Rocky Mountains and Rocky Mountain N/P (Part One)

When we left the Moab area on July 16th, we thought we would run up to I-70 and find a campsite in Cisco, UT, but when we got there all we found was a modern Utah ghost town.

So we continued on into Colorado and eventually stopped in Clifton, which is just east of Grand Junction.

It was so windy while driving to Clifton that this gal riding on the back of the motorcycle was holding onto her helmet as far as we could see her.

Here we are driving along I-75 on the Colorado River which is flowing high and fast—same as all the other rivers.

The Rocky Mountains somewhere around Eagle, CO.

This is 2:12 Sunday afternoon as we were approaching Georgetown Exit 228 when we hit the traffic jam going into Denver. Exit 260 is Golden, CO, I wonder how long it took these people to drive those 32 miles as it took us 15 minutes to get to our Exit 232 where we headed north on US 40.

This dog is probably thinking “this is going to be a long ride”.


Our plans were to drive through Rocky Mountain National Park this afternoon and early evening then camp on the east side. But as we got closer to the park we could see lots of rain and clouds passing through, so we found a campground in Grand Lake to spend the night.


One of the nice things about stopping early is I can get caught up on my reading.

When we checked into the campground the host said to be sure not to leave any food containers outside because there are bears in the area. Notice the scratch marks on this log at our campsite.


The sun was shining brightly on Monday, July 18th as we entered the west entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.

A short distance inside the park is the Grand Lake Lodge which was established in 1920, 5 years after the park opened.

This is the view of Grand Lake from the Lodge.

One of their old tour cars.



In the next few pictures you can see areas of gray in the green trees. That is because of the Mountain Pine Beetle that has been on the outbreak in the west for a number of years. From what I gather there is really no good way of combating them at this time.






Until next time,
Dave and Sandy