Everything Old is New Again

Log Picture at the Alluvial Fan

        

    Why do things have to change?  I ask this question a lot...mostly in my head, but I've said it out loud several times during the last day and a half.  My family first vacationed in Estes Park, Colorado in 1976, one month before the catastrophic Big Thompson Flood.  It was one of our first vacations to Colorado where we didn't stay at my grandma Pauline's.  It became our family vacation spot and once Ken and I married we vacationed in EP almost every year of our marriage (25 to 30 times at least).  I used to want to live here.  In the early days EP was just a sleepy little tourist town full of t-shirt stores, candy shops (Laura's Fudge Shoppe, mmm mmm), and a couple of stores that sold cheap imported Dresden figurine knock-offs.  Of course the canyon changed after the flood but the town stayed the same until the 1982 Lawn Lake flood.  After that flood old businesses left and newer businesses took their place.  The town made some aesthetic improvements as well thanks to FEMA and insurance money I suppose.  That flood also created the alluvial fan at the top of Horseshoe Park in RMNP.  It stayed the same until the floods of 2013.  That flood changed the course of the river once again and changed the base of the fan. It also damaged part of Devil's Gulch and the Big Thompson Canyon.  Most recently the Cameron Peak Fire of 2020 changed the landscape of the Kawuneeche Valley.  Nature is hard on her landscape.  

    Over the years we developed some traditions, especially as the girls were growing up.  We often stayed at River Spruce Cottages (too expensive any more). We always went to the Lazy B Chuckwagon (closed and now gone).  We always drove up Trail Ridge Road and spent many hours in Rocky Mountain National Park where we took "log pictures" on the same log every year (washed away in 2013).  We often picnicked or cooked out in Endo Valley.  We ate Pizza at Bob and Tony's Pizza (now a Whiskey Distillery) and the adults drank killer margaritas at Ed's Cantina.  Our trip always ended with several trips down the Rainbow Slide (too old for that now but Andy enjoyed it two years ago). Some things are the same, others, as I noted above, have changed.

    One thing that has changed, and not for the better in my opinion, is the number of visitors that now come to the area.  The town is packed with visitors, especially during the summer.  RMNP is over run by tourists who don't think the rules apply to them or perhaps who don't really understand the fragility of the environment within the park.  I know I sound a little like the EP natives who gripe about the tourists coming to town but I think after 45 years I've earned a little tourism status!  I'm also not happy with the rate of development here.  It's becoming a lot like the Branson area.  Every spot that can be developed is being bought up by corporations.  Trees are being cut down, hillsides are being scraped away.  Across from our hotel is the historic Elkhorn Lodge-or what's left of it anyway.  Despite being on the register of Historic Landmarks, the majority of the buildings are being torn down.  In its place will be a hotel, condos, shopping and dining.  Yes it will bring new revenue to the town but at what cost?

    Despite the changes, Ken and I have maintained a few of our traditions.  We arrived yesterday afternoon.  Our first stop was Ed's Cantina because we always eat at Ed's.  Of course we had to go to the Safeway for "just a few things".  We also walked up and down Elkhorn Avenue stopping in a few of our favorite shops.  Today we walked the Alluvial Fan and found a new log bench took our photograph.  Ken suggested we get lunch at Safeway so back we went this morning. We ate it in Endo Valley of course.  We drove over Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake.  The burn scar from the fire is unreal.  Burned tree stumps, some almost ben to the ground, fill the hillside.  It totally destroyed the ranger station at the west entrance.  At the top of Trail Ridge, while we were in the park store, it began to pour and then hail, tiny tiny pellets.  We drove in and out of rain all the way down the west slope.  It rained again while we were in Grand Lake.  The rain didn't stop us from getting ice cream at Miyauchi's Snack Bar where they make their own ice cream fresh each day.  Yummy, yummy.  We capped our day listening to Cowboy Brad Fitch (www.cowboybrad.com) sing  an eclectic mix of music at a free concert in Bond Park.  We are great fans of Cowboy Brad and he is another on of our EP traditions.

Cowboy Brad Fitch 

www.cowboybrad.com 

        We did enjoy one change that occurred a few years ago.  Now that the town charges for the best parking spots (boo hiss) we took advantage of the free trolley shuttle to and from our hotel.  We also discovered a new-to-us hotel called the Maxwell Inn.  It is only a half mile from down town so we enjoyed a brisk walk back from the concert tonight.  I had to walk off the ice cream after all!

    Tomorrow we leave one of my favorite places on Earth, despite all the changes, and move on to the Mount Rushmore area.  We've only been there once before, many years ago so no traditions to carry on there.  Maybe we can make some new ones.