Seeing Rocky Mountain National Park with Friends, 5/19/2018

On Friday, 5/18, we arrived in beautiful Estes Park, CO. This is our second visit to Rocky Mountain National Park (first here in 2014). But this time, our friends, Angela and John, from NC, flew in to Denver and then drove here meet us here for the week. My friendship with Angela goes way back to when we were in junior high school in Charlotte, NC. We reconnected at our 40th high school reunion and have been in touch since. When we were last together in 2017, we began making plans to spend a week together. 

Here we are at Paradise on the River, a lovely small campground where we secured an RV site right on the river and Angela and John rented a beautiful cabin (Antler Pointe) that had all of the amenities needed including a large deck on the river (www.paradiservcolorado.com). It is conveniently located about 1/2 mile from the Beaver Meadows entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). 

We set out for RMNP in the Jeep Cherokee that John and Angela rented (plenty of room for all of us plus our doggie, Sadie) Sunday morning. Maps are provided at the entrance after paying the entrance fee (our Senior Pass gets us in for free).

Our first stop was the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center. 

We learned that the Trail Ridge Road is only open to Rainbow Curve (we were hoping to be able to get to the Alpine Visitor Center, but the weather has kept it closed for now). Undeterred we decided drive to Rainbow Curve, stopping along the way to enjoy the scenery.

We stopped at Deer Mountain Trailhead and Beaver Ponds to snap some pictures of the gorgeous scenery of the Rocky Mountains.

Many Parks Curve has additional parking, right past the curve, so we stopped here and walked around the area. I climbed up the rocks (as did lots of people) to enjoy the expansive views from there. I like this picture of Angela while she was taking a picture of me!

The final stop (before the road closure on Trail Ridge Road) was Rainbow Curve. You are allowed to continue on the road on foot, but no motor vehicles were permitted beyond this point on the day we visited. Sadie had a lot of fun checking out the many chipmunks we saw here, too.

We decided to swing by the Fall River Visitor Center on our way out of the park. We stopped for a few minutes at Sheep Lakes (so named for the Mummy Mountain Herd of big horn sheep that frequent the lakes in the late spring and summer). But, alas, there were none there on this rainy, overcast day.

At the visitor center we checked out the displays about park wildlife. And we saw this magpie in the parking lot...so colorful in flight.

When we returned to Paradise on the River, we went to Angela and John’s cabin (Antler Pointe) and enjoyed wildlife watching on the Big Thompson River on their deck. The view is fantastic and we saw elk cows in the surrounding forest and crossing the river (while sipping cocktails). How fun it is to have friends with us here in Estes Park!

Armed with the information we needed to explore RMNP for the week, tomorrow we will go for a hike and see more of the park. 

For additional information about Rocky Mountain National Park, go to www.nps.gov/romo.