Estes Park, CO

We have spent a couple of days in Estes Park, CO.  On our first day here we hiked up Deer Mountain which is was just across the river from our hotel.  The trail head was a few miles away inside the Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was 3 miles to the summit at just over 10,000'.  A really nice hike with great views all around the mountain and a good view of Estes Park from the top.

On our second day at Estes Park, we did a great ride through Rocky Mt National Park, a 36 mile ride up Fall River Rd and back on Trail Ridge Rd.  This would normally be a challenging ride with over 5000' of climbing in the first 18 miles, but we encountered 10 miles of dirt road we weren't planning on, rain, hail and heavy winds in the last 4 miles to the very peak of the ride at 12,100'.  The views were great and we had a really good time, but it goes into the near epic category.  We were both a little sore this morning after such a hard day.

Almost to the end of the dirt road at 11,200' in elevation

For our last day in Estes Park, we did a pretty casual, 18 mile ride from our cabin through Estes Park, by Estes Park Lake and looping through the outskirts of Estes Park.  It was a nice ride to loosen our legs from yesterday's ride.  

After packing up the the car, we drove by to the Stanley Hotel which was used in the Stephen King movie, "The Shining".  We walked around the hotel which has a long history going back to the early 1900's.  

We had a nice lunch by the lake and then drove to Laramie, WY where we are spending the night before driving on to Jackson Hole, WY.

More photos of the past few days of our trip.