Captain_Oblivious
DIS Dad #257, Galactic Salad Dodger
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2008
Chapter 6: I'm On A Pilgrimage To See A Moose.
One of the neatest parts of being in the Alpine region of Colorado in June was the fact that there was still abundant snow to be found. Most of the trails were clear, but there was some snow nearby in a couple of places. I may or may not have thrown a snowball or two at certain youthful members of our party. I also may or may not have received a couple of hits in retaliation.
One field near the road was still completely snow-covered, and many families had pulled over to the side of the road to let their kids run around in the snow in mid-June. It definitely made for a unique experience.
There were other special hazards to watch out for along Trail Ridge Road as well.
After lunch, we experienced our first bout with a hemorrhaging wallet in the gift shop at the Alpine Visitor Center. Then we piled back into the van and headed down Trail Ridge Road, descending towards the west park entrance. Along the way, we stopped at Milner Pass, which sits along the Continental Divide. The Divide is the ridge that runs all the way through the continent of North America. Any rain falling to the east of this ridge will drain to the Mississippi River and eventually to the Atlantic Ocean, whereas rain falling to the west runs to the Pacific, generally by way of the Colorado River.
Not far past this point, we had to hit the brakes and stop right in the road to avoid hitting a car in front of us that wasn't moving. I was about to start describing the other driver using some colorful metaphors, but then I remembered the rule about visiting National Parks: cars stopped in unusual places means wildlife is visible. So we stopped and began scanning the area.
We saw nothing. Maybe a bird or two.
Eventually, the driver in front of us moved on. We couldn’t for the life of us figure out what he had seen. So I put the car in gear and began to drive down the hill. As we gained speed, a small clearing appeared on the left side of the van. Just over the edge of the shoulder was a drop-off, and as we passed, something caught the corner of my eye.
“Bighorn sheep!” I shouted to the rest of the family. “Did you see them?”
Nope. They missed it. Naturally, we were on a downhill slope and there was no good place to turn around.
When I was a kid, my parents did the same type of traveling with me that I’m doing with my family now. I’ve been to 49 of the 50 states in my 40+ years of life. And in all that time, through all of the national parks, I’d never seen bighorn sheep in the wild. I wanted to go back and confirm the sighting. And everyone else in the van wanted to, you know, actually see them. About a mile down the road I found a turn-off and did a Dukes-of-Hazzard-style 180-degree spinout to turn the van around.
Ok, fine, I did a 17-point turn. Either way, we headed back uphill. I slowed down, tried to find the same spot, and…
Thank goodness, they were still there. Right off the side of the road, just doing their thing. Cool. Cross that off the list.
Later, we reached an overlook called Farview Curve with a view of the Never Summer mountains. I’ll keep researching and see if I can find out why they have that name for you.
From there, we did a fast descent back down below the treeline and eventually reached the Timber Creek valley floor. Temperatures were much warmer down here and we quickly got rid of the sweatshirts. We would also learn that this was a prime spot for wildlife. Near the creek, we spied a herd of elk grazing in the meadow.
And not long after that, Julie spotted a moose just hanging out in the shade.
A few minutes later, we saw cars jamming both shoulders of the road. Score! There had to be something worthwhile here. We parked on the shoulder and hopped out so we could walk down the road for a better view without jamming a lane or having to look through a mass of parked cars. We heard several people talking about “moose” right on the side of the road. I have to admit, I let that excitement get the best of me and started looking for moose. Later that night, I posted a photo of what we saw on Facebook and proudly announced that we’d seen several moose (or “meese” for the plural).
They were clearly elk. I’m clearly an idiot.
Thankfully, I had no shortage of friends who were willing to point out my mistake and correct me. I thanked them, let them have a laugh, and admitted that yes, they were in fact elk. Still, that didn’t stop the corrections from pouring in. Yes, they’re actually elk. Thanks, I got it. No, really, I got it. Geez, people, stop piling on!
This reminded me of working here at the state DOT. If you don’t know how to do something, you can ask for help all you want, and no one will have time to lift a finger to give you a hand. Dive in and do it spectacularly wrong, and there will be no shortage of people ready to jump all over you for being an idiot and doing it wrong. THEN they show you how to do it right. And that’s how we learn!
So, yes. They were elk. Moving on. Ahem.
The kids had finished their Junior Ranger booklets, so we stopped at the visitor center near the west entrance to have a ranger check their work. Before long, they were being sworn in and collecting their first badges of the trip, while I wrestled Drew and tried to make sure he didn’t crawl over the desk.
With that, our tour of Rocky Mountain National Park was over. We left the park and drove out past the vacation area of Grand Lake, yet another beautiful spot with a lovely mountain backdrop. We set the GPS for Eagle, Colorado. It wanted to take us down several back mountain roads, but I wanted to take Route 9 back down to I-70, because I knew I-70 is actually a gorgeous drive through the mountains and ski resorts.
However, we reached Route 9 and were greeted with a torn-up road, construction signs, and a warning saying, “CAUTION: DIRT ROAD NEXT 25 MILES.”
I suddenly had bad flashbacks to our experience with the road in Joshua Tree National Park last summer. No, thanks.
Stupid highway engineers. Always making life difficult.
So, score one for the GPS. We followed the back mountain roads instead, and arrived in Eagle a couple of hours later. We spent the night at the Best Western of Eagle, on another Priceline deal. Our choice for dinner that evening was Moe’s Original Barbecue.
This is actually a chain restaurant, but its locations are mostly in the deep South, with a few spots here and there in Colorado. So it was new to us. And BBQ always hits the spot.
They had a little kitchen area for kids to play with inside, and Drew had a great time with it. They even had a child-size smoker. Here Drew gets the wood chips stoked for our meal. You can never start ‘em too young when it comes to playing with fire.
I got a pulled pork platter and a giant cup of lemonade that hit the spot. I don’t think any of us were willing to call this our favorite meal of the trip, but it was solid all around and we were very pleased with the food. Even better, we had no more bouts of altitude sickness. Just hearty appetites fueled by mountain hiking.
So, while I would recommend the restaurant, I’d advise you to stay away from the Best Western. As accommodations go, it was perfectly fine. It’s an older building, but nothing terrible. The breakfast here was more on the run-of-the-mill/disappointing side. Yucky fake eggs, greenish potatoes, standard carb-loading fare. But the worst part was an $18 charge that showed up on my credit card later. We’d gone down to the front desk to request an extra blanket and pillow (since one kid was sleeping on the floor). That was no problem. But I called them after that $18 charge appeared, and the front desk told me it was to cover a “stolen pillow”.
Excuse me? I didn’t steal any pillows.
Our housekeeping reported a pillow was missing.
Did they take it? I didn’t take any pillows. If I was going to steal something—anything—I don’t think a pillow would be high on the list.
I disputed the charge, of course, and tried to speak to a manager, but never could get a hold of one. I left contact info, and no one ever had the decency to call me back. Then we got home and had to deal with my father-in-law’s passing immediately, so I forgot about this issue. It never got resolved. So, I’m just resolving it by letting you all know there are other options for lodging in the area that I would recommend first.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Coming Up Next: The most annoying drive of the trip. Plus, the return of the 50/50 burger.
One of the neatest parts of being in the Alpine region of Colorado in June was the fact that there was still abundant snow to be found. Most of the trails were clear, but there was some snow nearby in a couple of places. I may or may not have thrown a snowball or two at certain youthful members of our party. I also may or may not have received a couple of hits in retaliation.
One field near the road was still completely snow-covered, and many families had pulled over to the side of the road to let their kids run around in the snow in mid-June. It definitely made for a unique experience.
There were other special hazards to watch out for along Trail Ridge Road as well.
After lunch, we experienced our first bout with a hemorrhaging wallet in the gift shop at the Alpine Visitor Center. Then we piled back into the van and headed down Trail Ridge Road, descending towards the west park entrance. Along the way, we stopped at Milner Pass, which sits along the Continental Divide. The Divide is the ridge that runs all the way through the continent of North America. Any rain falling to the east of this ridge will drain to the Mississippi River and eventually to the Atlantic Ocean, whereas rain falling to the west runs to the Pacific, generally by way of the Colorado River.
Not far past this point, we had to hit the brakes and stop right in the road to avoid hitting a car in front of us that wasn't moving. I was about to start describing the other driver using some colorful metaphors, but then I remembered the rule about visiting National Parks: cars stopped in unusual places means wildlife is visible. So we stopped and began scanning the area.
We saw nothing. Maybe a bird or two.
Eventually, the driver in front of us moved on. We couldn’t for the life of us figure out what he had seen. So I put the car in gear and began to drive down the hill. As we gained speed, a small clearing appeared on the left side of the van. Just over the edge of the shoulder was a drop-off, and as we passed, something caught the corner of my eye.
“Bighorn sheep!” I shouted to the rest of the family. “Did you see them?”
Nope. They missed it. Naturally, we were on a downhill slope and there was no good place to turn around.
When I was a kid, my parents did the same type of traveling with me that I’m doing with my family now. I’ve been to 49 of the 50 states in my 40+ years of life. And in all that time, through all of the national parks, I’d never seen bighorn sheep in the wild. I wanted to go back and confirm the sighting. And everyone else in the van wanted to, you know, actually see them. About a mile down the road I found a turn-off and did a Dukes-of-Hazzard-style 180-degree spinout to turn the van around.
Ok, fine, I did a 17-point turn. Either way, we headed back uphill. I slowed down, tried to find the same spot, and…
Thank goodness, they were still there. Right off the side of the road, just doing their thing. Cool. Cross that off the list.
Later, we reached an overlook called Farview Curve with a view of the Never Summer mountains. I’ll keep researching and see if I can find out why they have that name for you.
From there, we did a fast descent back down below the treeline and eventually reached the Timber Creek valley floor. Temperatures were much warmer down here and we quickly got rid of the sweatshirts. We would also learn that this was a prime spot for wildlife. Near the creek, we spied a herd of elk grazing in the meadow.
And not long after that, Julie spotted a moose just hanging out in the shade.
A few minutes later, we saw cars jamming both shoulders of the road. Score! There had to be something worthwhile here. We parked on the shoulder and hopped out so we could walk down the road for a better view without jamming a lane or having to look through a mass of parked cars. We heard several people talking about “moose” right on the side of the road. I have to admit, I let that excitement get the best of me and started looking for moose. Later that night, I posted a photo of what we saw on Facebook and proudly announced that we’d seen several moose (or “meese” for the plural).
They were clearly elk. I’m clearly an idiot.
Thankfully, I had no shortage of friends who were willing to point out my mistake and correct me. I thanked them, let them have a laugh, and admitted that yes, they were in fact elk. Still, that didn’t stop the corrections from pouring in. Yes, they’re actually elk. Thanks, I got it. No, really, I got it. Geez, people, stop piling on!
This reminded me of working here at the state DOT. If you don’t know how to do something, you can ask for help all you want, and no one will have time to lift a finger to give you a hand. Dive in and do it spectacularly wrong, and there will be no shortage of people ready to jump all over you for being an idiot and doing it wrong. THEN they show you how to do it right. And that’s how we learn!
So, yes. They were elk. Moving on. Ahem.
The kids had finished their Junior Ranger booklets, so we stopped at the visitor center near the west entrance to have a ranger check their work. Before long, they were being sworn in and collecting their first badges of the trip, while I wrestled Drew and tried to make sure he didn’t crawl over the desk.
With that, our tour of Rocky Mountain National Park was over. We left the park and drove out past the vacation area of Grand Lake, yet another beautiful spot with a lovely mountain backdrop. We set the GPS for Eagle, Colorado. It wanted to take us down several back mountain roads, but I wanted to take Route 9 back down to I-70, because I knew I-70 is actually a gorgeous drive through the mountains and ski resorts.
However, we reached Route 9 and were greeted with a torn-up road, construction signs, and a warning saying, “CAUTION: DIRT ROAD NEXT 25 MILES.”
I suddenly had bad flashbacks to our experience with the road in Joshua Tree National Park last summer. No, thanks.
Stupid highway engineers. Always making life difficult.
So, score one for the GPS. We followed the back mountain roads instead, and arrived in Eagle a couple of hours later. We spent the night at the Best Western of Eagle, on another Priceline deal. Our choice for dinner that evening was Moe’s Original Barbecue.
This is actually a chain restaurant, but its locations are mostly in the deep South, with a few spots here and there in Colorado. So it was new to us. And BBQ always hits the spot.
They had a little kitchen area for kids to play with inside, and Drew had a great time with it. They even had a child-size smoker. Here Drew gets the wood chips stoked for our meal. You can never start ‘em too young when it comes to playing with fire.
I got a pulled pork platter and a giant cup of lemonade that hit the spot. I don’t think any of us were willing to call this our favorite meal of the trip, but it was solid all around and we were very pleased with the food. Even better, we had no more bouts of altitude sickness. Just hearty appetites fueled by mountain hiking.
So, while I would recommend the restaurant, I’d advise you to stay away from the Best Western. As accommodations go, it was perfectly fine. It’s an older building, but nothing terrible. The breakfast here was more on the run-of-the-mill/disappointing side. Yucky fake eggs, greenish potatoes, standard carb-loading fare. But the worst part was an $18 charge that showed up on my credit card later. We’d gone down to the front desk to request an extra blanket and pillow (since one kid was sleeping on the floor). That was no problem. But I called them after that $18 charge appeared, and the front desk told me it was to cover a “stolen pillow”.
Excuse me? I didn’t steal any pillows.
Our housekeeping reported a pillow was missing.
Did they take it? I didn’t take any pillows. If I was going to steal something—anything—I don’t think a pillow would be high on the list.
I disputed the charge, of course, and tried to speak to a manager, but never could get a hold of one. I left contact info, and no one ever had the decency to call me back. Then we got home and had to deal with my father-in-law’s passing immediately, so I forgot about this issue. It never got resolved. So, I’m just resolving it by letting you all know there are other options for lodging in the area that I would recommend first.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Coming Up Next: The most annoying drive of the trip. Plus, the return of the 50/50 burger.
(Well, okay, the snow usually ends by April...or May...
Anyways, all of your pix are fantastic of the CO wilderness areas- very beautiful! Put a big patriotic feeling of pride in my chest. Needed to see that we still have good here in our great country on 9/11. 
No! For real? Did someone modify that?? 
