Embedded Files
Updated 11/16/2018
When you come here, you know why people have their careers in the Denver area, and not here. If this had become the job center, you could imagine unprecedented levels of absenteeism as employees driving to work stopped to hike, fish, or just gawk at the stunning scenery.
Driving Route 34 from Loveland to Estes Park afforded run-off-the-road gorgeousness. The road is built over the bottom of a 500 or so foot sheer, narrow canyon carved by the Big Thompson River, and the river winds and gushes and falls another 30 or so feel below the tarmac. I didn't get a picture of this with my cell phone, either because I knew the format couldn’t capture the magnificence, or I couldn’t take my eyes off the scenery. We noticed an apparently abandoned UPS truck and imagined the driver had said “oh hell” and just went AWOL to go hiking or daydreaming.
This picture is borrowed from http://www.visitlovelandco.org/. The picture may be amped up a bit, but the photographer is trying to compensate for the inadequacy of photographs to capture the spectacle.
And then of course there’s the Rocky Mountain National Park itself. We climbed (in our truck, not literally!) the one-way dirt Old Fall River Road with hair-pin switchbacks, stopping everywhere to be amazed by the majestic Rockies. Then Dorian navigated the two-lane, undivided Trail Ridge Road with acute attention while I said “oh my god” about 200 times and tried not to look down over the sheer hundreds-of-feet drop off (usually sans guard rails) some 50 miles through the rest of the park. The terrain varied endlessly with aspen and pine colored ridges, rocky 14,000 foot mountaintops above the tree line, and alpine tundra.
Some vistas from Old Fall River Road
A view from one stretch of the road down to the another segment below.
A 30-minute ride on mountainous Route 7 took us from our campsite in Allenspark to the the touristy but really charming Estes Park, which I hereby dub the Gatlinburg of the Rockies. Here we found grocery stores, restaurants, all manner of (yes) t-shirt shops, and a delightful walking path along the confluence of the Big Thompson and Fall rivers. Pippi had fun at the large city dog park, and Dorian practiced his musical skills at the water’s edge.
The uber-imaginatively named Chapel on the Rocks, an attention-grabbing sight along Route 7 between Allenspark and Estes Park
Nearby Loveland is a mid-size city with the feel and amenities that interest us….shopping, nearby recreation, an historic town center (Dorian will smirk at this new requirement of mine), a couple of good sized lakes, semi-arid climate with deciduous trees and four seasons, and just a short drive to Rocky Mountain National Park. Oh, and a cute name. We’re interested in seeing more of Loveland another time.
Our camp site at Olive Ridge. The amenities included a bear-proof box for tent campers. I assumed the tent campers were supposed to just huddle in the bear boxes, keeping very quiet; later someone explained it was for food storage.
Lake at Estes Park with part of Rocky Mountain National Park in the distance.
Fun and games at the Olive Ridge campground in Allenspark
Would we come back?
Would we come back?
Yes! Oh...complete sentences... Yes, we would come back here. If you don't reserve early enough to get into the national park itself, you are going to end up staying in one of the national forests, state forests, or on BLM land. We camped at Olive Ridge Campground in the Roosevelt National Forest.
A couple of interesting hiking areas were near Olive Ridge, but we were too busy going to and from the national park to ever get to the local stuff. Not many amenities in the site except for nice bear boxes (to store your bears???). No cell signal to speak of, either. We'd come back though, if we couldn't get a spot in the national park itself.
Would we live here?
Would we live here?
"Here" in this context means Estes Park, Lyons, or maybe a place like Loveland. Most of the area is a little too harsh in the winter for our tastes. Estes Park is beautiful but the wind, at 7,500 feet, was cold even in the summer; a local told us the winter winds are truly bitter. East of the Rockies, Loveland caught our eye because it is a fairly large town and closer to Denver and its big-city amenities. On the other hand, it's surprisingly far from downhill skiing. Even the misleadingly named Loveland Ski Area isn't particularly close. Still, Colorado is definitely in play in our where-to-live decision process and Loveland isn't out of the question.
Report abuse