Cheyenne - Grand Lake Journey Day 8

Trains all night last night with screaming horns as they moved through nearby yards – they have lost their appeal now and I feel shattered. I also ate too late again last night (chicken stirfry) which didn’t help sleeping.

La Quinta was good. No complaints other than they had run out of yoghurt at breakfast which is a poor complaint.
Started cloudy and cooler (76 deg), and looks rather murky which is disappointing for the mountains later today.

Off down I25 calling at Colorado Visitor centre as soon as across the state boundary. We now know to do this, even if it is an Interstate (motorway) rest area with no restaurant, the basic stops have free State road maps. The centre is very informative and we are now armed up with maps and brochures for all of Colorado together with some useful pointers of places not to miss.

We continue to Estes Park and the northern entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park.
Considering we are not there yet we climb rapidly through winding gorges. It is 1 o’clock and we decide to eat before entering the park. We go for a MacDonald’s salad for lunch (which is really good – honest) then got rained on for the first time this trip on the way back to the Jeep, it was only light but I was worried that our trip into the Rockies would be obscured by cloud.
I had no need to worry on the weather front and we set off into the National Park on good roads with a 35mph limit. They reckon on 4 hours to drive it and we took about 6 doing several half mile trails from the road and stopping for many photos. It is wonderful, though comparison with the Pyrenees and Alps is inevitable. In early August there are no snow caps left but there are patches here and there.
Wildlife is abundant and though park rules strictly forbid feeding there was a lay-by early on where chipmunks were grabbing seeds from visitors. Cute little things but I suspect a menace.
We saw various birds and small animals and later, at the highest part of the drive, over 12,000 feet we encountered a marmot.

At this height you are aware of shortened breath and the effort of walking up hill causes your heart to hammer inside your chest. Lynne complained of the light headedness and mild cold like symptoms typical of altitude – you are warned to drink a lot of water and avoid coffee or alcohol.

Describing mountains seems pointless so I will leave it to a few photos. Just after we had returned to the Jeep at the highest part, the rain came in and we then descended to Grand Lake at the other end of the park in little over half an hour.

Our original intent had been to continue around to Boulder but the area was so lovely and it was now gone 6 and we had read that there was plentiful accommodation in Grand Lake itself. We called in the visitor centre where we were greeted with Dolly Parton-esc enthusiasm by a slim lady who was not similarly endowed. She told us of a small lodge which was clean in the centre of town which she knew had vacancies and of places to eat including one which played country and western and gave you peanuts before your meal. This seemed an odd thing to say – at the time.

We booked into the Lone Eagle Lodge and later walked down the boardwalk of the rather Western film set town to the Sage Brush where as you walked in you became aware of crunching under foot. The floor is covered in peanut shells as the custom is that you eat the peanuts whilst waiting for your meal and throw the shells into the walkway between tables – it just didn’t seem right and Lynne had to put her shells on the table before discretely brushing them off and onto the floor. Food was excellent and atmosphere great.

A walk back along the Great Lake where we sat and star gazed for a little while before returning to the high street boardwalk and back to the lodge where I sit typing this blog.

Statistics: Miles today: 138 miles ; Miles so far: 2,558 ; Fuel added so far: 128 gals ; States: Wyoming, Colorado ; Time Zone: Mountain (UK -7)