Days 4 & 5: Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
Sound of chopping wood, kids shouting and running around, parents trying to keep their children from getting too close to the barbecue grill, all this chaos woke us up. It was just 7 in the morning. Once again just four hours of sleep. But the fresh air and the all the activity around invigorated us beyond words. It was absolutely fantastic. As we arrived really late the night before, we did not get a chance to pick up our campsite papers and the parking slip. We walked down to the guard at the entrance to the campsite and picked up the stuff. We also got information regarding hiking, places to go and also some pointers to the trails. He was very friendly and patient in explaining the details and doing the best he could to provide us with accurate information. Actually this was true with all the park rangers and other park staff we encountered till now. This being a campsite there were few common restrooms for all the campgrounds and no showers. This was the least of my concerns but my friend's wife wanted to be clean and tidy. So I asked them to go ahead with their chores while I planned to give myself some exercise and get close to mother nature. We booked our camp site at Glacier Basing that is a stone's throw from the Shuttle service parking. I walked down to catch a
shuttle for Bear Lake Trailhead while my friend and his wife left to Estes Park, the town just outside of the park entrance where there are there are facilities like showers and laundry. We left the tent around 9 and the plan was to meet there again at noon. I asked my friend to get some food for lunch as well to save time. Now I was on my own and had to utilize my three precious hours in the most optimal way. I diligently studied the park map looking for different trails, calculating the round trip times and the effort needed to hike each of them. Bear Lake Trailhead is the main point in the park from which around half a dozen trails branch out leading to various valleys and beautiful lakes in the Alpines.
 15 minutes and I was at the trailhead. The weather started to change. Dark clouds started to blanket the sky hiding the Sun. Rain was predicted for the afternoon. Did I say "rain"? No it was "thunder storms". This term is very important here because lightnings are a major threat for hikers. They spear out of the sky and strike mercilessly. Luckily it didn't start to rain yet. I decided to take the most popular trail that would take me to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake. This is an easy trail and suited my schedule perfectly. It was absolutely beautiful and a great opportunity for photography. After my fully satisfying hike, I returned to the base and took the shuttle back to Glacier Basin. I reached the tent before my friends did and was wondering how long I had to wait when the car pulls in. It was the most accurate timing. Totally unbelievable. One might think it is easy to synchronize with cellphones but luckily they don't work here. That's one thing I loved. No e-mail, no cellphone, no worries.
We quickly finished our lunch and set out for the next adventure. I educated them on the shuttle, the trailhead, roundtrip times and difficulty of different trails. We decided to hike to Andrews Glacier. This is supposed to be a "not so easy" trail that takes about two hours each way. This was perfect for us since we still had the entire second half of the day at our disposal and all the energy needed. We took the shuttle to Bear Lake trailhead and set out on the trail. The weather started to worsen. Now it started to drizzle but we did not pay much attention. We reached Alberta Falls, not very far from the trailhead. The rain started to get harder. Hey... did someone laugh when I indicated "trash bags" in my list under the backpack? They are the best. I could completely seal my camera and all the camera gear in my trash bag and carry on with my hike with peace of mind. Also, this is where the raincoat comes
handy. Anyway, we ignored the rain and started to go further. Slowly we started to see a lot of hikers going in the opposite direction. Almost everyone was concerned about us continuing with our hike. A couple of them suggested we were going the "wrong way". Finally one pair pointed out that there were lightnings striking around there and it is not a good idea to proceed any further. They say a lightning does not strike the same place twice. Right. But one strike is enough to fry the omelet out of you (I made this up. I know it sucks). So we took the good guys advice and took a U turn. Sort of disappointed, we went back to the car. By now it was raining so bad that we could not do a damn thing outdoors. So we decided to visit some buddies of ours who live in Denver. We quickly drove to Estes Park and made a couple of phone calls. Within an hour I was under the hot shower. We had our dinner there and spent quite a bit of time chatting. Finally we were out of the house and back in our tent around 10 PM. "Now we can catch up with our sleep" we all thought.
No alarm to wake up and there was not even any chaos around because it was still raining. I missed both my Sunrises (this day and the day before) since we were surrounded by huge mountains and the damn sky was thick with clouds. After rolling in the sleeping bag for an hour, I decided I could not do that anymore. It was 9 AM and we decided to pack up and leave. The campsite had to be vacated by noon. Since it was still raining we decided to drive head for the Trail Ridge Road. This road is US-34 and is the highest highway in North America. I heard a lot about it from a colleague of mine. This, we thought would be the best thing to do under the prevailing weather conditions. I took the wheel and we started our drive. We decided to go till the Alpine Ridge Visitor Center and then drive back. I was expecting the road to be really treacherous and exciting. But it was just like any other road except for the narrowness and the sharp curves. We pulled into a couple of overlooks and got wonderful views of the Alpine range.
As I drove further, I realized the true character of this road. It started to climb higher, got steeper and the side guard rails/walls disappeared. On side it was high mountains and the other , deep valleys. The views were breathtaking and the drive, exciting. Boy, now I understood what my colleague was talking about. By now the rain stopped and the sky was clearing up. It was turning out to be a lot better than what it was at the start.
At one point we saw a long line of cars parked along the roadside (yes! Narrowing the already narrow road). This undoubtedly indicated existence of some sort of wildlife around there. We also joined the bandwagon. I quickly grabbed my camera, the tripod (because it was still cloudy and not enough light) and ran towards the slopes. Here we found a big herd of Elks. Cool! I got all the shots I wanted and we once again set out on our journey. Finally we reached the Alpine Ridge Visitor Center. Located at an altitude of 12,000 ft (2.3 miles) above the sea level, a small hike to the top of a hill provided breathtaking views of the Rockies. It was chilly at this altitude and I had to wear a sweatshirt to keep myself warm. After sumptuously devouring the beauty of this natural wonder, we headed back. We were back in Estes Park by 2 PM. We got some lunch there and headed for Yellowstone.
After punching the destination address into the GPS, the time it showed to the South entrance of Yellowstone was 10 hours. The cabin we booked was in Mammoth Hot Springs, all the way near the North Entrance. We called the park service and asked for directions and a time estimate. They said it would take 4 hours to get from the South entrance to Mammoth Hot Springs. This blew our fuse. It was 4 PM then and there was no way we were going to make it to the cabin before Sunrise. We gave up on the idea. Instead decided to lodge somewhere near Grand Teton since it is South of Yellowstone and would make more sense. First, we called Yellowstone to cancel our cabin for the first night. It was a piece of cake.
They right away canceled the reservation and refunded all the money. Then we called the Grand Teton park services for lodging in the park. The answer was a straight "booked". Unfortunately they were all booked. Then we started calling motels in a town called Dubois west of Teton. Even there everything was booked. After trying half a dozen of them finally we got one room available in Motel 6. We reserved it right away and changed our destination in the navigator to Dubois, WY.
Once again Wyoming! The large expanses of land, miles and miles of openness. This state, by far, became my favorite for Sunsets. We kept driving on the empty roads forever into the darkness. Initially we planned to have our dinner in Dubois but then changed our plan keeping in mind the 10 PM curfew. We grabbed something to eat on our way and started driving again. Finally we reached our Motel at 1 AM. We set our alarm to 6 AM next morning and went into a deep slumber.
  Labels: 4000 mile drive, adventure, badlands, chicago, colorado, cross country, grand teton, mt rushmore, New York, ny to portland, oregon, road trip, south dakota, windcaves, wyoming, yellowstone |
