Heading Up to Grand Lake

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It was a very short stay at Chatfield State Park but our next reservation promises to be a good one - at least we hope so. We will be crossing the Continental Divide and heading to a private campground that sits at an elevation of 8678 feet. We have been in Colorado along the front range for 42 nights now at elevations between 5000 and 6400 so hopefully our bodies have started to acclimate to high elevations. While writing this post, I assumed our next campground would be the highest one in our 6+ years of full timing. Of course, I had to check and discovered that back in 2017 we stayed near Capitol Reef National Park at 8900 feet. So Winding River RV Resort in Grand Lake Colorado will come in at a close second place.

When we plan our route for travel days, we typically put in a bit of effort to confirm we have a safe route. We will also look for possible rest stops or fuel stops if needed. We have a Garmin GPSr that we can put in the weight, length and height of our rig and it generally does a good job of navigating us along the way and keeping us out of trouble. We also have a Rand McNally Motor Carrier Road Atlas which highlights roads that semis are permitted on - our rig is big but smaller than the normal 18 wheeler.

For this drive, the Garmin has us going west on I-70 to US-40 near Empire and north over Berthoud Pass and into Granby before heading up to Grand Lake - a 108 mile trip. Our truck atlas confirms this is a valid tuck route but when I look at the 10 or more hairpin curves going up and over the pass, I’m not feeling real confident that is a good plan. The other option is to cross the divide along I-70 at the Eisenhower Tunnel, drop down into Silverthorne and head north on Colorado Route 9 into Kremmling then back east towards Grand Lake. This route is 151 miles but looks much less stressful of a drive. Another factor was that several other campers we talked to earlier in the summer suggested the longer route is the preferred way if they were making that drive. So off to the Eisenhower Tunnel. I’ll admit it is a beautiful drive along the interstate and I’m actually able to enjoy it somewhat. It’s about and 8 mile drop from the tunnel into Silverthorne at a 6% grade but the engine brake on the rig makes for smooth uneventful drive. There are also a couple of runaway truck ramps if things go bad! As we were heading north on CO-9 crossing over a bridge near a river or stream, I spot something big coming up from below and heading towards the road - it was a moose. Fortunately it looked before crossing, saw us barreling towards it and turned back into the woods.

Approaching the Eisenhower Tunnel

Winding River RV Resort is less than a 2 mile drive from the western entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. We have our spot here for 10 nights. We had wanted to stay in the Grand Lake area when we were making our summer travel plans back near last Thanksgiving. Most other campgrounds in the area were already booked but we managed to nab a spot here, but it wasn’t cheap. Just under $88 per night - a new high rate for us with the previous high being $71 for a couple nights just before the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque in 2019. Like they say, “location, location, location’. It’s clear they do have a limited camping season here so I suppose they need to compensate for that somehow. Generally one might expect to get paved roads and a concrete pad for that price. The road back to our spot near the back of the campground are dirt and the site itself is a gravel surface with lots of grass and weeds.

The View at Our Site at Winding River RV Resort

The upside of the place are the views. There are mountains in just about every direction, many still sporting their snow capped peaks. We are also very near the Colorado River for which the campground is named. The Colorado starts less than 15 crow miles from camp and isn't all that impressive as we cross over it when driving in or out of camp. Back in mid October of 2020, the East Troublesome Fire broke out nearby and advanced quickly. The fire destroyed several buildings and many of the trees within the campground before moving into the national park lands. Wildfires have been one of our major concerns during our several months in Colorado. The ones that hit Colorado last year were also quite devastating. I suppose that the advantage of staying at this particular campground, much of surrounding woods have already been destroyed so the chance of it happening while we are here is greatly diminished.

Like many other popular national parks, RMNP has implemented a time entry system to keep the number of visitors to a manageable level. The general rules are fairly clear but the specific details are somewhat confusing. No timed entry pass is required at the entrances to RMNP before 9 AM or after 3 PM. The Bear Lake Corridor on the eastern side of the park has stricter rules since it is the most popular section of the park. Here the times are before 5 AM or after 6 PM. Entry tickets are purchased at Recreation.gov and only cost $2 for each 2 hour time slot. Most tickets will be sold in advance with only a small number held back to be sold the day before they are valid. The tickets we needed for late June became available on May 2.

We each had accounts setup and were ready to purchase the tickets for the days we wanted at the precise moment they were made available. We picked 6 of the 10 days were were here, skipping the weekend days since we wanted to avoid crowds as much as possible. We also picked tickets that included the Bear Lake Corridor just to be on the safe side and provide the most flexibility. We managed to get the days and times we wanted but when I went back in 15 minutes after they opened for sale, most of the better time slots were sold out. Planning ahead is a must.

We hadn’t bothered to get an entry ticket for our first full day here so we needed to find something else to do in the area outside of RMNP. Since the Kawuneeche Visitor Center is just outside of the entrance station, it’s possible to go there without a timed entry pass. We head there first to get a better understanding of how timed entry works and also what trails are still closed because of the fire. We also check out the schedule for ranger talks so we can work them into our plans for the next week or so.

We picked the Strawberry Lake Trail within the Arapaho National Recreation Area. It’s within a fee area, but our National Park Pass hanging from our mirror works too. The trail is just under 4 miles round trip and has about 900 feet of elevation gain. It should be a good hike to see just how acclimated we are since it reaches 9200 feet. The trail starts on the south side of Lake Granby. It’s a bumpy 7 mile drive along a dirt road but it’s fairly wide so it isn’t a real issue. There were many other cars parked along the road near the trailhead but we found a spot not too far down the road. Just as we got to the trailhead, a woman with a baby in her back carrier and a young child walking alongside of her came down the trail. We joked that we wished we had her energy level to attempt this hike with the two kids that young!

The trail starts out steep and rocky from the very beginning. There are lots of sections where there is considerable number of downed trees but they have all been cut back and most of them look to have come down many years ago. There are lots of wildflowers along the trail which gave us ample opportunity for a break while I shot some photos. The most prolific and in our estimation, the most beautiful flower along the trail were the Rocky Mountain columbine - Colorado’s state flower.

The View of Start of Strawberry Lake Trail

Columbine

More Downed Trees Cleared from Trail

The trail crosses a small creek that flows from Strawberry Lake. After about a mile, the trail flattens out a bit, it’s still going up but just not as steep as the first portion. We have one geocache to get along the way but it was near the creek and stopping just to look for it gave the mosquitoes ample opportunity to get some of our blood. I guess we will need to start spraying ourselves for hike like this. There are some intersecting trails but we head up to the lake.

Creek

Trail Options

We arrive at the lake and are greeted with a wonderful view. Distant mountains line up to the south. There are remnants of an old log cabin and a nice boardwalk across the marshy area to get right to the lake. It looks like you could easily launch a kayak from here but getting it up to the lake is a completely different issue.

Log Cabin

Strawberry Lake

While standing on the dock, I notice some motion in the distance. About a quarter mile away, I spot a moose. With the camera I have, I do the best I can but I’ve taken much better moose pictures before. Hopefully I’ll get another chance during our visit in the area. The trip down was okay. The steep, rocky sections did make for poor footing but we made it.

Moose in the Distance

The road we came in on, continues to the east so we figured we should check it out a bit since we were most of the way along the shore of Lake Granby. There are a few camping areas and a few people our on the water. It’s a rather peaceful place.

Arapaho Bay

Lake Granby

We had successfully spent enough time for our hike that it was now after 3 PM so we head back to camp to grab a light snack and head into RMNP hoping to see some wildlife. The first mile or so of the drive into the park was a little disheartening. This is a section of the park that had been burned in fall of 2020. Trailheads and parking areas along this stretch are closed so I don’t get any good pictures here but further up I did get a shot that dramatically shows how the fire just stopped. The left hand side shows green trees (with a large number of dead ones from pine beetle infestation) and the right hand side shows charred trees. It’s not clear why it stopped there since there isn’t an obvious fire break - maybe the wind shifted or rain or snow moved in?

Spot Where East Troublesome Fire Stopped Along Trail Ridge

We had asked at the visitor center this morning, where were good places to see elk, moose or other wildlife on the western side of the park. We did stop at a few of the areas suggested - Coyote Valley and Bowen Baker but weren’t having much luck with the exception of some nice views.

Our best luck came simply by driving along Trail Ridge Road and keeping our eyes open for wildlife. Usually we would see a half dozen cars pulled off the side of the road even before we spotted why they had stopped. At one such stop there were several dozen elk out in a large field. The males tended to be grouped together further from the road while the females were closer to the road. We spent a fair amount of time watching the elk from a safe distance.

A Pair of Bull Elk

Six More Bull Elk

Do They Realize How Pretty the View Is?

Female Elk on the Move

We continued up Trail Ridge but we didn’t want to head too far into the park since we were starting to get hungry for dinner. We turn around and head past the group of elk we had watched earlier but then stumble upon another large group of cars that hadn’t been there on our way out. A dirt side road heads back to the Bowen Gulch trailhead and there were easily 20 cars parked along there. Two females moose were grazing in the field next to the dirt road. They were slowly moving from the center of the field over to the road. The number of people that moved out towards these large animals to take a picture sort of astounded me. I was sure the moose would charge them but they ended up moving off when they began to feel uncomfortable with all the people watching them. My pictures make it look like I was right next to them but I was shooting with my 500 mm telephoto lens from a safe distance.

Moose Grazing

Heading Away from Pesky Humans

Back in the car to head home when we find another traffic jam near a small stream crossing. We stop too and find the 2 moose very near the main road. It was likely a mother daughter combination. They were not moving around much so I was able to circle to a few positions far enough away to be safe but close enough for some decent photos.

Older Moose, Possibly Mom?

Younger Moose Gets a Drink

We eventually made it back home and while Chris was preparing dinner, I wandered out to the area just behind the campground. There is a dirt road that heads up into the Never Summer Wilderness. There is an ATV rental place at the backside of the campground and they seem to do a pretty good business. It was quiet at this time of the day but the views were pretty nice. I only walked up far enough to gauge what the road was like to determine whether I might be able to mountain bike here.

Overlooking Winding River RV Resort

Looking Towards RMNP with Obvious Fire Damage

The next day we planned to drive up to the Alpine Visitor Center near the middle of RMNP along Trail Ridge Road. We had a timed entry permit for that day but go an early enough start that we beat the 9 AM requirement. We hoped to take in a ranger led walk through the alpine tundra at 10 AM so we didn’t have a lot of time to explore on the way up but did make a couple of short stops on the drive up.

Pretty View Starting Drive Up Trail Ridge Road

The first stop was a viewpoint called Farview Curve. It’s a fairly large pullout with room for 20 or so cars. There are great views from here both of the Kawuneeche Valley that we just drove thru as well as the still snow covered mountains of the Never Summer Range.

Kawuneeche Valley

View at Farview Curve

We also make a quick stop at the Continental Divide at Milner Pass. It seems a little odd that this pass is at an elevation of 10,759 feet yet the Alpine Visitor Center and the highest point on Trail Ridge Road are still further east and come in at 11,796’ and 12,183’ respectively.

Continental Divide at Milner Pass

Poudre Lake at Milner Pass

We make it up to the visitor center with time to spare before the ranger walk so we wander around some and take in the views. There are several elk on the hill overlooking the parking lot. The visitor center building itself is quite interesting. It has a large grid of Timbers on top of the roof and bolted through the beams below the roof. We later find out the design isn’t so much for snow load but for extreme winds up here. Behind the visitor center is the start of Fall River as it heads down to Estes Park. On the left side of the valley is Old Fall River Road. This was the original road up to the pass. In present day, this 10 mile one way road starts near the Alluvial Fan. Unfortunately it isn’t open this early in the season but should open within a week or two.

Alpine Visitor Center Entrance

Elk Above Parking Lot

Alpine Visitor Center Building

Overlooking Fall River Valley

We head into the visitor center to determine where the ranger walk will be meeting and are told that Ranger Rachel will be gathering the group outside the front of the building. Initially there is only the two of us plus the ranger but eventually a family of 3 shows up. The walk doesn’t start from here but just a short drive back down Trail Ridge to Medicine Bow Curve. We head out a “social” path - one that the park didn’t plan on having but so many visitors walk out this way from the overlook that it now looks like a path and acts as a path. We stop and get a background on the ranger’s path to RMNP. Her assignment this past winter was at Death Valley NP, the lowest point in North America now to the highest visitor center in the National Park system - talk about extremes! She warns us that all the rangers working out of the Alpine Visitor Center are EMS certified and if there is an emergency she may get a call on her radio to come back to assist. Enough people come up here  and have breathing and other medical issues that the park feels the need to be prepared. I just hope we aren’t the ones needing her assistance.

Exhibit in Visitor Center

View at Medicine Bow Curve

We continue out on the path and stop again. This time we are handed 1 foot embroidery hoops and some hand magnifiers. We are told to carefully walk out onto the tundra trying not to trample the plants, place the hoop over a random flower and then kneel down to carefully view all the different plants within the circle. I’ll admit, it was an eye opening assignment. The plants that grow in the harsh conditions of the tundra are generally very low to the ground. Only the most colorful ones stand out when viewed from head height, but once near ground level it is clear there are dozens of species within the hoop. We find many we aren’t familiar with but the ranger is generally able to tell us what they are.

Flowers Within my Hoop

We continue on along the path stopping periodically to look at more flowers or to be presented with some sort of training. Towards the end of the walk, we get a lesson on the types of animals that can be found up here - pikas, ptarmigans and marmots. We get pictures to look at since we weren’t running into any in person during this walk.

Our Ranger Walk Group

Ranger Rachel

As the talk wraps up and the others head back to their cars, we decide to continue out to where the trail just sort of ends at about 1/3 mile out. Even though this wasn’t a strenuous walk, we can really tell the air is thinner here at 11,700 feet!

Small Alpine Pond Along Trail

Vibrant Flowers

We get to the car and back up the visitor center hoping to eat our lunch. By now the lot was nearly full. We got lucky and someone was pulling out as we drove up so we got a parking spot and ate our lunch. We had one more ranger talk on the weather of RMNP but it wasn’t until 2 PM so we had lots of time to kill. Alpine Ridge Trail is just off the back end of the parking lot. It’s not a long hike (1/3 mile each way) and only gains about 150 feet but it does rise to just over 12,000 feet. It is often simply referred to as “Huffer Hill” for the obvious reasons as we find out on the way up. There are many stairs and some steep inclined portions but most of it was paved in some manner so footing was fairly good. There were many dozens of people out doing the same walk and I don’t think I noticed any that weren’t feeling the effects of elevation.

Elk at Rest

Looking Back at Alpine Visitor Center from Atop "Huffer" Hill

12,005 Feet Above Sea Level

The group of elk that were laying down a few hundred feet from the trail as we headed up had now gotten up and started to wander over to the trail. As we started the easier journey down, the elk were now about 20 feet from the trail with many people stopping to take pictures. We just waited back to see how it played out and proceeded when it felt safe. The break did allow me to get some decent photos. We noticed one of the elk had a rather large collar around its neck. At first we thought it was #81 but upon closer inspection of the photo, she is “B1”.

Elk Approach Trail as We Head Down

"B1" on Left

Made It Safely Down

With some more time to spare, we head across Trail Ridge Road to the Ute Trail. We have no intention of going far but want to check out the views from a different perspective. It is just as pretty from here. Just before we started a downhill portion of the trail, we saw some people working their way across a snow drifted area. It didn’t look like they were having fun and we decided we might as well just turn back.

Heading Out Ute Trail

Snow Drift Covers Trail

Back at the overlook to Fall River Valley behind the visitor center, we spotted even more elk probably about a half mile away. The more interesting animal we found to watch was the marmot. There were several in the area but one in particular was bringing mouthfuls of grasses up the steep hill and heading beneath the deck of the visitor center. A few minutes later, it would couple running out and heading downhill. There was still a lot of snow covered ground and when it got to one of these it looked more like it was sliding down instead of running. It would generally disappear over the edge but reappear a few minutes later carrying another mouthful of grasses. I guess at this altitude, one must prepare for the upcoming winter starting in June!

Marmot with Mouthful of Grass

We had exhausted all we wanted to do at altitude, including ourselves so we start the drive back to camp. We stop again at Milner Pass thinking we could do a short portion of the Ute Trail from here. We didn’t even make it a 1/4 mile before we ran into rather deep snow that looked more challenging than we were up for.

Poudre Lake along Trail

We drive just a bit further down Trail Ridge and stop at the Lake Irene Trailhead. This is a short 0.8 mile out and back trail with only 85 feet of elevation gain. It’s only at 10,600 feet so we hope we have the endurance to handle this one. It was a pretty walk along the north side of the lake. We noticed plenty of people coming back on the opposite side so when we got to the overlook at the far end of the trail and had a snack, we decided to try the other trail back.

Lake Irene

Overlook

This too is likely a social trail but a much more established one. There were a couple of muddy sections but not bad enough to make it impassable. It was a pleasant hike and made a nice way to close out the day. As we drove past some of the fields in the valley just before the western exit of the park, there were more elk and moose to be seen but we were too tired to stop and look.

Trail on Opposite Side of Lake Irene