The town of Grand Lake sits on the western end of Rocky Mountains National Park, and is the gateway to the park for those entering on the west side of the continental divide.
The lake known as Grand Lake is the largest natural lake in Colorado and lies at an elevation of 8367 feet. Grand Lake is known as the headwaters of the Colorado River.
We spent three nights in Grand Lake, and used it as a base for our forays into Rocky Mountains National Park. It has more of an “outdoorsy” feel than some of the other towns we visited, and we enjoyed it very much.
We were a little concerned when we found out that our motel didn’t have air conditioning. There are few places where we would want to not have it. But the first night we were there the temperature dipped into the 30s, so all we needed to do was keep the windows open!
Our plan for the first full day in Colorado was to drive to the top of Pike’s Peak. Unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans, and the mountain received about 8 inches of snow the night before our visit. It was interesting because it poured rain in Manitou Springs the previous afternoon, and when the skies cleared it was clear everywhere except the top of Pikes Peak, which was still shrouded in clouds.
When we got to the entrance that morning the ranger warned us that the road was not open to the top and offered us the chance to change our minds But we were there and wanted to see what we could see, so decided to take our chances.
The entrance part of the road is at an elevation of 7,800 feet – 1,000 feet above Mount Mitchell, the highest point in North Carolina! The lower part of the road is just like driving any mountain road – winding and steep in spots with a few nice viewpoints. Beautiful views, for sure!
We spent some time at Crystal Reservoir Visitor Center at Mile 6, which is at 9,160 feet. That was our first view of where Pikes Peak was, although we couldn’t see it, as it was still buried in clouds. The ranger there said that the road had been opened a little farther up, but that they still didn’t know if they would be able to open it to the top. We decided to press on and take our chances.
The higher elevations are where things get interesting. There are very few places to pull off, and on the day we visited most of the pulloffs were socked in with clouds. We made it to the overlook at Mile 18 – known as Sheep Sign because there is a sign there about Bighorn Sheep – where they had the road blocked. The ranger there said it was still snowing above and not safe to drive, so that was as far as we could go. It was snowing on us as we talked to him!
We had a little bit of vertigo and dizziness at the higher elevations. This is normal, and wasn’t helped by the fact that we couldn’t see anything to orient ourselves! This feeling subsided as we returned back below 10,000 feet, and we never had another problem with elevation the entire rest of the vacation. For that we were very thankful.
I did manage to get a few photos to document our visit. We’ll have to plan and visit again sometime when there is less of a chance of snow. We thought June was late enough, but maybe it will need to be July or August next time!
As I go through my images from our recent vacation to Colorado, I’m going to try and do short posts – mostly in order I hope – with a few photos from each of the places we visited. I’ll also try to add a little commentary along the way. Eventually these will all end up in a gallery on my website.
Our first night in Colorado was in Manitou Springs, just west of Colorado Springs. So from the Denver airport we headed south with the idea of seeing what we saw along the way. Garden of the Gods was on our list of places to visit, weather and time permitting.
As it turned out we had time, but we almost didn’t have the weather. It was threatening rain from the time we pulled into the parking lot, sprinkled a few times on the trails then really let go about the time we were leaving. Good timing! It would have been pretty toasty there if we didn’t have the clouds, and good photos might have been a little tougher to come by.
I got some skeptical looks when I told people that while I was in Colorado I was looking forward to seeing a friend that I had met on the internet. It wasn’t quite that way but it usually got the reaction I was looking for! I’m like that sometimes. 😉
Most of the readers of this blog already know Monte, and a few had already met him. But since I had already met Paul, Earl aka Brooks, and Paul Maxim, I couldn’t take a trip to Colorado without checking in with Monte.
When we planned the itinerary for this vacation I wanted to spend some time in Fort Collins, mostly to see Monte but also to visit the town itself. As it turns out, it is quite the booming place, with a vibrant downtown area known as Old Town, lots of breweries and some excellent restaurants.
Monte came to meet us at our hotel the first night we were in town, we spent an hour or so chatting, and as I expected hit it off immediately. You kind of get a feeling for a person after sharing stories and photographs for as long as we have, but you never know. It was great! Kathy got into the act, too. We had a nice dinner and kept each other up well past our usual bedtimes.
The second evening Monte acted as tour guide and took us to some of his favorite photographic locations. Many places I had seen from his photos, and a few that I had not. And mostly places I never would have gotten to – or back from – on my own!
We met up again on our last evening, had another nice dinner and spent a lot more time chatting. Fortunately we were already packed for the return trip to Charlotte and didn’t figure we would get much sleep anyway!
Thank you Monte for an enjoyable time! You are a great host and guide, and we look forward to meeting up with you again sometime or somewhere soon!