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Mary’s Lake Campground, Estes Park, Colorado. Tachometer – 3003 miles

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We woke up to a relatively warm and sunny day and drove early to the park. We drove up to Bear Lake only to be instructed by the ranger to drive back down 4 miles to a parking lot for RVs. From that parking lot we took a free shuttle (Ron loves them) back up. The lake itself is at almost 10,000’ and is small enough for a half mile loop trail around it. The views of surrounding peaks are magnificent. We had a fun time, especially on parts of the trail that were still covered with snow.

We got back down to the RV and ate a hearty pasta lunch. We were all tired from the walk (and the high altitude?). We started driving for a while, and all three kids fell asleep within minutes. We reached the northern part of the park where in 1982 a dam burst open and caused a major flood of water, boulders and trees. (Alluvial Fan). Not far from there we parked in front of a large open meadow where elk were grazing and took a quick nap ourselves.

We all woke up revitalized and went out to the meadow to explore. The elk had gone, but we met a nice local family that explained the differences between squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, and prairie dogs. They also taught us that the beautiful blue chested bird we have been seeing flying around in the park is a magpie. They actually fed peanuts to the magpies from their hands.

It was starting to get cloudy and windy, so we bid the park farewell and drove into town. Paola did some grocery shopping at a Safeway in Estes Park, while I stayed in the RV with the kids and watched the clouds open into a heavy downpour. The funny thing is that by the time we got back to the campground, the sun had come back out and a beautiful rainbow was shining over town.

We dried off the slide in the playground and the kids played for another hour and a half in the warm golden rays of the sun. I went for a quick jog in the area (hard to breath at 8,000’) and when I got back we all had French Toast supper outside. Before the kids had a chance o finish all their food, Ron incited them and the three of them ran off back to the playground for a last hurrah. All are back and in bed now sleeping.

Good Night,

Hemi

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 6:11 am and is filed under Big Trip, Colorado, North America RV 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.