A Trip to the Rocky Mountains National Park

The much awaited July 4th weekend was fast nearing, but we had not made any great plans to make use of those holidays...driving down to Houston to see NASA was on the list, but for some reason we did not have enough enthusiasm to pursue it. You know how it is, when you stay close to an attraction you are not so motivated to go and see it, you always keep brushing the ideas aside saying -oh, it is nearby we can do it anytime...that anytime has not happened in the last 3 years! :) Finally, when we got down to thinking of places we could go - Yosemite National Park (NP), Glacier NP, Yellowstone NP phew...we thought Yellowstone might be a good idea - I started checking tickets on June 25th for travel on July 1st or 2nd...wah! How smart of me. What was I even thinking! One quick look at the ticket prices told us we had waited too long to check tickets, and then we started thinking of alternatives - how about flying down to Denver (relatively cheaper airfare) and then drive down to Yellowstone in Wyoming. Good thinking on my part! That's when I realized why not go to the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, it is one among the many must-see national parks, and so began our trip to the RMNP, a choice we will never ever regret.

Air tickets booked to Denver, lodge reservations made at YMCA (thanks to my manager Mike's suggestion who lives in Denver and has been to RMNP many at times), car rental taken care of (thanks to hotwire - got an unbelievable deal from Hertz!) and last but not the least my shopping (how can I forget this? I'm going hiking - I need sunscreen, hat, sunglasses, summer wear and a zillion other things, ha!) done! Eagerly waiting to fly out of the super hot San Antonio!

We took a late evening flight to Denver via Phoenix. Flight delayed by 45 mins in SAT which means we will miss the connecting in Phoenix. The first minor screw-up of our trip, despite many more to occur during the trip, we got through it all easily and the trip was a success. I checked with the counter agent, and he assured me that they will hold the connecting in Phoenix. That's what they did - we made it to Denver on time. Next stop - Hertz car rental - quick in and out, trying to open the boot of the Nissan Versa, we are unable to open it. I call an assistant who tries to do the same and tells us this model does not have boot space. I'm telling you that was the dumbest thing I have heard - the boot is clearly seen, she cannot figure out how to open it and announces this model does not have a bootspace, whatever. She upgraded us to a mid-size car, a brand new Corolla! Wah, good for us. We drive out of the Hertz parking lot laughing at that girl but silently thanking her, and head to our hotel in Loveland to hit the sack for the night.

Day 1 - Nothing else can motivate Mr. Gandhi to wake up early other than Squash (or Sports/Gym in general) and food. He wakes me up at 8 am (!) to eat the hot continental breakfast at the hotel. Well, it was worth losing the sleep - hot waffles, eggs, fruits, bagel, bread, muffin and a choice of juices and coffee/tea. Glad we had that breakfast; we are all kicked up to hit the road to RMNP. We check-out of the hotel and start our journey towards Estes Park (The town is named after a Missouri native Joel Estes, who founded Estes Park in 1859), a cute little town at the foothills of RMNP.

Our first stop was at the YMCA office to confirm our lodging reservations. The campus is huge and offers everything one needs to explore the Rockies, and a ton of activities to enjoy as a family without having to leave the campus –Campfires, Hiking, Fishing, Mini Golf, Tennis, Horseshoe, Fly Fishing, Climbing Wall, Rafting, Horseback Rides, and Mountain biking are a few among the many other activities that YMCA offers. The location itself is in the midst of RMNP spread over 800+ acres of land at an elevation of 8,010 ft above sea level, presenting some spectacular views of the Rockies. One could just sit on the patio of the lodge and gaze at these mountains for days together. Btw, the YMCA campus also has a fully stocked library, a dining hall to seat 700+ people offering breakfast/lunch/dinner at reasonable rates (BF comes free with lodge reservations), and a nurses station to take care of you incase you fall ill!!. Truly impressive. I could spend an entire week here doing things without ever leaving the campus.

After ensuring our lodge reservations are still good (peak season attracts ample overbooking, did not want to take a chance with that) we start off on our scenic drive, a must-do thing here on 2 roads – Old Trail Ridge Road and Old Fall River Road. Due to lack of time to do both of them we chose the former. Old Trail Ridge Road is the longest continues highway (34) in the US with a distance of 48 miles, and reaching an elevation of 12,183 ft. The road starts at Estes Park on the east and traverses the RMNP to Grand Lake in the west, and opens only from early summer due to heavy snowfall during winters. The drive offers breathtaking views of the Rockies – numerous streams in the midst of blissful greenery, the tundra region with low lying tiny wild flowers (called the alpine avens) between the rocks, and the snow packed glaciers, as we drive up the road going from tree line to subalpine to alpine region. There are many view points where one can park the car and enjoy the scenic beauty. Our first stop was at the Rainbow Curve- provides an excellent view of Horseshoe Park, Alluvial Fan and the Beaver Ponds. Elevation: 10,875 feet. Second stop - Forest Canyon, provides an excellent view of Forest Canyon and the Mountains that make up the Continental Divide. Elevation: 11,758 feet. Third stop - Rock Cut Overlook. Elevation: 12,178. There is a Tundra Communities Trailhead – a one mile hike (2-way) that provides some spectacular views of glaciers. The next stop Lava Cliffs (12,048 ft) was closed for construction and we went straight to the Alpine Visitor Center. Elevation: 11,796 feet. It took us 3.5 hours to do this stretch due to the many stops we made on our way. We had to return back from here as driving the whole length of the road till the Grand Lake entrance meant we would have to spend the night there and drive back the next morning. Well, we had already passed the highest elevation point of the road (Rock Cut -12,178 ft) and going the full length was mostly downhill to the other side. I’m sure we missed some great views, but for the sake of making the most of limited time we decided to drive back to YMCA at Estes Park.

The night at the YMCA Estes Park lodge after a delicious Mexican dinner was all that we needed to relax from the day long driving we did (or rather, Vikrant did). Before we knew, the cool air from the mountains had put us to a sound sleep. Oh, did I mention, none of the YMCA lodges have TV in them, except family cottages. I think this is a brilliant idea, since lying on the lodge bed and watching the TV is not the idea of a vacation. Also, the mobile signal is extremely spotty, giving us the much needed break from phone, Internet and TV!

Day 2 – We decided to take it easy on day 2 as the idea of this vacation was to relax. We woke up late, and went straight to feed us to a sumptuous lunch at YMCA, and drove down to check out the Estes Park Gondola ride (The Gondola ride was part of the earlier plan which was to drive down to Vail – a picturesque ski resort 3 hours drive from Estes Park on day 3; however, we changed plans as we realized how much more we could do at Estes Park). The Gondola ride took us to the top of Prospect Mountain that provides a great view of Lake Estes, Long’s Peak and the Continental divide. We spent a peaceful 2 hours on this mountain enjoying the scenic views and feeding Chipmunks! Yes, there are so many chipmunks here that one could spend an entire day going “nuts” running after them. It is such a sight to see them run to you, take the nut, run back and hide behind a rock and eat them – they have a very systematic way of eating nuts – first of all, they always take one nut at a time. They break the whole groundnut into 2 pieces, take one half of the pod, break the hard shell, remove the skin on the nut and keep it aside. They repeat this process for the 2nd pod and then start eating the nuts. Isn’t it impressive?

It was a well spent afternoon on the top of Prospect Mountain, but before we could call it a day, something had to happen. Our 3rd screw-up during the trip – while connecting the GPS to the car plug, there was a spark and I GPS stopped working. Without a GPS, we would be totally lost, so we drove back to YMCA to check where we could find a new GPS at Estes Park. Made a few phone calls and finally found a RadioShack outlet. The store keeper checked our GPS and told us to use the alternative connector in the car and it should work fine, thank god! So, GPS problem solved – we don’t need a new one! We thanked him and drove off to find a nice place for dinner. It seems to have been our lucky day – we found a Nepali restaurant serving delicious Indian food in the Estes Park downtown. It was right next to the Subway joint we were heading towards! We happily ordered a list of dishes for to go and drove back to YMCA as Mr. Gandhi wanted to go for a run before dinner. At YMCA, I sat at the administration building patio and read a book, while Mr. Gandhi went for a run in the chilly weather of Colorado at 10 PM, after which we enjoyed our absolutely delightful Indian meal in the YMCA lodge lobby on a rustic wood dining table in front of warm fireplace, a dinner that we will remember for life. Mr. G would not call it a night till he charted out a hiking plan for next day. He read about the strenuous rated 2.5 mile hike to the Emerald Lake overlook in one of the travel guide. That was to be our next day’s adventure.

Day 3: We started our day with a sumptuous breakfast at YMCA, and drove straight to the Bear Lake trailhead from where we were to begin our hiking adventure. At the trailhead, after making some enquiry I realized the hike to Flattop Mountain is 4.5 miles one-way (an estimated 6 hours to & fro for the hike) as against the 2.5 miles Mr. G had mentioned. I’m like what the heck, I can do it. I have been running for the past 2 years and do 5-mile runs frequently. Worst case, I’ll stop when I cannot walk anymore and wait for Vikrant to do the full length and comeback. This is a decision that I’ll never regret making. We start walking towards Bear Lake from where various trailheads diverge. We take the one saying Flattop Mountain. After hiking for nearly an hour, we reach Dream Lake overlook – our first milestone, we are still in the tree line zone, though. Another hour of hiking and we reach Emerald Lake overlook, the lake is named aptly after the beautiful green color of the lake. We are now above the tree line, sub-alpine region consisting of small shrub like trees, and I can feel the air getting thinner, but still much better than what we were about to experience in the next one hour.

The hike from Emerald lake overlook to the flattop mountain was a killer last leg of the journey. We started entering the alpine tundra region where there are no trees to protect you from the sun rays, and the air keeps getting thinner, the terrain is full of uneven rocks and the hike suddenly becomes very difficult. After 2.5 hours of hiking I wanted to give up. Just then, we met some people climbing down and asked they how far were we from the flattop and they said another 30 minutes. This knowledge motivated me and I started hiking again. Well, it actually took us one more hour to reach the flattop. Finally, after 3.5 hours of painstaking hiking we reached the flattop mountain to realize the pain was truly worth it. The first look of the Tyndall Glacier from the flattop is beyond what words can explain – simply mind blowing. We spotted a few marmots here that were curiously looking at us as we were invading their territory. We started our hike at 12.30 pm (not a great time to start the hike as the sun rays kill you to no end) and reach the top at 4 p.m. As we reached the flattop we could see clouds moving towards us and it was pretty scary – the thought of getting killed by a thunderstorm on a mountain was not encouraging. I started praying as Mr. G was not yet satisfied with the adventure and wanted to quickly do an extra length of the trail; he went till the Hallet’s Peak and Tonahutu trailhead (after reaching our hotel, we researched about this trail and discovered that this trail leads us to the Grand Lake entrance on the west side of the Rockies – so, one could start from Bear Lake in the east and reach Grand Lake on the west following this trail – it will however, take a good 16-20 hours to do the entire length, one-way!), while I waited at the Flattop Mountain summit. Finally, after 25 minutes he emerges out of the cloud, climbing down the slippery snow pile. I had to shout to him to keep him on track as the visibility was extremely limited.

As we started our climb down the trail away from the Flattop Mountain, I could not help but smile at the amazing journey we had undertaken – a sense of achievement gushed inside me and I forgot all about the heaviness in my legs. Mr. G is now in a hurry to get back as the clouds are so thick that we could barely see each other. We start walking fast biding goodbye to the marmot, the glacier, the tundra rocks, the beautiful wild flowers and the clouds…the climb downhill was relatively easy and quicker, though sometimes steep and slippery. As we climbed down the tundra region and entered the sub-alpine region to reach Emerald Lake overlook, we realized why the people whom we met while climbing up miscalculated the time taken to go from Emerald Lake to Flattop. The climb down from flattop to the lake overlook took us 30 minutes but the climb up took us close to an hour. Never mind, if not for that wrong guidance I probably would have stopped at Emerald Lake overlook. There were 2 other Russian couples other than us at the flattop and like us they were also trying to beat the clouds and quickly climb down the mountain.

It took us 2 hours to hike down the trail before we hit Bear Lake and spent a few minutes there. We started driving back from the Bear Lake, feeling fully charged, and reminiscing the beautiful views of the mountains we had seen in those 6 hours – an adventure we will cherish for life. As we were nearing YMCA we realized that our body energy reserves were slowly nearing zero depletion and we needed to refuel fast – our next stop, Nepal’s Café, yet again – the food totally captivated us! We ordered lots of food to go and drove back to YMCA.

On that night when we were relaxing in the YMCA lobby, we noticed an old man getting things ready for a presentation. Mr. G went to help him and found out that the chair were being arranged for a family reunion presentation. The man, who is the head of the family, had put together a video highlighting the achievements of the entire family – 3 sons, their wives, 8 grandchildren, and a message from his own 89-year old mother. We were so moved by this event that we could not help but sneak from the first floor lobby to get a glimpse of this family and their responses to the video presentation.

Day 4: The last morning of our trip at YMCA, we really don’t want to leave this place but all good things have to come to an end. We do not want to miss any fun and head straight to the dining hall to take advantage of the free breakfast at YMCA. After a brief stop at the gift shop we start our journey back to the airport. Well, we quickly detoured. Mr.G had been for the past 3 days wondering about a road he had seen on one of the mountains near YMCA and his curiosity as to where it leads to was killing him. So, here we go…we take a detour to check it out. It turns out the road leads to private residences on the hill top. We drove all the way up to the end of the road that provides some great views of the mountains, and a birds-eye view of the entire YMCA campus. Finally, with Mr.G’s curiosity satisfied we start driving towards the airport, btw, we drove through Roosevelt national forest while on highway 36, and it was pretty cool. As we neared the airport, we could still see the Rockies from far away, all I could think of then is – we will be back again!

As we checked-in at the curbside, our boarding passes indicated that we were on the stand-by list and this was to be last screw-up of the trip. Thankfully, after 2 hours of unpredictability, our seats got confirmed and we were on the plane to San Antonio. But, guess what? We got exit row seats allotted, giving us more leg room and a relaxing journey back to our home sweet home. Well, all’s well that ends well.