On May 3rd we left Breckenridge and drove the Sherpa over the pass to Loveland, we were so lucky that it didn’t snow, as the pass was closed a few days later. We arrived at the Loveland RV Resort and are staying here for 4 days while we explore the area north of Denver. Our first venture out was to visit Rocky Mountain National Park for the day. The Park was established on January 26, 1915 by President Woodrow Wilson and the CCC built the automobile route in the 1930s. This Park is one of the most visited in the National Park System, in 2018, 4.5 million people entered the Park. We stopped at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center – a National Historic Landmark designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, to get information about the Park. We were not able to do any hikes because of all the snow, but could drive along Trail Ridge Road, stopping to take photos of the many elk still in their winter coats, and to see the views from the Overlooks of the mountain ranges.
The Continental Divide runs generally north-south through the center of the Park, with rivers and streams on the western side of the divide flowing toward the Pacific Ocean while those on the eastern side flow toward the Atlantic Ocean. It would be a beautiful 45-mile hike in the summer along the CDT. Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the highest national parks in the country, with elevations from 7,860 to 14,259 feet, the highest point of which is Longs Peak. We drove along Trail Ridge Road, the highest paved through-road in the country, with a peak elevation of 12,183 feet. The road was closed, due to snow, so we parked the Jeep and walked along the road as far as we could to see beautiful views of Longs Peak in the distance. Then we drove the Bear Lake Road for 10 miles to the Bear Lake scenic trail, where we walked around the lake, sitting at an elevation of 9,450′, with beautiful reflections and views of Hallett Peak, Flattop Mountain and the Continental Divide. Rocky Mountain NP is known for its waterfalls and we were able to do the short hike, 1.6 miles R/T to Alberta Falls. The trail was treacherous in some places as it was covered in snow and ice, but we made it to the falls, and well worth the effort. The falls cascading through the ice and snow was a special sight to see, and the snow capped rocks in the stream above the falls made for a magical surreal scene of nature in all its glory. Click on thumbnail to view images
Rocky Mountain National Park
Colorado Model Railroad Museum, Greeley, Colorado
Colorado Model Railroad Museum, in Greeley, CO, “Where a miniature World of Wonder awaits”, for those of all ages. This Museum houses America’s most scenic model railroad, and one of the largest model railroad layouts in the world, with over 5,500 square feet , 28,000 hand made trees and 250 locomotives. Bob was in heaven when we visited this Museum. When we walked in they handed out a scavenger hunt list to locate items throughout the museum, which everyone enjoyed trying to find all of them on the list to get a prize. There were miles and miles of trains running through cities, mountains, industrial parks, and over beautiful trestles. We spent over 2 hours marveling at all the attention to detail in everything we saw, it took over 5 years to complete the museum but over 10 in design. There were red buttons throughout the layout to push in order to activate animated scenes, such as a forest fire scene. It was truly amazing to see so many model trains moving constantly along the tracks in one layout. Well worth the visit, I would highly recommend it, especially for train buffs. Click on thumbnail to view images
