Day 53–9/24/2024
It’s another moving day. This is the day we leave the main group and make our way toward home.
We had a shorter day of driving than the others. We are just going to Fort Collins. We went to Laramie and south on the 287. Anna Marie was instrumental in getting us to our campsite at South Bay in Horsetooth Reservoir with no problems. We had no problem finding our site, and we settled in. We have a nice spot by the lake with only electric.
We went to Walmart to go grocery shopping. We got quite a few things. Vince got some antifreeze there as well. We came back and unloaded the food. Then we just hung around the campground until dinner. After dinner, we saw some deer out our window.
Day 54–0/25/2024
The next morning we went to Vern’s for breakfast. During the course of being at Vern's, we, of course, made a new friend. He was one of the hosts for Vern's, and he was one of the tallest people I've ever met. He said he was from Hattiesburg. He moved to Fort Collins to go to CSU and work at Vern's.
After rolling out of Vern’s with our leftovers, we went back to the camper to put our leftovers away and to make our lunch. We packed up the Jeep and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. I have a timed entry pass for noon. Here is a picture of part of our drive through Big Thompson River Canyon.
We stopped by the visitor center at Beaver Meadows. The ranger said I needed a timed entry + pass to get anywhere near Bear Lake. We can’t even take a shuttle to the hiking trails there because the park & ride is in the area that requires a timed entry + pass. Time for plan B.
We went to Trail Ridge. We decided not to go all the way up to Alpine. So we went to Hidden Valley and a little beyond before turning around. Our objective? To photograph the aspen leaves changing. They were beautiful! We got some really great shots because the sky was so clear that day.
We went to the Alluvial Fan area and took a walk up there. There was a ranger there giving a talk about the alluvial fan and how it happened and the tragedy of 3 campers losing their lives. Here are some pictures from the Alluvial Fan area.
We drove to the picnic area near where the Old Fall Road starts.
Old Fall road is a one-way road up to Alpine—all gravel. It's only open from July-September. We weren’t up to driving it because the only way back is Trail Ridge from Alpine which, as you may recall, we didn’t want to go to. Plus that was an 9 mile road—gravel and rutted, most likely. We saw very little wildlife in the park today. We explored Sheep Lakes and a campground called Aspenglen. We left the park by way of Fall River Entrance. We were ready for ice cream, but the little convenience store at the visitor center wasn't selling ice cream anymore. It was too late in the season, they said. To which we said, "It's never too late in the season for ice cream." Am I right?
We looked in the visitor center and gift shop. We bought a couple of tshirts and headed back to our campsite.
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