2018 Road Trip, Day 7

Today was the day for Rocky Mountain National Park, and it was an absolutely gorgeous day. I left the hotel early to drive to Estes Park and the Beaver Meadows park entrance. On the way up there, I drove a winding road, part of which went through this cool canyon:

With the exception of the first photo, these next photos were all taken somewhere between 11,500 and 12,000 feet elevation, above the tree line. The views were so stunning that it was very difficult to choose just a few to post here, but you also get two of the tundra flowers.

Those are all great, but I really think this panorama shot gives you the full experience (although I had to reduce the quality to get it to upload to Tumblr):

After that, I stopped in at the Alpine Visitors Center where I saw this view from a window and thought that I wouldn’t mind one bit looking at that from my desk at work (although it might be tough to get much work done!). I was later told that this same view is available on one of the park webcams on their website. Maybe I can just keep a browser window open??

From there, it was a very long downhill out of the park and into the Arapaho National Recreation Area and a stop along Lake Granby for these two shots. There were so many more interesting places along the lake, but this was the most convenient spot to pull off the road.

From there, I completed my circle by continuing south, getting on I-70 East for 10 miles, then heading back north to Estes Park on a series of two-lane roads. Again, the scenery was wonderful. The total trip was 242 miles in about 8 hours, and 50mpg for today with the Sonata Hybrid. No complaints!

My final stop on this trip was at the Tilted Barrel for Second Meal. Sadly, my bartender from Tuesday evening wasn’t there so I couldn’t thank him for the great recommendations he’d given me. But I was able to thoroughly enjoy both a Stout Burger (marinated in stout for 12 hours) with a side salad, a repeat of their Patchwork golden ale, and their Saison. The real highlight of this visit, though, was an ESB – the best ESB I’ve ever tasted – from Zwei Brewing in Fort Collins. That was truly the crown on this most wonderful day.

Tomorrow morning, I head out on another long day’s drive, ending up in Sioux Falls for a night. Along the way, I plan to stop at an interesting native American sculpture on I-90 in South Dakota – stay tuned for photos!