the field next to the pond. Keira didn’t even notice them until David pointed them out. Then she looked them over and promptly ignored them. We guess they were too big to consider playing with so she didn’t care. The Elk did not like the look of Keira so they proceeded to wander away back toward the NP. But they came back later that evening for a drink.
When we were here back in 2019 we had hiked up to Dream Lake. There was still a lot of snow on the trails then so we didn’t go any further. This time we wanted to make it all the way to the end of the trail at Emerald Lake. We entered the park around 12:30 on our timed entry pass. As we drove up to Bear Lake, we could see storm clouds moving in. Again, we were surprised that we were able to get a parking spot in the Bear Lake parking lot. The Emerald Lake trail starts at the same location as Bear Lake trail. It is a very popular trail since it goes past three alpine lakes: Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and ends at Emerald Lake. We started up the trail around 1pm. It rained on us lightly off and on all the way up. The trail is 1.9 miles one way with 750 feet of elevation gain starting out at 9,500 feet. We were climbing the entire way out and were definitely feeling the altitude (lack of air density). We stopped at Nymph Lake to enjoy the views. Many people turn around here and go back, but we continued on to Dream Lake. It is such a beautiful lake with the craggy mountains behind the lake. Most of the crowd turned around here. We saw several fly fishermen catching trout in the lake and we could see many fish from the trail as it wound its way along the shoreline. We continued on to Emerald Lake. The climb up to Emerald Lake was pretty strenuous given the altitude (10,250ft). When we got to the lake, there were only a couple of folks there at the end of the trail. We took our photos and sat down to have a snack before heading back. A chubby chick monk took an interest in Leslie’s nut bar and climbed up on her and tried to get to the nut bar. It even climbed up onto her shoulder! David shooed it away when it got too aggressive. After a rest and a snack, we hiked back out to the Behemoth. As we hiked out the rain stopped and the sun peeked through. It was a lot easier going downhill on the way out but we were tired by the time we got back. It was a beautiful hike!
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| Nymph Lake |
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| Dream Lake |
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| Climbing the trail |
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| Blue Jay |
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| David on the trail |
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| Dream Lake |
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| Emerald Lake |
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| Dream Lake |
Poor Keira has been stuck in the Wanderer for the last week other than bathroom walks. So we took her down to Lake Estes where there is a nice paved trail around the lake. We parked down where we had been fishing a few days ago and walked a mile out along the lake then a mile back. Keira was pretty wore out by the time we got back to the Behemoth but she was very happy to have gotten out.
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David and Keira at Lake Estes
We noticed a winery in Estes Park while driving through town and decided to add Colorado to the list of states we have tasted wine in (Colorado is #28). There were several shops on the route into town that we wanted to explore as well. We stopped at the Sticks and Stones furniture store to explore rustic wood furniture. They had some beautiful pieces of furniture that gave us some ideas about what we may want in our house. David was also getting ideas for when he gets his woodworking shop back up and running. Next we stopped at a gift store that had a lot of interesting metal statues sitting out front of the store. Then we stopped at another store that had a lot of mountain related gifts. We finally arrived at the Snowy Peaks Winery in downtown Estes Park. We each picked five wines to sample so we could get a good cross section of their wines. All their wines are made on site using only Colorado grown grapes. We did not even know there were vineyards in Colorado! The wine was good so we ordered some local cheese and crackers along with a glass of our favorites wines and enjoyed relaxing on the patio. We ended up leaving with a few bottles to bring back with us to Texas.
We had been holding on to some hikes in anticipation that Cynthia and Felix would be flying in to join us. So, we made reservations for timed entry into RMNP on the 4th, 6th, 9th and 11th of September. After we found out Cynthia and Felix were not coming, we made new plans. The reservation of the 4th we did not use since David had taken the truck to get the tailgate repaired. Today we decided to do an easy hike to acclimatize ourselves to hiking at high altitudes. The most scenic hike we could think of was around Bear Lake in RMNP. The trail is at 9,500 feet. We hit our timed entry at 12:30 and made our way to the Bear Lake parking lot. We were actually surprised to find we could get a parking spot given how many people were there to hike. The trail around bear lake is roughly 0.8 miles around the lake with 50 feet of elevation gain. We took the loop trail around the lake counter clockwise. It was a beautiful day with clear skies and cool temperatures. When we got back to the trail head, we decided to go back around clockwise this time for a total of 1.6 miles. We did not huff and puff too much during the hike so we were feeling good to try something more challenging in a couple of days. We then drove the Fall Creek one way Dirt Road up to the Alpine Visitor Center. We stopped at the Chasm Waterfall trail and walked down to the falls. We took the Trail Ridge road back to Elk Meadows. As we were pulling into the RV park there was a huge bull Elk in the field by the entrance!
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| Bear Lake |
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| Bear Lake |
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| Bear Lake |
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| Chasm Falls |
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| Fall Creek Road |
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| Bull Elk |
The replacement parts for the Behemoth’s tailgate latch mechanism came in at the dealer. David took the Behemoth back down into Loveland to the Loveland Ford Dealer to get the tailgate repaired. After they installed the new latch mechanism the tailgate now works properly. It wasn’t until he got back to Estes Park that he notice that the tailgate wasn’t aligning at the top. Further investigation showed that the Latch lock striker bolts were bent slightly. So rather than take the truck back to Loveland, he decided to order the parts on line and install them himself.
We were up early to arrive at Kirks Fly Shop by 07:45 to check in and suit up for our 4 hour guided fly fishing tour. We bought our day fishing license ($20 for a single day pass per person), climb into our waders and boots and meet our guide John Carey for the morning. We loaded up and drove over to where Lake Estes releases water into the Big Thompson River. There we set up and we fished in several different places along the river just down from the river. The trout were plentiful but are very used to fishermen, so they were pretty tricky to hook. Leslie landed this first fish of the day and 5 more nice rainbow trout, David landed the biggest fish and 7 more. Both of us had several fish on the hook we were reeling in and they wiggled their way off the hook before we got them in the net. We lost count of the number of missed opportunities to set the hook. We had a great time! We released all the fish since we really don’t like eating trout (too many bones in the filet). John did a great job of working with both of us and helping with the numerous tangles and snags. He told us that we had improved immensely as the day went on. After four hours, we were tired of casting and standing in the cold water fighting the current. We stopped at the Bird and Jim restaurant for a well earned lunch on the way home.
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| Leslie with her first fish of the day |
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| The couple that fish together stay together |
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| David with his first fish of the day |
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| Leslie working it in the river |
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| David looking for that fish strike |
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| Large Elk along the road back into town |
There was another festival in the park in downtown this weekend. We again took the free shuttle into town to avoid having to park the Behemoth in the traffic downtown. We walked through the festival booths, many of which were the same people as the previous weekend. Then perused the downtown shops looking for Christmas Gifts. We stopped at the Grubsteak for a cold beer and ended up staying for dinner.
David took the Behemoth to the Ford Dealer in Loveland and had the jammed tailgate inspected by the Ford Technicians. On the way down through the canyon he saw several elk near the road. The Ford technicians were able to get the tailgate to release manually and inspected the internal parts. They found the latch mechanism and the release rods bent. The electronic latch release tested ok. David had them order the replacement parts and will go back next week to have them installed.
