Barb's Colorado Trip - July 2007I drove to Minneapolis Monday July 23 and had a nice evening with Katie, who then took me to the airport Tuesday morning. The flight to Denver was on time and I met the 3 friends I was going to share a car with. Baggage was collected and we trekked out to the rental car site where we were held up by a long line and then a wait while they went to fetch our car - a brand new Chrysler Sebring. It held the passengers easily but one suitcase had to share the back seat! We made a stop for lunch and then headed down to Colorado Springs and the Franciscan Retreat Center on Mount St. Francis. This batch of pictures includes some of the wildlife that wandered the campus, the Peace Garden and a view of Colorado Springs with thunderstorm in the background.         Francis Hall (back view on
left; front
on right) includes the main office and is the building that housed us;
our meeting room was the Bonzel room a few yards away in Marian Hall
(below left). From Tues - Thurs there were just 7 of us
getting
ready for the retreat program and doing some annual planning.
Then Thursday the number jumped to 20 for the actual retreat
itself. Here are board members dressed up for our "Princess
Party" on
Friday night (below right)!
 
  Saturday afternoon during
free time some
of us went to the Garden of the Gods - a park that had been
donated to the city with the
condition that it remain freely open to the public. I imagine
the
city of Colorado Springs is not always happy about that provision!
A sample
of the sights, including a group picture of me and 3 of my friends..
(Do you see the climber in the last one?)
       We finished up the retreat Sunday morning, a group of us (9) had a farewell lunch at TGIFriday and then my friend, Marcia, and I headed up to Estes Park for a couple days of nature and shopping. On the left below is the view from our motel room (Rodeway Inn suite with sitting room and a kitchenette, courtesy of Marcia's husband who was concerned for our comfort)! Sunday night we had some leftovers for supper, sat in the hot tub for a while, visited with some folks who had climbed Long's Peak that day (I daresay they needed the hot soak more than we did at that point!) and then called it a night.   On the right
above is, obviously, the welcome to Rocky Mountain National
Park. Monday, late morning, we started at Lily Lake (below
left) which is off the beaten track and usually not very crowded.
On the right is (duh) Barb and Marcia at Lily Lake!
Below those are a cute chipmunk who was hoping for a handout
and some determined wildflowers peeking out from between rocks.
    Then we hit the downtown
Estes Park shopping! We browsed a lot of the shops and
galleries - well, Barb browsed, Marcia shopped! LOL! We had
lunch at the Wild Rose tea room which was very nice and finally, I
think about 3:30 PM, when it was late enough we thought many of the
hikers would be heading home, we went down to the more congested Bear
Lake. The strategy worked perfectly and we had our choice of
many parking places.  We walked around Bear Lake - here are Barb and Marcia posing with Long's Peak in the background and, on the right, a portion of Glacier Creek we passed along Bear Lake Road. 
 Then, as we continued back
up Bear Lake Road, we passed the deer (left below) just hanging out
along the road, and then up near the Moraine Park Campground we saw the
telltale sign of cars pulled over along the side of the road.
Of course, we parked, grabbed cameras and jumped out -
amazing how wildlife sitings can restore one's energy level!
There was a whole herd of elk out in the meadow. We
watched for a while and took many more pictures than these two (top
right and bottom left) before packing it in and heading back to the
motel. We then passed a couple more elk just beyond the
Beaver Meadows entrance (bottom right) but that was the end of the
excitement for the day!     Having pushed Marcia to her
limits on Monday, Tuesday was a slower day. First we visited
the UPS Store with a big box of things she needed to ship home (some
were from the retreat and some was... well, remember all that
shopping?) Then we grabbed some snack and decided Tuesday
would be a "drive through the park day." So we drove along
the northern Falls River Road to Endovalley (where the paved part
stops), then came back and drove out Trail Ridge Road (the highest
maintained highway in the country - US 34) to the Forest Canyon
overlook. Below (left) is the Alluvial Fan - formed in 1979 when a dam broke and huge boulders and logs were washed down from the mountain. In the center is a view of the Alluvial Fan from Many Parks Curve - you can get a better idea of the "fan" shape it makes, much like a delta. On the right is a magpie that was just not interested in posing for us!      Above are a view from Falls
River Road and then a portion of the stream at Endovalley Picnic area.
While we were at Endovalley, Marcia made the acquaintance of
a cute little chipmunk and a Stellar's Jay.   The rest of the pictures
are from the trip up Trail Ridge Road. I'll spare you the
details and "oohs" and "aahs" but here are a few highlights.
On the left you see the road that we had already driven over
to get as far as we did. I don't think it was as scary as it
looks in the picture - it is all newly paved and seemed quite safe to
me (but then I was driving... maybe we should ask Marcia).
The one on the right was taken at a little pull-over.
Yes, those are really bicycles there. The gentleman
sitting there said he took a bike trip along Trail Ridge Road when he
was 12 and he is now doing it with his son (next to him) who is 12.
But he allowed it did seem a lot easier the first time!
The tall stake that the bikes are propped on is one of many
along this part of the road - they are placed alongside the roadway as
markers of the "edge" when snow covers the road. (As you see,
even at the end of July there were still snow patches up that
high.) The higher
portions of the road are closed over the winter but I suppose there are
unexpected snowfalls, and maybe they try to keep it open for official
use even when not open to the public. 
 I've found various
estimates of the altitude at Forest Canyon overlook.
We passed a "2 mile" altitude sign and the tree line is at
11,500 feet. We were clearly above that (see
picture below
right) so perhaps the site that said 11,716 ft is about right.
Anyway, here
are some pictures from the (literal) high point of our trip in the
tundra.    Barb and Marcia at the top of the world! The rest of the trip was
all downhill
(pun intended). We had supper at Hunter's Chop House that
night - what a nice place and yummy food! Wednesday we drove back to
the Denver airport and
had allowed plenty of time to get checked in and have some lunch.
My flight to Minneapolis was about an hour late and I
actually
landed right about the time the I-35 bridge collapsed. That
is
not near the airport, and not on the way from work to home for
Katie and Dave. However, her phone did ring constantly that
evening as "everybody" was checking on them.
I called John
as soon as we got back to Katie's, so he was able to reassure
those who called him! After a nice visit and a good night's
sleep, I drove back home on Thursday, August 2.
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