August 26-31, 2007
Thanks to the National Forum on Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention for inviting Fran to a conference in Boulder, Colorado. That provided the opportunity for companion travel and a few extra days in the high country of Colorado.
Sunday August 26
We left home mid-morning and flew to Atlanta and then on to Denver, arriving there in early afternoon. We tracked down our luggage and made our way to the shuttle pick-up; we ran into Sue Foerster and her husband, also on their way to Boulder. The trip to Boulder took about 1.5 hours, with assorted stops at hotels along the way. The airport is a good distance east of Denver, out on the open prairie – in fact, sharp-eyed Margaret spotted a prairie dog colony alongside the roadway.
The conference hotel was the St. Julien, right in the heart of “downtown” Boulder, within easy walking distance interesting things to see and do …. Too bad one of us had to spend two days in meetings! The conference organizers had engaged a local tour guide to entertain those of us who arrived by 5PM on Sunday, so we joined 8-10 others on a walking tour of the area.
We learned that Boulder was established in 1858 because the settlers thought the mountains looked right for gold and the valleys looked rich for grazing. Today, it is one of the most walkable, most bikable, most livable and most liberal cities in the country – sometimes known as the People’s Republic of Boulder. At an elevation of 5,344 ft., the weather is mild; even in winter, the sun and dry air make short work of snow.
We also learned that the City of Boulder owns the Arapahoe Glacier, high up in the Rocky Mountains. This provides a pure water source for the city below. What about global warming?We walked the length of the Pearl Street Mall, a pedestrian-only outdoor mall line with bookstores, art galleries, coffee houses, boutiques and restaurants. Interesting sculptures and street performers add to the fun atmosphere. The large building is the Boulder County Cou
rthouse. 
After the walk, we joined some of the group for dinner at a Nepalese restaurant, The Sherpa Hut. The menu was filled with strange and amazing foods, including yak stew. We had a sampling of dishes before heading in for the night.
Monday August 27
Fran spent the day in meetings, except for a short break for a group picture. Margaret roamed the neighborhood, some of the time joined by Sue’s husband, Jim.Tuesday August 28
More meetings for Fran until 1 PM, when we hitched a ride to pick up our rental car for the rest of the week. We drove out to Chautauqua Park, located at the foot of the Flatiron Mountains. Even at mid-afternoon on a Tuesday, the place was crawling with walkers and bikers – a scene that was repeated everywhere we went in Boulder.
We then headed to the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, an authentic Tajik teahouse presented to Boulder by its sister city of Dushanbe, Tajikistan. From 1987-1990, more than 40 artisans from all over Tajikstan created the decorative elements of the teahouse, including hand-carved and hand-painted ceiling, tables, stools, columns and exterior ceramic panels. In 1990, the parts and pieces arrived in 200 crates, along with 4 Tajik artists who helped construct the teahouse.
In the center of the teahouse, the Fountain of the Seven Beauties illustrates an old Persian poem, based on the mythological and scientific beliefs of the middle ages. The number “7” was considered to be a sacred number, as it was thought that the world was divided into seven countries, there were seven planets, and the spectrum is composed of seven colors.
Back in the car, we we entered Trail Ridge Road, one of the great “highroads” anywhere; it is the highest continuous automobile road in the US: more than four miles of the road is above 12,000 feet and eleven miles are above timber line (approximately 11,500 feet). The road follows an old Indian trail which crossed the mountains; it is a fifty mile scenic drive like no other.
From Deer Ridge Junction, the road drops into Hidden Valley where we walked along a stream that is home to an active beaver colony. We didn’t see any beavers, but we spotted our first Stellar’s jay.
The road then begins a serious climb through limber pine, spruce and fir forests. The next stop was at Many Parks Curve, at an elevation of 9,620 feet. From here you can see a number of parks (mountain meadows) and nice views of snow-capped mountains to the north.
Next – four miles and 1,200 vertical feet up the road - comes Rainbow Curve (10,829 feet), which has a sweeping view of Horseshoe Park almost a half mile below. This was the spot for our first wildlife spotting –among the rocks below the overlook were pica, ground squirrels and chipmunks.
Pica are known as “rock rabbits;” they are the smallest member of the rabbit family. They live on rock slides and slopes at 9,500 feet and higher. They are herbivores who collect vegetation during the short alpine summer and store it in ‘hay piles’ to use as a food source during the long winter.
Ground squirrels and chipmunks have a similar appearance, but the ground squirrel is distinctly larger. Both are beggars if humans are handy.
Here also the stresses of an increasingly harsh climate show in the trees. Some wind-blasted trunks grow branches only to leeward, and 100-year old sapling sized dwarfs grow horizontally, somewhat protected by boulders.In another few miles, the road crosses the timberline, where subzero winter weather and 100-mph winds blast the trees into twisted shrubs. A bit higher yet, and the road enters the tundra – wide, treeless alpine meadows.
Here we also got a good look at the long poles used to guide the snowplows and snowmobiles. With many feet of snow on the ground and no noticeable shoulders on the road, it would be easy to take a dive over the edge.We stopped at Forest Canyon Overlook (11,716 feet) for a close up look at the tundra and a view of Forest Canyon, a glacier-carved U-shaped valley 2,500 feet below.
We also spotted a yellow-bellied marmot sunning himself on the rocks. These fellows hibernate for nearly eight months of the year; they spend the summer eating and sleeping.
Another two miles and we were at Rock Cut (12,115 feet), site of the Tundra Trail. This steep, 1-mile hike was a killer, but it offered grand views of the mountains and interesting exhibits about adaptations made by plants and animals to survive a very short growing season, wind speeds of 150 mph, and intense sunlight.
At the trail’s end, the Toll Memorial Mountain Index (peak finder) sits atop a pile of rocks – the 360-degree views of mountains, tundra and weird rocks are quite spectacular. We even spotted some elk from the top of the rocks.
Across the road from the Tundra Trail, there's more to see ...
The spectacular scenery never stops on Trail Ridge Road - around every curve there's a new vista, a higher mountain, something new to see.
One of the most amazing sights was ON the road - bicyclists making their way across the mountains. Gasping for breath after a short walk, we could only imagine the phyiscal conditioning of these hardy folks.
At Fall River Pass, the Alpine Visitor Center sits at 11,796 feet. Its architecture gives you a clue about the winter weather – deep snow, bitter cold and high winds.Trail Ridge Road crosses the Continental Divide at Milner Pass (10,758 feet); water flowing east of the Divide will eventually find its way to the Atlantic Ocean and water flowing west will go to the Pacific. Cache la Poudre Lake is nearby.
Since we wanted to visit the Bear Lake area of the park, this was our turn-around point. On the way back across the mountains, near Rock Cut, we had the delightful experience of spotting a small herd of elk and a group of bighorn sheep. They were too far away for good pictures, but a kind fellow traveler loaned us his fancy binoculars to have a closer look.At Deer Ridge Junction, we headed further south to Beak Lake. Our first stop was at Moraine Park, where we enjoyed watching a whole gang of elk dining in the low brush along the creek. We were joined by some horseback riders who had been on a trail ride – nice way to deal with the altitude.
At Bear Lake, we walked the 1-mile trail around the lake. Hallett Peak (12,717 feet) dominates the view on the eastern side; on the western side, we could see 14,259-foot Longs Peak. Ground squirrels and chipmunks played around the rocks near the trail, but they weren’t much for posing for pictures.
From the same trailhead (9,475 feet), we hiked up to Nymph Lake. By the map, the distance one-way was 0.5 mile. Even the park rangers agree that this is the longest ½ mile in the park – it is a steady climb upwards through the forest of lodgepole and limber pines and fir. It’s like walking through a steep tunnel of trees with no openings for views of the mountains and no clue about how much further to walk. The lake itself was a bit anticlimactic, but we were too tired to tackle the next 0.5 mile to Dream Lake … maybe next time.
On the way back out, we spotted another elk – this time an 8-point buck munching his way along the road side. It sure would have been nice to have a telephoto lens for a real close-up shot.At the end of a long day, we made our way back to Estes Park and tried elk steak for dinner.
Friday August 31
Not much to say here. We were up early to make the 1.5 hour drive to Denver International Airport. The flight home was uneventful, only a tad bit late due to holiday traffic and scattered weather.
