Full Time RV Travel–Rocky Mountain Land Cruiser Tour

Old Fall River Road in Rocky Mountain National Park

is gravel, and is only open two months of the year. . .

we’ve wanted to do the Top of the World Tour since we got here,

and it finally happened this week when

Dave’s bub & sis in law arrived from Fort Worth. . .

If you drive the paved road, Trail Ridge Road,

you will drive 21 miles from Estes Park to the

summit in Rocky Mountain National Park. . .

If you drive the gravel, Old Fall River Road,

visible in the right hand side of the pic,

you will travel 11 miles from

Estes Park to the Summit. . .

You will travel around 23 switchbacks,

and get up close and personal with the dropoffs. . .

(yes, that is the guardrail right there)

a very good reason in my book to

take a tour and let the experts do the driving. . .

At our very first stop, the Alluvial Fan Waterfall

our tour guide, Alex, opened the hood

on the monster, and entertained the guys. . .

it was all greek to me. . .gear ratios. . .torque. . .yada, yada, yada. . .whatever!  LOL. . .

as close as you can get to the remaining snowfields without hiking. . .

Alex said he had lived in this area his entire life. . .

and he has never seen the snowfields completely disappear. . .but. . .

because the snow pack was so light this past winter, these last few

snowfields will probably completely melt away. . .

that will be sad, because the snow on the mountain peaks

is really what makes them so stunningly beautiful. . .

a Marmot was out sunning on a rock. . .

he stayed put just long enough to get a shot of him. . .

They hibernate 8 months of the year. . .

so they try to triple their body weight in the four months of summer. . .

More gorgeous views and family pics. . .Brenda and I are the only original in-laws. . .

so we gotta get our shots together whenever possible. . .

our hubby’s did good, didn’t they?  Lucky guys!

We had a great day in the park. . .and lots more fun later in the week. . .

More pics and posts later. . .

The END!

Fire. . .Fire. . .Everywhere. . .A Wild and Crazy Weekend

If you’ve seen or heard the National News at all. . .

you’ve heard about the massive wildfire in High Park Colorado. . .

81,000 acres burned so far. . .and no end in sight. . .

This is how it looks from Estes Park. . .

 

As if that wasn’t bad enough. . .Saturday afternoon,

a house fire sparked a massive crisis in Estes Park. . .

On our way back to the campground from the

Scandanavian Festival  in downtown Estes. . .this was our view. . .

and as we turned the corner onto Hwy 34. . .this was the scene. . .

Can you believe all these looky loos pulled off on the side of the road. . .crazy!

a closer view. . .three homes totally engulfed. . .and no end in sight!

This is the view we had after we arrived back at the campground. . .I told Dave as we turned onto

Tunnel Road. . . you know there’s no other way out. . .if it comes our direction we are trapped. . .

All the combined fire services did a fantastic job. . .

Not exactly sure of all the agencies involved. . .

but I do know that Estes Park’s Volunteer Fire Department

and Rocky Mountain National Park’s Fire Department

were on the ground. . .

along with the awesome Larimer County Deputies. . .

and I am sure, several other law enforcement agencies,

who were manning the roadblocks and doing traffic patrol. . .

 

We also heard that because the High Point fire

was in such close proximity. . .

Colorado Fire Services were able to provide air support. . .

Hat’s off to the awesome job they all did. . .

This is one of the fire service helicopters

flying over the YMCA Campus. . .

which is the next property down from our campground. . .

Dave and I can see this building from the back of our RV. . .

This plane loaded with fire retardent was in the vicinity. . .

but thanks to the fabulous

job by all the fire crews. . .was not needed.

For that we are very thankful. . .

 

If you are planning a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. . .

there is absolutely no need to change your plans. . .

yes there is a little haze obscuring the view. . .

but nothing significant to be concerned about. . .you will love this place.

 

If you would like to see pics of the fire crew helicopters

scooping water out of Mary’s Lake. . .

check out our fellow camp hosts blog: Travels of Dick and Judy Mott

 

Check in often to see the amazing wildlife. . .

Full Time RV Travel - Nothing like a Street Festival

There's nothing we love better than a good street festival. . .

especially street fair food. . .

so on Saturday we headed out to enjoy the 

Scandanavian Midsummer Festival in downtown Estes Park. . .

Here is an idea of the type of food available from the vendors. . . since we had breakfast about two hours before we arrived. . . Swedish Meatballs and Sauerkraut didn’t really really appeal. . . plus the line was really long. . . so we headed for what we knew we would love. . .

the pastry tent. . .yum. . .lots and lots of pastries.  
Give me an apple and apricot strudel. . .full size please. . .
oh, and a cinnamon crisp and also an apple something or other. . . now we’re talking. . .deee. . .lish. . .us!

We shared the apple strudel with our friends at the campground. . . and saved all the rest for ourselves. . .LOL!

But my very favorite thing were the kids who were 
participating in the demonstrations. . .so adorable. . .
(for privacy reasons, I’ve blurred out their faces). . .
just because I wouldn’t really want  anyone
 pasting pics of my grands  

First, there was this little girl and boy 
using the spinning wheel. . .very, very cute. . .

and then these two were helping 
what I assume  was their grandmother make Lefse. . .
that little one with the green shirt was very, 
very serious about his job. . .
they were both doing great. . .
lefse reminded me of a tortilla. . .
warm with a cream cheese powdered sugar mix spread on. . .
folded over into a triangle. . .yum!

It was a fun time. . .
but we were very thankful we decided 
to head home when we did. . .
a house fire had started a chain reaction  further down the canyon towards the National Park. . .
right where we turn off to go to our campground. . .
very, very scary. . .

Still getting my fire pics loaded. . .will post them ASAP. . .

Full Time RV Living–Photo of the Week–Dave’s Awesome Photography

This big bull elk wanders through the East Portal Campground at least once a week. . .

and often beds down behind the campsites. . .which thrills the visitors to no end.