Traveling the Road

Greetings!

Yesterday we drove Trail Ridge Road from the east side to the west. It is a spectacular drive and one of my favorites.

In 1915 Congress passed the Rocky Mountain National Park Act setting aside some of the most beautiful land in the United States. At that time the philosophy of the Park Service was to make things look natural. So, they cleared trees, put out fires, managed wildlife and other things that were decidedly not natural. The first road through the park from east to west was Fall River Road, a one lane narrow dirt road that began in Endo Valley and ended in the Kauwanechee Valley on the west side. It was and is a difficult drive and was snowed in many months of the year. Today it is designated as a one way road but back then if you met another car going the opposite direction, one of you would have to back up until there was a wide spot in the road. In 1926 or so government authorized the building of a newer, more modern road to accommodate auto tourism. Construction on Trail Ridge Road began and became a WPA project in the 1930's. Once completed the road rose more than 4000 feet to an elevation of 12,138 feet and spans 48 from the east side of RMNP to the west side. Much of the road takes you above treeline and into an alpine tundra area. It is known as the highest, paved, man made road in the world.

Our drive yesterday was mainly to take in the scenic wonder of the park from the car. We saw lots and lots of elk and a few deer. There is still snow at the top as usual but there seems to be a little more this year. Fall River Road usually opens July 4 but the ranger said there is still so much snow that they can't find the road. That's ok because Ken said he wasn't going to drive our new car up that road anyway.

On the west side of the park we stopped in the village of Grand Lake. In honor of my sister's birthday we went to a little ice cream stand that she likes down by the marina. I had a double dip cone of homemade Pecans and Praline/Caramel Fudge Swirl ice cream for lunch. Then it was back over the road. On the way back we stopped at the Summit Park store and looked around. It was just beginning to sprinkle on us but we could see that storms were coming. Fortunately all it did was drizzle while we were driving. We have driven that road in zero visibility fog, at night and in the rain and it can be a little scary in that kind of weather.

Just as we got back to town the sky opened up and it began to pour. We spent a couple of hours just watching it rain. I have never seen rain that heavy here and unlike home, it comes straight down. When it let up we went downtown to eat at Ed's Cantina. Ed's isn't the best Mexican food in the world but they do have good margaritas. We had planned to stay in town for an outdoor band concert but decided since we didn't have lawn chairs, it would be too wet to sit on the ground.

Today hasn't started on a good note. Internet is running uber slow. Someone accidentally banged the screen door when they were getting the hummingbird feeder down to fill (woke me up). Everything in the refrigerator froze so I had to throw out most of the food including the eggs I was going to make for breakfast and I have a headache. I won't let these little things get me down...much. Today we are off to Bear Lake and shopping in town. Tomorrow we plan to eat lunch in Denver and then head home. I can't wait! It's been a nice trip but I'm tired and I want to go home.

TTYL