Grand Lake

Thanks to Susie's wonderful accommodations, we left Niwot feeling refreshed and recharged. We skirted Denver to the west and headed into the mountains on the curviest interstate that I had ever been on: I-70. After dodging semis taking the bends at breakneck speeds we were happy to turn north at Idaho Falls which is still very much in Colorado. The much windier road to the north seemed much more reasonable since the speed limit was lower. We couldn't help but stop for pictures at the top of Berthoud Pass (11,307ft) which took us across the continental divide. There was plenty of snow and almost panoramic views of the rocky mountains.

Our gas mileage started to tick-up as we headed through Winter Park and onto Granby, where we took a sharp right towards Grand Lake. We snagged one of the only open campsites available at Green Ridge Campground within the Arapaho National Forest. We would be sleeping just below the dam that created Shadow Lake Reservoir and we crossed our fingers that the engineers that designed it were competent.

We left our tent and headed north into the eastern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. We purchased our "America the Beautiful" annual pass and found a nice picnic spot near a herd of elk. They seemed more interested in eating grass than turkey sandwiches which worked in our favor...

After we packed up, we headed north to follow the headwaters of the Colorado River to LuLu City, an abandoned mining town. The waters were really flowing and we slopped through mud in places and through streams in others. However, the sogginess was worth the amount of wildlife that we saw since we encountered a herd of bighorn sheep, three moose and a squirrel. We kept our distance, but one of the moose seemed interested in us...we kept moving on...

The ruins of LuLu city made a nice foreground meadow for the impressive mountains surrounding us. The surging Colorado River ran through the middle of the site. I can imagine that this would have been a picturesque location for the settlers this time of year and absolutely horrifying in the winter.

When we arrived back at our campsite, there was a sad looking couple from Missouri in need of a place to stay. Lisa offered that they could park their teardrop on our site since we just had the Prius. They were so happy that they offered that we could use their kayaks in the morning!

Naturally we started the next day with an early morning paddle on Shadow Mountain Lake. We just had to bring the boats to the dam and launch. Other than a single crazy person waterskiing in a wetsuit at 7:00AM, the lake was deserted. We paddled the length of the reservoir, almost to the village of Grand Lake before we turned around. We figured that if we were gone too long that the nice couple from Missouri would assume that we stole their kayaks and were living a new life on the lam.

After graciously returning the boats, we headed into town to hike the Adams Falls Trail which continued deep into Rocky Mountain National Park. Adams Falls was impressive, but only a third of a mile into the trail so it was quite crowded. We continued hiking for a few miles and admired the mountain meadows teeming with more moose! At this point we had seen more moose in the past two days than we had ever seen before. We even saw one at the post office in Grand Lake, that was a first class animal right there!

We were hungry when we returned to town and both managed to demolish some enchiladas at El Pacifico restaurant. The sun was hot overhead and we spent the afternoon reading, playing music and watching dysfunctional marital interactions taking place at the Shadow Mountain Lake boat launch. No better entertainment could be had on any reality TV show.

Once the sun had started to sink in the sky, we went to the Dairy King in Grand Lake to enjoy the thickest vanilla malts that we had ever experienced. We went for an evening hike on the Continental Divide Trail into Rocky Mountain National Park along the lakeshore that was accessible from our campsite. Off to bed early since we did a lot and ate a lot that day.

In the morning we departed the Green Ridge Campground and headed west on Route 40. We arrived in Steamboat Springs to find the forest service office closed and not much to guide us other than our Colorado Guidebook. Since the ski trails were mostly devoid of snow, we stuck to the summer activities. We first visited Fish Creek Falls, a short hike that was rewarded with a tall and rushing waterfall. We hiked to the overlook and then down to the refreshing mist at the bottom of the canyon.

We returned to town and had a quick bite at the Johnny B. Goode Diner on main street - the broccoli slaw was delicious! After lunch, we headed to Strawberry Park Hot Springs for a soak. As Lisa said: when in Rome, go to the baths.

It was a refreshing and interesting landscape as a series of exterior pools had been built from the hot spring on the hill. The steam was coming from the spring and we could only take the lowest pool. We watched some folks boiling themselves like lobsters in the highest pool. We could only assume that they had been there for years - cooked alive a long time ago...

With thunderstorms rolling in, we headed back to the Johnny B. Goode Diner since we had noticed an advertisement for "Pie Happy Hour" every afternoon. After scarfing down some pie, we were ready for the next step in our adventure. We are recharging tonight in Craig, Colorado and we will be off to Dinosaur National Monument tomorrow. If we see as many dinosaurs as we saw moose, I'll be very happy!