Estes Park, Colorado

We took off fairly early from Rock Springs, Wyoming, this morning. I can't tell you that the view changed much, but it was early in the day. Things got a little more interesting later on.

It was gray and rainy all day today, totally acing out the back window of our trailer so that we cannot see through it.

We were really glad to be driving this road in September, rather than January, just judging by the continuous snow fencing along the road. I'm thinking there are some pretty tall drifts piling up here in winter.

They ran parallel to the road, and also at a 90 degree angle, just to be sure.

Now here is the mystery of the trip. We have seen this all along the way...a sign directing us off from a coned off lane. 

Then the cones continue on for a mile or more with no indication whatsoever of any kind of construction, damage, or anything at all that would require the lane to be closed. The cones do prevent one from running into the directional sign, however. 

So I'm thinking it has to be more complicated than that, right? Or else, why not just get rid of the directional signs, and then you can get rid of the cones. (Smacks hand to forehead. Now why didn't I think of that!?!)

The signs were the most exciting part of the day...at least for this part of the trip. We crossed over the Continental Divide.

And we passed by the Wyoming Frontier Prison, where we saw these signs.

Hm. 6'0" 180 lbs., and brown hair. I started looking suspiciously at Mike, but then realized that his hair is silver. Phew!

And Hallelujah! We got off the Interstate for the first time this trip! I'm sure I've said this before, but I think it bears repeating, just for emphasis: I absolutely HATE traveling the Interstate! So we went south from here.

And then...we crossed into Colorado. Hooray! 

Yeah, I had a little trouble with the focus on this image. I was trying to get between a pole and that sign off to the left. Thanks to my X-Spurt Photoshop skills, I think you can still read what it says. At least I hope so.

So remember those snow fences I showed you above? In Colorado, they have living snow fences, like in this image below.

I can't say that getting off the Interstate helped the view much, but it started changing a little bit. And, while it doesn't show up well in this image, the road was red.

We were sort of on the hunt for herds of antelope in Wyoming, but we didn't see any until we crossed into Colorado. See them in this image below? 

So, you might be saying to yourself, those look like horses to me. And I would be saying, Ding! Ding! Ding! You win the prize! They ARE horses! I didn't quite get my shutter finger together quick enough to catch the antelope, so I decided to post pictures of horses instead. Now about that prize....... let's see......

Okay, how about an antelope joke? Here goes:

What do lions call an antelope?

I'll just give you some time to think about it. Give up?

"Fast Food" 

Bwahahahahahahahahaha!

And just to make up for that joke, here's a picture of some antelope I stole off the internet. I think you deserve it.

Wouldn't it be fun if people had fuzzy white butts like that? 

Okay, so after we started heading up into the mountains, the scenery changed dramatically.

That's the Big Thompson River, and when we got into the little resort Town of Estes Park, we found it was dammed up to provide a source of water for the area residents.

Behind the dam is Mary's Lake.

We got a little lost on the way to our campground, but eventually found it. Along the way we saw some intrepid rock climbers. We had the feeling this was a class going on.

As for rock climbing, I've always figured if Mother Nature intended me to climb rocks, she would have provided a ladder. Yes, I'm very adventurous.

Okay, so here are these birds that we always see when we travel east. I realized today that they have blue tails. I've always thought they were black before. We have tried and tried and tried to identify these birds. Does anyone know what they are? I'm thinking that those blue tails would indicate a kind of jay.

So we are only a few miles from the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park now. Tomorrow, we will stick pretty close to the national parks book that I like:

I like the one put out by National Geographic. It gives a good "How to Visit" description that we usually follow for the first day. It allows us to stop off at the ranger station, pick up a hiking book, get a little information and then spend the rest of our visit on our own. It's good to get the lay of the land on the first day and then go from there.

So that will be tomorrow's agenda. Today the knee is feeling the best it's felt, and I'm really hoping that will continue. The only time it really bothers me is getting out of the truck. Otherwise, I've been walking without limping and mostly without pain. I think hiking is a definite possibility, and that makes me very happy.