We drove with the top off the Jeep for a while, until a light rain forced us to pull over and put the top back on. It was the first rain we had seen in 24 days! After being in the desert for so long, the cool air, clouds and even rain were welcome!
For lunch, we stopped at a small brewery in Boulder, the Southern Sun Brewery. Boulder looked to be a really fun city, with many breweries, restaurants, and outdoor gear shops. The brewery had a wide variety of craft brews and great food with some really good vegetarian options. The strong craft brews were more than welcome after 3 weeks of Utah beers.
By the time we drove into Estes Park, it was after 6 PM. The road into the town provided a spectacular view of the "front range" of the Rocky Mountains. Some of the peaks still had snow clinging to the rocky faces. Approaching it from above, Estes Park seems to be in bowl, ringed by massive mountains on three sides.
We stopped at the grocery store in town for a few last minute supplies before looking for a campground. While we were in the store, an intense thunderstorm rolled into the valley. Sheets of heavy rain poured down, sending folks sprinting for their cars from the store. It was our first mountain storm of the trip.
Not surprisingly, the national park campgrounds were all full for the night. Disappointed, we drove around Estes Park looking for another place to pitch a tent. We ended up at a Larimer County Park on St. Mary's Lake. It was a small campground that had packed way too many campers in for the night. We had been spoiled by beautiful national park campgrounds throughout our trip, and found the cramped conditions and sparse vegetation depressing. We ate cheap pizza in the dark, hatching our plan for the morning.
The alarm went off at 6 am. We hurriedly packed up our campsite, ate the leftover cold pizza and headed for the Moraine Park Campground in RMNP. The national park has been doing heavy construction in the park the past two seasons, and as a result, one full campground has been closed. The Long's Peak campground, intended for climbers heading up the signature mountain, has a three-night limit. This left only the Moraine Park Campground on the East Side of the park, and within that campground, only one loop was available first-come, first-served.
Landing one of these sites can be be a real challenge, as campers have until noon to depart the campground, but could head out at any moment. There is no waiting system, either. It's simply a matter of whoever happens to be closest to a site when its vacated. The whole scene has kind of a "black friday" vibe to it.
We circled the campground, likes sharks, eyeing each site that looked to be packing up. We spotted a site that was empty, but had a tag on the post. I jumped out of the Jeep to check the tag. It was blank. I had no idea what a blank tag meant. I told Mary to drive up to the headquarters and ask if this site was available, while I made sure no one else grabbed it. While she was doing this, a park employee came by, checking tags. He looked at the blank tag and approached me. "You need to fill this out!" he said emphatically. I explained that it wasn't my tag, and asked if that meant the site was available. He took the blank tag, and said it was fair game.
As soon as Mary returned, we filled out our own tag, dropped the payment envelope in the box at the headquarters and set up our tent. We figured possession was nine tenths of the law in this situation.
No sooner had we finished setting up camp, when a woman with Missouri plates pulled up to our site and leapt out of the car, yelling accusations at us. She seemed to think that we had poached her site while she was away. I explained that the tag was blank, and no one had any way of knowing it was taken. She drove off in a furry. We both wondered if it would be safe to leave our campsite unattended for the next few hours.
Fortunately, the woman came back later and apologized for yelling at us. She admitted that she had failed to fill out the tag, and even better, said that she found another campsite. Our feelings of guilt assuaged, we could finally enjoy the campsite. It was a beautiful site, with views of snow-capped mountains rising above it and plenty of privacy.
Campsite issues resolved, we were eager to take a hike in such a beautiful landscape. We headed for the Cow Creek Trailhead, north of town for our first hike. The road to the trailhead was more picturesque than many hikes I have done. We followed a dirt road past expensive houses, and eventually some ranches, climbing high above Estes Park. When we arrived, the trailhead was crowded with parked cars. Ours was the only car without Colorado plates, always a good sign!
The hike crossed the waters of Cow Creek on a sturdy bridge, before passing a number of cabins and other structures used by the park service for visiting researchers. Beyond this small village, the path passed through open meadows, ringed by rocky outcrops on three sides. The meadows were teeming with beautiful wildflowers, and a scattering of aspen and pine trees provided occasional shade.
The trail climbed gradually for the first couple of miles, and we passed many hikers along the way. Everyone seemed to be in great spirits for the holiday weekend. A couple of families we passed were lugging backpacks up the trail, heading out for an over-night trip. One group had forgone the backpacks, and were just carrying armfuls of camping equipment as they hiked.
The last mile or so of the trail was much harder. In several places, the trail climbed large, inclined rocks. I had to use my hands in many places to avoid slipping and falling. Stone steps placed by trail crews made the climbing easier in other spots. The further we climbed, the more the rock walls closed in around us on both sides. The open meadows at the beginning of our hike were replaced with a steep canyon that blocked out the sun.
The falls themselves were well-worth the tricky climb. Bridal Veil Falls is the tallest drop in the park, at twenty feet. In reality, however, the falls were much bigger than this. Water slid across a rock slide both above and below the free-fall portion of the drop. In all, water looked to fall at least a hundred feet over the course of less than a quarter mile.
We rock-hopped across the base of the falls, enjoying the thick mist that soaked our clothes. The skies overhead had grown dark, and a cold wind was now blowing down from the mountains above. Was it raining? It was hard to tell if we were just feeling the spray from the falls, or if it had started to rain. The crashing water was loud enough to drown out any thunder.
Safely on the other side of the falls, we stared a difficult scramble along a dirt path that climbed alongside the waterfall. It was slow going, but after about 100 feet of climbing, we were rewarded with a stunning view, looking down on the falls and into the steep canyon we had just hiked up. We started to pull out our lunches, but the unmistakable crack of thunder interrupted the tranquil scene. We were nervous about making the tricky down climb on wet rock, so we descended back to the base of the falls.
The weather appeared to hold for a while, so we ate our lunch below the falls. Patches of sun shown through the dark clouds. After eating, we packed up and began the hike out. We picked our way carefully down the steep, rocky sections of the hike. We were grateful to have dry rock underfoot for this harder section of hiking.
The rest of the hike back to the trailhead was an easy stroll. The storm that had held off for so long finally arrived while we were hiking, but it was brief. By the time we returned to the Jeep, the sun was shining brightly and the air felt cool and dry. Our first hike in Rocky Mountain was a great introduction to the finicky mountain weather that is common here.
We returned to our campsite to make dinner, nervously watching the procession of dark clouds that seemed to drift in from the mountains above us. The skies threatened throughout the evening, but it would stay dry for the rest of the holiday.
After eating, we drove into town and found a spot to watch the fireworks show. The night air was cool, and the weather held off while we relaxed on the city golf course, watching the explosions over Estes Lake. It was funny to think that last year we had gone to watch fireworks from a city park in Manchester Center, Vermont, during our Long Trail Hike. From watching fireworks in the Green Mountains to the Rocky Mountains, we certainly have been fortunate to see so many cool places in the past year!
