To me, Colorado is one of the most beautiful states in The United States. I went there three years ago but could not give enough time to fully appreciate its beauty. So this summer I decided to visit Colorado again to do a camping/hiking trip.
Following map shows our itinerary. We covered few major parks in CO.
Part - I (RMNP)
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Two friends of mine (Abhishek and his wife Bidisha) and I flew to Denver. After we picked up our car (big drama with agent Nate !) we did some grocery. Then we went directly to our campground at Moraine Park which is one of the really cool campgrounds at Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). Moraine Park area is also a very spectacular destination to witness the evolution of Colorado’s mountains. This huge national park offers varieties of activities to do there. As we were primarily interested in hiking, we decided to do few different types of trails - mountain peak trail (where we could see panoramic view from the top), Lake trail and waterfall trail.
We got there pretty late (~2am) and immediately we pitched our tent and slept. Next morning, we woke up seeing the majestic scenery of the snow in the distant mountains. Campground location was very unique, located at 8160 feet (2487 meters) in a ponderosa pine forest above the meadows of Moraine Park on Bear Lake Road, approximately two and a half miles south of the Beaver Meadows Entrance Station. First day, we wanted to hike Mount Ida. Later, we realized that it was not a very wise decision. Initially, we stopped at few places on our way with the intention to get familiarized with the roads inside the park. We drove along the trail ridge road - the main scenic drive inside the park. Parking in summertime at RMNP is a big hustle. We could not find the parking at mount Ida trailhead, so we had to park at the lake Irene trailhead. Typically, in the summertime for a peak trail it's always better to start the trail early enough so that one can be back by 3pm. On our first day we learnt that 2-5pm is the main thunderstorm's schedule. I could not go to the top because everyone was telling me not to go to the top as a storm was building up. After few rounds of hesitation finally I abandon my hike and camp back to the starting point and I was very upset but at the same time I was determined to do a peak hike during our stay at RMNP. We then again took the trail ride road and stopped at several scenic overlooks. There was a storm and gust of cold wind forced me to pull out my jacket. After that we came back to our campsite (A93) and one of my friends from Denver (Lynne) was waiting there to join us for this part of the trip at RMNP. It was drizzling a bit that evening, so temperature was little bit lower. After our dinner [a semi-curry with black beans, scrambled eggs] we went to sleep early.
Next morning, getting out from my tent I saw a mom deer and two of her babies (spotted) just beside our tent. They don't look too afraid. We drove to the Estates park side of the park and started hiking for the Gem lake. It was a great hike. Lake was not particularly impressive but the surrounding rocks were waited to be climbed. That was fun. We hiked down back after spending an hour or so there. Next destination was Ouzel Falls. We decided to take a lunch break in between and stopped at Lily lake picnic area. It was very pretty. Oh, did you even know that chipmunks really like chips? see this one - [picture]
From Lily lake area, the Longs peak is clearly visible. It is the tallest peak in the park. Trailhead for that is in between Lily lake and Wild Basin area. We had to drive to Wild Basin area where the Ouzel falls' trail begins. It was a nice hike and we saw few gorgeous birds there. [photo]
On our way back (somewhere at the mid-point) we wanted to give our feet a rest by putting them inside the cold water coming from top. It felt so refreshing! We came back to tent after that and its time to have dinner with egg-curry and rice.
We also finalized where to go for a panoramic view next day morning. It was Flattop mountain (12324 ft) [http://www.
We hiked little more here and there after going to the top. So after 0.3 miles you could get some nice views from north Inlet trail and at the back of the trail the view of the mountain range was gorgeous too. It took us around 7hrs I think to complete the hiking. In the morning we took a shuttle from a parking lot to the Bear lake trailhead area. This is a prime spot of the park because thousands of trails start from here. So parking is always a problem. We spent some time sitting by the lake and in order to give ourselves little treats we went to a Nepalese restaurant at Estate park [Himalayan Curry and Kabobs]. Food was delicious [although we weren't sure if tandoori style chicken is served with curry in Nepal]. We reached our tent around 10pm [after going into a wrong direction]. Lynne had to go home that night and we went to bed soon after she left. I went to bed thinking about what to do at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP (BCGNP) - our next destination :-)
[ We had a little drama with our credit cards, but I'll tell that story later:P]
Part -II (BCGNP)
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This park is situated little bit west of the RMNP. The canyon is created by river Gunnison which is the fifth largest tributary of the great Colorado river. Another friend of mine (Amy) joined us in this part of the trip from Glenwood Springs. On our way to BCGNP campground we wanted to visit Colorado National Monument. It was a gorgeous place and red rocks reminded me of Utah rocks.
The main feature of the park is that you can take a canyon rim walk almost immediately outside of the visitor center. We saw the window rock [picture].
We drive along the rim of the canyon and saw the most famous structure - independent monument.
We also caught the sunset at the Ute canyon overlook. We entered the park from the west (Fruita) side and we came out from the east (Grand junction) side.
Next we headed out for camping in BCGNP. As usual, we arrived late in the campground but it was not difficult to find out our designated campsite. But after many rounds of pushes and pulls, the bear container did not open. What a bummer!! So everything had to go in the back of the car. We were so tired that we went to sleep almost immediately.
Next day I wanted to let the camp-host person (A33) know about our bear-container problem. He promised me to contact maintenance to get that done as soon as possible. I took a walk towards the visitor center (via original driving road). The early morning view of canyon from Tomichi point was wonderful. Little bit ahead was visitor center. I inquired about different routes to go down to the river (bottom of the canyon) and realized that easier access would be through Gunnison route. For any inner canyon route, you need a wilderness permit. I walked back to campsite through the rim trail and view was astonishing. I also saw few birds and one of them was probably Peregrine Falcon.
We chose to do the scenic drive and short trails on that day. We stopped at all the viewpoints. The park has two parts - south rim part and north rim part. Our campground was on the south part. On the north side there was a campground too but to me it seemed more of a remote part with thick vegetation. We drove to north side via road towards Gunnison town. On our way we saw
Blue Mesa Reservoir, Colorado and Curecanti National Recreation Area. The closest city where we hoped to get some food was Sapinero. It was 25 miles west of Gunnison. Although we did not get any real food here but we got our ice-cream treats!! I got myself a green apple flavored Pepsi (Indian style) after many years. We drove to Gunnison for real food and ate at a Mexican restaurant - La Palamas. We came back home after doing little grocery (at Safeway) for next few days.
On our way back we decided to visit the north rim side. It was a long drive and finally we were there before the sunset. Two coyotes welcomed us as they were looking for their dinner too. We drove and stopped at the designated viewpoints and caught the last rays of sun from Island peaks view. It was gorgeous. It was getting dark and we headed out for our campsite and realized we could have taken a shorter route while coming to this place. We reached to our campsite around11pm that night.
Next day, the main hiking was to get down to the bottom of the canyon and touch the water of Gunnison river. We were thinking about swimming but got disheartened by the ranger's warning. Actually it was not possible. the flow was 1000 cfs. (1000 basketballs / sec - a good way to think about it). After getting our permit we started from the top around 10am. The trail initially goes through the woods, then rocks, more loose rocks, then chain, dart and loose rocks and then finally big rocks. While getting down, it was sometimes very steep, so I slipped at least 3/4 times. We got down at the bottom of the river in about 2 hours. River was beautiful but the current was too strong. So we splashed water around and just walked by the river a bit. After spending an hour or so we came back up with took another three hours and it was tiring. We met Tara on this hike and we had a really nice talk and discussion about music/Indonesia/hiking etc. We were very tired and hungry so we decided to go to campsite and eat dinner. I tried to cook egg curry and we ate that with rice. It was perfect timing to catch the sunset from the sunset view. This was probably the best sunset for the entire trip.
Next day my friend had to go back to Aspen, so I drove her to the end of the park so that she could go to crested butte and hike to Aspen. Later I learned that it was an amazing hike too. We had to prepare for our next destination - Mesa Verde NP.
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This park is actually close to Moab and I wanted to go here last time when I was in UT. But timing was too tight that time and we could not make it. So this time, we had to see it.
Most of the cliff dwelling house were created around 1200AD here and the structure was very interesting. For most of the houses you have to get tickets for guided tour. We purchased ticket for two tours - Balcony house (at 4pm) and Cliff house (largest one) (5:30pm). Each of the tour were for an hour duration. We first went to the other side of the park - Wetherhill mesa. First we saw the Step House there. I wanted to do the Long Houses but we had to go to the other side before 4pm and that was a longer hike than we thought, so we skipped it. We came back to the Chapin mesa side and ate our lunch and decided to cover the mesa top loop after our guided tours.
Tour guide (NP rangers) for Balcony house was really nice and tried to explain some history behind this place. It took more than an hour, so we had to run to the Cliff house for the next tour. Tour guide was funny and he picked up two kids whom he requested to act as if they were from the old times. After our tour ended, we went to mesa top loop and visited all the viewpoints including the sun temple.
It was getting dark, so we drove quickly to the Far view area and finally to the Park point overlook. The view from it was really amazing but we had to drive out from that place quickly because that road apparently gets closed after sunset.
Our next campsite was 4-hrs away, so we drove to that place (Oasis) which is close to Great Sand Dunes NP through Durango. We stopped to have our dinner at Denny's. We finally reached at Oasis at 2am in the morning. Finding the actual location of tent-sites was little tricky. But we somehow found it and pitched our tent for that night.
Next day we hiked to the high dunes (699ft). It was beautiful. It was not too hot and I met two interesting guyz (Alex and Jordon) on top, who work in Philmont Scout Ranch in NM. After they went down I spent another 20 min or so sitting there by myself and watched the vast expanse of sands all around me. After that I slowly walked my way down.
This was the last day of hiking and we were tired by last eight days of hiking. So we did not do much here and headed back for Denver area around 6:30pm. For the last night we booked a hotel so that we could be little decent-looking before boarding the plane.
Coming to Denver area, we wanted to see the city and also wanted to visit Denver Botanic Garden (DBG). It was one of the best gardens I have even seen. Lynne (she was the one who gave us the info about DBG) also joined us here. It was really beautiful. I really enjoyed the water lily pond (reminded me of Monet's water lily).
After dropping off Lynne, we headed back to airport and returned our car. We took the shuttle and came back to the airport. Our flight was at 10pm and we landed at O'hare around 1:30am.
It was a really awesome trip with tons of memorable events. Colorado is indeed amazing !!!
