Exploring Trail Ridge Road

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We only have a couple more days before we head out of Grand Lake. We had done some exploration on the east side of RMNP from the Beaver Meadows entrance back in May during our stop in Loveland. Those visits got us into the park about 17 miles of Trail Ridge Road. At the time, it was still closed due to snow a bit further west so that was about all we could do. During our stay this past week or so, we have seen a lot on the west side of RMNP all the way up to the Alpine Visitor Center - about 20 miles in from the Grand Lake entrance. But there was about 17 miles of Trail Ridge between the Alpine VC and the Alluvial Fan that we hadn’t seen yet. It seems like any visit to this park should include the full drive, and now that the road is open for the season, we have no excuse. So Wednesday morning, we head in again.

Our goal was to stop at most of the overlooks and pullouts along the new portion of the drive but not do any serious hikes simply in the interest of time. About a mile beyond the Alpine Visitor Center is the Gore Range Overlook. The views are outstanding both of the Gore Range and the Never Summer Mountains. It’s at an elevation of 12,030 feet and we definitely can tell. We had checked the forecast and knew that it was going to be rather cold up here so we had dressed accordingly.

Overlooking Gore Range

A bit further along the road is the highest point of Trail Ridge Road - 12,183 feet. Our next destination was only a mile away at the Lava Cliffs pullout. There is an EarthCache here so we needed to do a bit of research about the geology of this spot. We discovered that a volcano several miles away erupted 28 million years ago and spewed the volcanic rock we see today. There was still a lot of snow covering the side. There were quite a number of marmots at this stop. They seemed curious if we might be willing to feed them, but went on to do their thing once they realized that wasn’t going to happen.

Snow Covered Lava Cliffs

Marmot Checks Us Out

Our next stop was 2 miles further along the road. The Tundra Communities Trail is only 1.2 miles round trip from the rather large parking area. It only gains about 150 feet of elevation, so how tough could it be? Well it starts at 12,150 feet and ends at 12,300 feet so this will be our highest hike to date. It was a rather busy place. I suspect the majority of the visitors are coming up from Estes Park where it was relatively warm when they left this morning. A good number of them are in shorts and some only had on short sleeve t-shirts. We had jeans, a couple layers of tops and coats and still were cold. I can only imagine how they felt as the wind whipped over the tundra.

Starting Up Tundra Communities Trail

Alpine Lake

Tundra Blooms

The trail is paved so footing isn’t too bad. They have all sorts of interpretive signs along the way which gives us a good reason to stop and catch our breath. One of the signs proves the park staff has a sense of humor. Another marmot was eyeing us as we walked by trying to determine when it was safe to run across the trail with all the people walking by.

Marmot Looks for a Chance to Cross Trail

National Park Humor

Getting a Better View

About a 1/3 mile up the trail is a small spur trail over to some rock outcroppings called Mushroom Rocks. We needed to investigate to be able to answer some questions for another EarthCache. We’ve seen ones like this before but they usually have been much larger groups of them. There were only a handful here.

Rock Outcropping

Spur Trail to Mushroom Rocks

Capstone Protecting Softer Rock Below

Nice View from Here

View Through Gap

At the end of the trail is another large rock outcropping. Attached to this rock is the Toll Memorial in honor of Roger Toll - the superintendent of this park back in the 1920’s. The plaque was somewhat easy to get to but the actual is atop the rock. It is a bit of a rock climb to get up there and Chris opted to skip seeing it. It wouldn’t have been too bad but the wind was really howling at this point and so I needed to adjust my stance to account for the wind. There is a bronze, circular thing attached to the top of the rock. All around the perimeter are the names of nearby peaks, with how many miles away and how tall they are. The idea is to pick one of the listed mountains and line your eye with the name and a small nub on the top of it to line yourself with the desired peak. I tried it for one mountain but it felt like the wind wanted to blow me over, so I descended to find Chris and head back down to the relative warmth of the car.

Pocket of Color by Rocks

Toll Memorial Plaque

Mountain Peak Locator

View Back Down Trail

Panoramic View from Tundra Communities Trail

Two miles further down the road is our next stop - Forest Canyon. There is a short walk from the parking lot to the overlook. Another marmot was there to greet us as we arrived. Even though he was begging for food, he did it in a much less obtrusive way than a chipmunk would. Nice views here and the sign helps us identify the nearby peaks along the Continental Divide.

Another Marmot Greets Us Here

More Convenient Peak Locator

Not quite 3 miles down the road is Rainbow Curve. It’s another overlook with a rather large parking area. There was even a park volunteer stationed here to help answer questions. We have worked our way below 11,000 feet and are now below tree line. The views here are pretty good too. We can see Trail Ridge Road as is snakes it’s way down into the valley below. We can even see some familiar places we visited 6 weeks ago.

Trail Ridge Road Winds Down Into Valley

Alluvial Fan Area

Our next stop is about 4 miles further down the road - Many Parks Curve. We are now down around 9700 feet and it is much warmer. We are able to drop a couple of layers of clothes so we don’t look to be the oddballs. We take the short walk along the path. It’s a bit of a challenge because we must cross the road from the parking area to the trail. Let’s hope that the people driving the road pay attention to the pedestrian crossing signs. Nice view here as well.

Rock Formation at Many Parks Curve

By now we were getting hungry. In just 2 miles more is the Hidden Valley Picnic Area. Sounded like the perfect spot for our lunch. We enjoy the views while eating and then take the half mile nature loop. The building here had a booth for the Junior Ranger program and there were a lot of kids. The loop goes on either side of the small creek that runs through the valley.

Crossing Over Creek

View Further Up the Valley

Small Falls

After lunch we only needed to drive a mile more down the road to the Beaver Ponds pullout. There was a short walk on a boardwalk to a little creek. We saw no beavers but did get to accomplish the virtual geocache that is located there.

Boardwalk at Beaver Ponds

To complete our goal of seeing the rest of Trail Ridge Road, we drive to the parking lot at Sheeps Lake about 4 miles away in the hopes of seeing bighorn sheep. We were here 6 weeks ago and it had started to rain as we pulled into the parking lot. Wouldn’t you know it, the rain started to fall as we pulled in this time as well. We waited a bit, didn’t see any bighorn so we decided to head back to camp - about 40 miles away. I’m sure there was lots more to see along our route but we felt we definitely got the highlights.

As we got close to camp, we realized that the weather was nice on this side of the park and we had made good enough time to be back for the 3 PM ranger walk from the Kawuneeche Visitor center. So we just head there instead of camp. The same ranger that did our walk yesterday at the Holzwarth Historic Site was giving this one as well. Today’s topic was the East Troublesome Fire. It was a fairly small group - just the two of us and a family of five from Cincinnati. Ranger Tim came prepared with all sorts of maps, pictures and other data pertaining to the fire. We slowly walked up a trail that was in the heart of the fire zone stopping at points to learn more facts and details. Being in the area burned was much more informative than simply hearing about it in a meeting room with PowerPoint slides.

Burned Out Trees Along Trail

Ranger Tim Explains the Size of East Troublesome Fire

This fire burned just under 194,000 acres. Investigators determined it was human cause and likely a careless hunter or camper not putting out their campfire. The first days were not all that critical. The fire was about 20 miles away and advancing at a normal pace. It started in National Forest land and there weren’t buildings or humans in the path so it wasn’t being fought initially.

But several days later, the winds picked up to 60 MPH and embers were driven all over the place. The town of Grand Lake lost hundreds of structures and two people perished in the blaze. Somehow the downtown area of Grand Lake and the Kawuneeche Visitor Center survived. One of the most amazing facts about the fire was that it went thru RMNP and actually jumped the Continental Divide! Remember, nearly all of the high peaks in the park are above tree line, so there are limited fuels up there. The fire that made it over came very close to Estes Park before it was under control. The fire also had the trait of burning hotter than many wildfires of the past. The area we were walking thru make take much longer to recover because the soil was sterilized by the heat. Large boulders along the trail had gotten so hot that the little water that is in them boiled and caused much of the surface of the rock to be flaked off. It was an interesting but sobering walk.

Aspen Trees Burned

Our last day turned out to be a rather dreary and rainy one. We took it easy and headed over to the Grand Lake Lodge for lunch. The outside of the lodge isn’t all that special but it is rather pretty inside. We had a wonderful lunch with a view high above Grand Lake and nearby Shadow Mountain Lake.

Grand Lake Lodge

Antler Chandelier

Large Central Fireplace

Bar Area

Our Lunch View of Grand & Shadow Mountain Lakes

Classic Car

Old Fire Truck

We had a wonderful 10 nights in Grand Lake and the western side of RMNP. We likely could have found much more to do in the area. To bad Winding River RV Resort doesn’t have any extended stay rates - just the daily rate even if you stay for the season. Our next stop will be for the month of July. We’re headed to Kremmling Colorado. If you haven’t heard of it, you’ll need to read future posts to find out what there is to see and do.

Our Sixth Year of Fulltiming in Review

On this date in 2016, we pulled out of the driveway from our home in western New York having heard from our attorney that the closing went without an issue and we were “now free to move about the country”. We weren’t planning on using Southwest Airlines to see the USA, but instead let our 38 foot motorhome take us to far reaching parts of the country. We didn’t have any set plans other than some family events in the Cincinnati area in the upcoming 3 months. I don’t think we ever dreamed how many places we would have the opportunity to explore and how many people we would meet along the way. There have been both highs and lows, but that can be expected whether you are traveling in some sort of RV or living in a sticks and bricks home. We just get to experience them in many places - 286 places in the past six years if my record keeping is accurate.

We knew we didn’t want to just do a “snowbird” pattern where we bounce between one place up north for the warm months and one place in the south for the cool months. We’ve met plenty of people that do just that and it works for them. But we wanted something different, we wanted to explore. We only had limited, overarching goals. First, follow 70 degree weather - 30 plus years of Rochester NY weather had proven we could handle snow, but now preferred to avoid it. Second, try to not move at such a fast pace that we don’t get to really explore the area we have temporarily landed in. We have met many people that seem to move from location to location every few days. They may even go from one coast to the other and back in one year. That seems like too frantic of a pace to us. Maybe if we had only given ourselves 2 to 3 years of this lifestyle before settling down somewhere, we would have been inclined to see it all and move fast,  it by leaving it open ended, we have the ability (luxury?) to take our time. The third goal was to have fun! Most of the time I think we accomplish these goals.

Last year at this time, we were one month in to a planned 4 month stay in the area outside of Asheville North Carolina. We loved being in the mountains - the cool temperatures and the excellent hiking opportunities. So maybe it isn’t too surprising that this year we find ourselves back in the mountains again but just further west and significantly higher in elevation. I write this review from a campground less than 2 miles from the western entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park in Grand Lake Colorado, but I have gotten ahead of myself. Much has happened between NC and CO, so on with the review.

The mountains of western North Carolina felt like our “happy place”. So much so that when we were camping near Newland for all of August and September, we actually looked at some private RV lots for sale. We never progressed beyond the looking stage, but it was the first time we pondered the idea of having a home base that was ours. We finally got word that the new furniture we had ordered for our motorhome back at Thanksgiving of 2020 was made and delivered and ready for installation in Elkhart Indiana. When October rolled around, we headed back north to have the old removed and the new installed. We had the remaining weeks of October to work our way back to Florida. We spent about a week in both the Louisville and Lexington Kentucky area and another week near Rome Georgia. All three stops were memorable.

We made it back to Brooksville Florida for another 5 month stay just like last winter. But this time we were in a different site at Belle Parc Resort that was right next to a lake and the bird viewing was excellent. We found much more to do in the area this time simply because the COVID restrictions were much improved from the prior season. It was while staying in Florida that we came up with the idea of doing something similar to our stay in North Carolina over last summer but shift the location to Colorado.

The planning for this was rather involved. First there was the weather. How early should we arrive in the front range - Denver, Colorado Springs? In theory we could have gotten there in mid April, but it might still be darn cold. We had similar questions about when to move up into the actual Rockies. We didn’t find many campgrounds in Colorado that offer monthly rates, so we knew it was going to take planning to string together 4 to 5 months worth of stops that would allow us to explore the state. After a lot of investigation, we came up with a plan and made reservations for early May thru late September.

Our route west was a bit unconventional. We had already done the I-10 trip thru Texas and the I-70 trip thru Kansas. We hadn’t camped in Nebraska yet, so we worked our route along I-80 and picked some places along the way to fill in the 6 weeks or so we had to travel from Florida to Colorado via Nebraska. We saw some interesting places along the way and quite a few desolate locations as well.

Enough talking about year #6, let’s get to the facts and stats for this past year. Below is a snapshot from the Google Map I use to keep track of our journey. The link below the map will open up an actual map that can be zoomed and panned to see more detail. Google draws the route between stops but may not be the actual roads we took. For each stop, it is possible to click on the pin and another window will pop up that shows the name of the stop as well as links to blog post(s) that are associated with that stop. If you’re reading this soon after it is posted, some of the later stops don’t have a blog post yet since I am many weeks behind.

Click Here to Bring Up Interactive Google Map

Another map I like to show is a “heat map” that shows all the states we have camped in this past year and shades them in varying intensity of red to indicate the number of days we spent in that state. A second heat map combines all 6 years of travel into one map. We have added one more state this past year - Nebraska - bringing the total to 44 states. If I were to include other camping excursions we have taken prior to going full time, Alaska, Oklahoma, New Jersey and Delaware would be added. This would leave Hawaii and Rhode Island.

Heat Map for Year #6

Heat Map for First 6 Years of Fulltime

As a former engineer, I tend to keep track of all sorts of things, and tracking this journey is no different. So how did year #6 stack up to the first five years? Below is a condensed table with the highlights. It doesn’t Include things like groceries, dining out, or recreation costs - only things that pertain to the camping lifestyle. So what stands out in the data? Right off the bat, we had more stops this year than last but 20 of them were just for a single night. About half of the one night stops were during the trip north to Elkhart and back to Florida. The remaining one night stops came as we moved from Florida to Colorado. I exclude these one nighters from the calculation of average nights per stop which shows we nearly maintained our slower travel pace as year #5.

Condensed Stats

While motorhome miles were nearly identical to last year the cost of diesel nearly doubled. Maybe not unexpected but definitely not wanted. Our TSD fuel card continues to help us reduce the fuel costs but it can only do so much. Private campgrounds continued to be our most frequent type of campground although it is down slightly from last year. Staying 5 months at one in Florida will do that. Both state park and Elks Lodge stays increased in count. We have made good use of Elks Lodges when we are simply trying to get thru an area. They have become our go to for quick overnight stays instead of places like Walmart or rest stops. The fact that we had more nights in state parks isn’t too surprising. We usually enjoy them. In fact our first 42 nights in Colorado this past May and June were at 4 different state parks.

Similar to last year, instead of identifying a campground or city that was a favorite for the past year, we will list our top hikes - after all, hiking is our go to activity during our travels. I’ll still list our favorite stops but save that for our year end reviews. Coming up with a half dozen or so favorite hikes was a real challenge. We spent 101 nights in the mountains of North Carolina and 50 nights in Colorado during this past year and likely completed at least 80 hikes. Plus we had dozens of bike rides over the year, and a few of them were rather special. But after reviewing them all, we came up with our list. In chronological order here are the top six hikes from year #6 with a link to the blog post that describes the hike as well as a picture from the hike.

• Cades Cove Loop - Great Smoky Mountains National Park  On Wednesdays over the summer months, this 11 mile loop drive is closed to motor vehicles and open only to walkers and bicyclists. (This is being repeated in the summer of 2022 as well) The valley has a large number of historic buildings from the early to mid 1800’s and is a beautiful area. Visiting by car on other days of the week is guaranteed gridlock. While it can be technically done by walking, a bicycle is a much more efficient means of travel to see all the history of this part of the country. 
  Blog post with Cades Cove Ride

Possibly Best Cantilever Barn at Cades Cove

• Grassy Ridge Bald in Pisgah-Cherokee National Forest near Roan Mountain TN  This is a 5 mile out and back hike with about 1100 feet of elevation gain. The bulk of this hike is along a portion of the Appalachian Trail. One must go up and over both Round Bald and Jane Bald before climbing to Grassy Bald. If the weather cooperates, the views from here are spectacular. While we were atop Grassy Bald, a cloud bank rolled in and we thought we might have a foggy hike back to the car, but the clouds seemed to disappear and the return hike was pretty as well. This hike was worth the effort. 
  Blog post with Grassy Ridge Bald Hike

Looking Towards Jane Bald and Grassy Bald

• The Chimneys in Linville Gorge Wilderness North Carolina  This trail is a section of the Mountains to Sea Trail that spans the width of North Carolina. It’s not a particular long trail at just under 2 miles out and back. It starts at the same parking lot as the very popular Table Rock Trail and we completed both hikes but the Chimneys was by far the prettier hike. The trail follows a ridge line and has less than 400 feet of elevation gain so it isn’t super strenuous. There are lots of cool rock formations (chimneys) and great views to the east as well as Linville Gorge to the east. We even got to watch some rock climbers. It was made especially pretty by some early fall colors. 
  Blog post with Chimneys Hike

Looking Back at the Chimneys Near Our Turn Around Point

• West Rim Loop in Cloudland Canyon State Park near Rising Fawn Georgia This state park was about 70 miles northwest of Rome Georgia where we were camping. But all the reviews of popular hikes in the area pointed to this park and specifically the West Rim Loop. It’s about a 5 mile trail with just over 700 feet of elevation gain. The trail starts on the east side of the canyon, crosses over to the west side and then circles the upper edge of the canyon. Numerous viewpoints along the way give incredible views of the canyon and the valley to the north of the park. We enjoyed this part of the trail so much that we didn’t do the loop portion through the woods but backtracked to see the views a second time. When nearing the finish for this hike, I suggest you tack on the hike to the two waterfalls nearby - Cherokee Falls and Hemlock Falls. This addition will add lots of descending and climbing massive staircases but the views are worth it.
  Blog post with West Rim Hike
  

Pretty View Across Canyon

• Fountain Valley Loop & South Rim/Willow Creek Loop Trails in Roxborough State Park near Littleton Colorado We did the 2.6 mile Fountain Valley Loop Trail late in the day after traveling from Colorado Springs to nearby Chatfield State Park. We found this place so magical that we came back a couple days later to hike the 2.8 mile South Rim/Willow Creek Trails. Had we known how beautiful this park was, we would have done the combination of trails all in one 5.2 mile hike. This place has unique sandstone rock formations much like Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs but this place is much less crowded making the visit that much more special. Both hikes are quite nice but if you’re limited on time or energy, Fountain Valley is the better choice.
  Blog post with Roxborough Hikes
  

Rock Outcroppings Lined Up

• East Inlet Trail and Adams Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park near Grand Lake Colorado  The East Inlet Trail starts near Grand Lake and heads east for nearly 10 miles (one way) and gains well over 2000 feet in elevation. It is also the route to see Adams Falls which is only about 0.3 miles (one way). We picked a middle ground and hike to Adams Falls, then continue to the Lower East Inlet Campsite. This will put the round trip at about 5 miles and 450 feet in elevation. The falls were pretty and the water was really flowing. Past the falls, we follow the creek that feeds them and the water is just gently flowing. A meadow is to the south of the trail and if we had gone earlier in the day, I suspect moose would have been spotted. As it was our timing in late June was perfect for wildflowers. Much of the trail has a natural rock ledge and the flowers were all over the face of the wall. It looked like some master gardener had planned the whole thing and painstakingly planted all the flowers. The trail starts to really climb past the 2.5 mile mark and we weren’t accustomed to the higher elevations so this length worked just right for us.
  Blog post with East Inlet Hike
  

View Along East Inlet Trail

Below is a map showing all 286 places we have camped in the past six years. For additional information on any of them, click on the link below the map which will open the actual Google Map I use. Pan and zoom on the map and by clicking on any pin, a window will pop up with the name of the location and a link to the blog post(s) for that place. Those interested in hiking, mountain biking, geocaching or nature photography, may find some of the posts useful if you plan to visit an area we have explored.

Click HERE to open interactive Google map

What does year #7 have in store? Well the first three months are a continuation of our Colorado visit. Then we have some plans for Utah with possibly a month in the St George area. Beyond that, we will likely head south to Arizona or Southern California for the winter months. Beyond that, who knows?