Rocky Mountain Autumn Drive - Oct 3, 2019
Finally finished the last video from Season One, a drive to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), ending Season One where we began Season One. We decided to collect National Park stickers after we visited RMNP last spring, so we had to go back to buy a sticker. At least that is our excuse, like we really needed an excuse to go for a drive in the mountains and have a picnic lunch on a beautiful autumn day.
Our route up to RMNP was up Left Hand Canyon, through the small town of Ward, then north on Peak to Peak Highway to Highway 7. We passed by Saint Catherine’s Chapel on the Rock before turning onto Mary’s Lake Road to reach the Beaver Meadows Entrance of RMNP. There were plenty of others wanting to enjoy RMNP that day and we waited in a long line of cars for a little over 15 minutes to get in.
Our destination was Tuxedo Park Picnic Area along Bear Lake Road. It is small and not very well marked, which means there usually are not very many people there. The picnic tables are at the bottom of a flight of stairs, nestled in the trees alongside Glacier Creek. After finishing our picnic lunch, we wandered a short distance down a trail leading from the picnic area which brought us to a bridge that crosses Glacier Creek. The signs indicated that the trail goes over to YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. We didn’t realize that we were so close to the RMNP boundary and how close YMCA of the Rockies was.
On our drive back out of RMNP, we noticed that the park rangers were no longer allowing cars down Bear Lake Road from Moraine Park. Quite a few of the most popular hiking trails in RMNP start at Bear Lake and the park limits the number of cars on Bear Lake Road, shutting it down when there are too many. There is a shuttle service around the popular areas of the park, so people can still get to Bear Lake when the road is closed to autos. We are not sure if they would have let us get to Tuxedo Park Picnic Area had we shown up after they closed the road. The Moraine Park shuttle bus route stops at Tuxedo Park so we could still have gotten there, but we'd have to carry all of our picnic supplies with us.
On the way out of RMNP, we drove around to Fall River Road and came out the less popular Fall River Entrance. Sometimes we see sheep near Sheep Lakes along the way, but we didn’t see any that day. We took Fall River Road all the way past the historic Stanley Hotel before returning to Highway 7 which took us back to Peak to Peak Highway. Despite being a Thursday, there were plenty of people along Highway 7 and Peak to Peak who were looking for the golden aspen marbled in between the dark evergreen trees. Instead of returning through Left Hand Canyon, we stayed on Peak to Peak to the town of Nederland and took Boulder Canyon Drive down into Boulder, Colorado.
Driving through the mountains is always a peaceful, relaxing way to spend a fall day.
Check out our related video: Rocky Mountain Autumn Drive 2019
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