waitingman | Tour Diary - Day Six (Reply)

Day six... into the wild &, supposedly, spooky

Sunday the 9th of October - Boulder, Estes Park, Rocky Mountains

Yes, an even better sleep-in... it was 9am when I managed to co-ordinate my limbs & walk to the kitchen for breakfast & coffee. Gary & Kathy had seen us do the vegemite thing last time we were here, so were neither curious, nor any more willing to try it this time. Maybe when their granddaughter arrives...

Sightseeing in the Rocky Mountains today. Julia had mentioned the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park as being one place in Colorado she'd like to see - it's the hotel that inspired Stephen King to write 'The Shining'. Although the famous movie wasn't filmed there, they still trade on its fame (infamy?) all these years later, even planting a hedge maze last year. Apparently they filmed a TV series of the book at the Stanley though... anyone seen it? Didn't think so... Anyway, I'd seen photos Gary had taken when he was there a few years back, so he must know the way there... right?

So off to Estes Park we went. Highlights of the drive were the tall peaks of the Rocky Mountains, with quite a dusting of snow for this early in the ~~Autumn~~ Fall & all the elk & deer that have come down from the mountains as the weather turns colder. The elk are especially noticeable, not just because they're larger, but because they blithely roam the streets & yards of houses in the town, with dominant males chaperoning their groups of females, calling out to them when he thought they were straying too far, or if he wanted to go somewhere else. We photographed a group of males resting in a yard in town, then got caught in a mini traffic jam caused by a larger mixed group occupying both sides of the road & frequently crossing it. You're not allowed to drive through them & indeed the speed limit in the town is designed to not only protect the animals, but also your car - there's no way you'd be driving away after a collision with an adult elk

The Stanley Hotel is a large complex of buildings these days, all painted white with red roofs. It's a Grand Heritage site & quite a sight to see. The architecture is impressive on the outside, but the interiors have been beautifully maintained &/or restored. There are landscaped gardens & sculptures throughout, though the hedge maze hasn't really grown in yet, it barely came up to my knees. Not even the bunch of marauding toddlers could get lost in that... yet. It's also a very popular place on a Sunday & nigh on impossible to photograph without people either wandering through, or stubbornly standing in your shots. But I'd still recommend a visit, even if you're not a Stephen King fan. The restaurant & bar are apparently of good quality & I would have liked to have a drink at the bar with a ghostly bartender, but all the decidedly non-spooky barstaff were flat-out busy attending to the crowd who were there mainly to see the Denver Broncos losing to the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL. Hmmm... time to go?

Lunch at a small restaurant nearby, the same one we visited when we were in the area 4 years ago, with Gary & Kathy. Then into Rocky Mountains National Park, where we encountered more wandering elk & deer on our way up to Bear Lake. I should mention at this point that driving up & into the mountains is an incredible trip. Not only are the hills & mountains wonderful to be so close to, but the engineering feats required to put roads through them are almost unbelievable

Bear Lake was also a popular destination on a Sunday, but we turned up late enough in the day that there were more cars & buses departing than arriving. A short 5 minute walk to the Lake & great views of the snow-capped mountains & their reflections in the not-so-still waters. Inevitably, there were other people jostling for photo positions &, also inevitably, some taking sweeping landscape shots with the flash on their cameras... expensive cameras at that. Made me want to take their camera away, hand them an iPhone & tell them it's for their own good... now snap away to your (& my) heart's content. Gary stopped me though...

Then the drive back to Boulder through those impressive & imposing chasms & canyons as the sun set behind the mountains. A light supper, as lunch was still digesting, catching up with G & K's grandchild who'd spent the weekend in Aspen with friends, using one of Gary's old cameras to, apparently, good effect (didn't see the photos), then watching the local evening news dissect the 2nd Clinton vs Trump debate... the pundits agreed that the Donald wasn't as bafflingly bad as he was in the first one, but Hillary wasn't judged to have landed a "killer blow" either. Was this a debate or an episode of WWE Smackdown?? Now bed, imagining the USA election being decided in a wrestling ring... or maybe on a NASCAR track

Shopping for supplies & boots for the upcoming desert roadtrip tomorrow, so another relaxed wake-up call