Steps in the Right Direction: Non Hiking Day Drive to Winter Park

Today is an “off” day. We had a nice breakfast then drove the Trail Ridge Road over to the west side. I make this sound like it is a short drive. Without traffic it takes Kathi just over an hour to drive the length of the road (It might take me longer, but I have not had the chance to continue to practice my Jeep Cherokee braking techniques. I am at the ready in case of emergency calf cramping). With traffic, then who knows what you will encounter? We saw a few lone bull Elk out for a morning snack.

We made our first stop at the Ranger station on the west side of the park. We wanted to ask a ranger if they know what time the parking spots at Milner Pass fill up by? One simple little question. We walk in and up to the available ranger. Before we finished asking our first question we were both like….Whooooooa…..What? This lady goes off on how the park is spoon feeding visitors. The Park is now providing information that visitors (like us…) should have to work for… Hmmm? We found her to be very abrasive and rather ticked off by our tiny little question. Well, perhaps her ticked off attitude was aimed at ALL visitors of RMNP. This Ranger Behavior is a first for us. We quickly change our approach. We inform her gently about all of the high elevation, high milage hikes we have done during our past week, currently, we are around 84 miles hiked. How we spend ten to fourteen days each summer hiking in the Rockies either in the USA or Canada. We have put the miles on our feet and are not “Rocky rookies”. The lady Ranger backed down off of her “ticked off” soap box. She was upset that RMNP is too busy and would have around five and half million visitors this year. Well, I think that is a good thing for American’s that they are coming to the national parks, it is true...it is a busy place.

It is clear to me that this lady Ranger is not a fan of the 100 year Centennial Celebration for National Parks. The national park service has a big program this year called: Find your Park. I will include the link in case you want to go and find your park. FYI if you find a hostile Ranger of your own, ease them down gently. Remind them you are Americans out experiencing the best that America has to offer...

The National Park Service invites you to find your park! In celebration of the 100th birthday of the National Park Service in 2016, we are launching a movement to spread the word about the amazing places we manage, the inspirational stories that the national parks tell, our country's natural resources, and our diverse cultural heritage.

Find Your Park is about more than just national parks! It's about the National Park Service working in your community through education programs, community assistance projects, and more. It's about state parks, local parks, trails, museums, historic sites, and the many ways that the American public can connect with history and culture, enjoy nature, and make new discoveries.

Join in the action. Visit FindYourPark.com to sample upcoming centennial events near you, share your stories, and find your park! Participate in Find Your Park Experiences to learn, discover, be inspired, or simply have fun in national parks.

Find Your Park is supported by the National Park Service's nonprofit partner, the National Park Foundation. For more information, visit NationalParks.org.

By the time we leave, the hostile Ranger is a little less hostile. Hopefully, she was a little bit happier for the next visitors who walk in the door.

We walk to the car and both look at each other, yikes! Hope her day goes better! Our second stop was at the historic Grand Lake Lodge. The lodge is made with lodgepole pine and opened in 1920, just two months before the completion of the Fall River Road. The opening of the road greatly increased tourism and attracted famous visitors like Henry Ford. The inside of the lodge is a wide open space with a huge round fireplace with many seats ringing the fireplace. Each piece is one of a kind wooden seat. The smell of burning wood lingers in the space along with the wonderful smell of bacon...There is a restaurant in the space too. Hmmmm bacon.

Back on the road we continue our drive down past the large Lake Granby area and through the tiny town of Fraser. We are headed visit with Pat and Wendy. They live between Fraser and Winter Park. Pat is a retired physical education teacher who spent her years at the high school level, building students capacity to experience the greatness of the Colorado outdoors. More about that in a moment. Wendy is a research PhD. at the University of Colorado Denver. She lead investigations in metabolism, Aging, Gender, and Exercise.

When we first got there Wendy was off golfing with a friend. Pat gave us a full tour of their one of a kind mountain home. What a beautiful place. So many thought out amenities with the best possible views of the Indian Peak mountains. These are the mountains just past three time try of Pawnee Pass.

After our tour we sat outside in the sitting area and talked enjoying each other's stories. Pat pulled out her well stocked library of topo maps of the area. While sitting with a view of the mountains we started talking through possible future hikes we can come and do while using their house as a hub. Pat is a wealth of hiking knowledge as she has either hiked many of the trails or has taken a High School group on the trail. This topic is quite fascinating as one story leads to another and another. As personal histories are shared we find that Pat had an interest in starting an outdoor physical education program for her HS students. She decided to take a certification class. The class was a nine week class up in Alaska. So imagine driving off to Alaska for the summer. From this moment on the story only gets more amazing. This class was headquartered on Yule Kilcher’s (Last Frontier) land. Pat shared a story of a typical breakfast started with hand picking a few blueberries grabbing a few eggs from under a roosting chicken, tossing in some buckwheat flour and whipping up some pancakes cooked by non other than Yule. Then off to the lesson for the day which might mean learning how to repel or start a fire without matches, establish base camps, and live on a glacier. Pat has many more stories all about this nine week timespan in her life. We had a great time chatting. When Wendy joined us after her golf engagement we had many more things to talk about like the “explanation for normal people” on what she researches. I have to say it this way because if she explains it in words I use, I know exactly what she is researching, if she uses her PhD. words…. Forget it! Our conversations also included stories of hiking, condo’s, vacations, parents, siblings, the hours of the day just slipped by. Such good times. I’m not sure I mentioned the lot next door to them is up for sale… Well, Kathi and I could probably buy the lot, but then have to put a tent up on it. Again, we spent the day just enjoying the company of each other's experiences. Soon enough it was late enough to think about driving back over to Estes Park. The four of us decided on a quick supper together at the golf course and then Kathi and I had to hightail it back. It is a two hour drive and driving on that road in the dark is not an ideal situation.

On our drive back we had to slow way down for the masses of people who were out parking all over the place taking pictures of the moose that were eating right next to the road. There were many moose to be taking pictures of for sure. We did not stop for this picture opportunity. It was a traffic jam and we did not have time for that! We arrived at the "top" just in time to see the sun slip over the back side of the mountains. After the setting we witnessed a soft purple alpine glow on the mountains in our forward view. We also witnessed a seven car search and rescue team out rescuing/searching for someone. (We never did read or hear what or who they were looking for). We ended up driving the last seven miles or so in the dark. Not as bad as we thought it was going to be. I would have never guessed so many people to be up at the top to watch the sun set. With all of these additional cars on the road we were able to follow the string of car lights to get a good gauge of where the road was. Remember there are no guard rails or city overhead lights to help guide you.