Estes Park Blipmeet, Day 1

On Wednesday morning I drove up to Estes Park to meet V1k1 and her Lovely Daughter from New Zealand.   They are on a month-long adventure in the United States and this was one of their stop overs.  I spent the night so I could spend both of their days there with them.  We had a wonderful time and didn’t waste a minute!  Tonight I’m blipping both Wednesday and Thursday and I’ll catch up on Saturday.

After a decadent leisurely breakfast, we drove into Rocky Mountain National Park and spent the day sightseeing.  We hoped to drive over Trail Ridge Road, the highest paved highway in the USA, but it was still closed due to huge amounts of snow.  They started plowing a month ago but the snow kept falling and they couldn’t keep up.  I drove as far as we could and when we got to the Road Closed sign it was snowing and there was a lot of snow on the sides of the road.  My NZ visitors were very happy!  After photos and play in the snow, we drove back down and followed every road that was open in the park enjoying beautiful views and wildlife.  There were many stops along the way for short walks and photo ops.  It snowed on and off depending on our altitude but the most snow we saw was at Bear Lake where we had to walk up a slippery, snow-packed trail to see the lake which was still partially frozen. 

My blip today is Sprague Lake.  When I made collages I mixed up the two days’ images to stay with themes.  Today I have added the one with people and views.  Starting from the top left is Upper Copeland Falls, a view of Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park beyond it from the top of the Aerial Tramway, Vicki; middle row from left is Bear Lake hikers, Vicki and her Lovely Daughter, Lower Copeland Falls; bottom row from left is LD posing atop a big rock, The Stanley Hotel (the inspiration for Steven King’s book “The Shining”), and a view of the Stanley and its grounds from atop the Aerial Tramway.

More on Thursday’s blip….