Winding River RV Resort, Grand Lake, Colorado
The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. ~ Proverbs 27:12
Hahaha! I love the verse for today. I don’t plan these things, I put the dates, places and verses into Word well in advance of the actual day. 😊
Wanna hear something funny? Our next campground is 17 miles away – – as the crow flies. But it’s either 48 miles or 140 miles to drive there. The difference? We’re moving from one side of the National Park to the other. So crows? Seventeen. The Park road, also known as, Trail Ridge Road, goes through the Park? Forty-eight, because of all the twists and turns. If we want to avoid those, we have to do an end-around outside the Park, which means – 140.
We’d like to be crows, but since that’s not possible, we’re driving through. At 12,183’ (highest point), Trail Ridge Road is the highest paved road in the National Park system. We would climb over 4000’ in less than 10 miles. Blaine already made sure the coach could make it when we drove up to Alpine and a bit beyond the other day, plus he spoke with two different Park Rangers, and he did some online research.
Wanna hear something else funny? We saw white pelicans from our campsite this morning! What?!?!? Yep. Believe it or not. . . . Sorry I don’t have picture proof, but apparently they hang out in the Granby Reservoir/Grand Lake area.
Our drive today was also different because I didn’t ride in the coach. In order to make Blaine’s drive easier, it was determined that I’d follow in the Jeep so he’d have one less thing to worry about. That also meant that I could take a few interesting pictures. It may look really scary, and like I’m not paying attention to my driving, but you have to understand that 1. I never took a risk. And 2. We drove really slow most of the way, especially around those tight turns. I’m talking 15-20mph. Practically a crawl.
And the good Lord saw fit to not have anyone following us throughout the most difficult part of the drive! We prayed for that, and also that if anyone should come up behind us (the speed limit is 35 or 45 depending where you are on the road), that they would be patient drivers. And once again, the Lord responded to our plea, because once we did attract a following, which wasn’t until we crossed over the Alpine area, they were very patient until Blaine got to a place large enough for us to pull over and let them pass. Thank You, Father!
Still, even with that, it wasn’t completely without its challenges. Because driving a 40’ motorhome on a narrow road along the edge of a 9-12,000’ cliff wasn’t challenging enough, He thought to throw in a deer, a marmot, some road construction, a motorcycle stopped over the yellow line who refused to budge as we inched by (she almost suffered foot injuries! And she had plenty of room to move over!), and a Class C motorhome rental that decided they should straddle the center line. Guess we should’ve added a few more specifics to our prayers, huh?
Enjoy the trip! You’ll probably never see pictures like this again. 😊
since our pass for today is only good for one vehicle.
Even the Rangers told us to do that. Very strange, but necessary, I suppose.
Thankfully, no one was coming the other direction.
He didn’t stick around long enough for me to snap his picture though.
Probably scared the bejeebers outta him! : )
This one’s #2.
Well, actually two bends. : )
so I threw my phone into the passenger seat to keep me from temptation.
We’ve never had to wait in line to check into a campground before. It took about 15 minutes for them to move us up so we could go inside and check in. Guess they get crazy busy here at check-in time. Nice people though. Seems very professionally run, but the sites here are close together, and you don’t get to choose. They choose for you, so that makes you a bit nervous. Once we were set up and looked around the place, we realized that they gave us one of their better sites with more room. Reserving a year in advance must’ve paid of! Way ta go, Blaine!
Elk Meadow Lodge & RV Resort, Estes Park, Colorado
The only other thing we did on this overcast day, was drive into the town of Estes Park to pick up some groceries at a “real” grocery store – rather than the small town touristy places in Grand Lake.
Tomorrow we’ll begin our quest to see what this side of the Rocky Mountain National Park has to offer!