Denver, CO area

We camped at the KOA in Strasburg, CO, about 30 miles east of Denver after a very tiring road trip from Moab, UT.   When we hit the Rocky mountains, we ran into rain and drizzle which made driving a real problem, as the windows would get dirty and we'd have to use the washer to clean them off.  

The first day we drove 70 miles north to Estes Park and stopped at the historic Stanley Hotel, which is a National Historic site.   Early travelers flocked to the hotel and today it is also famous for Stephen King's novel and movie The Shining.   The tours of the hotel were booked for the day, so we progressed to Rocky Mountain National Park.   We entered through the Fall River Entrance Station at 8240 ft. and took the Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Visitor Center, the highest visitor center in the USA at 11,796 ft.   To reach it we went through a forest area to the tundra at the higher elevations.   The highest point we were at was 12, 183 feet.    The temperature at the Alpine Visitor's Center was 39 degrees with a stiff wind and when we came out, SNOW FLURRIES!   The drive was a camera bug's dream!   High snow capped mountains and deep canyons.   Most of this road is closed from mid-October to Memorial day, as the snow gets to 20 feet deep in some sections!   From the visitor's center we retraced our steps to lower altitudes and took the Bear Lake Road to ....BEAR LAKE!   The temperature at the lake was 79 degrees.   Quite a difference!   We really enjoyed the park.

WE visited two hour museums - the Unsinkable Molly Brown's home and also the Byers-Evans home, both downtown.   It seemed every thoroughfare we needed to take was under construction, so parking and getting around town were challenges.   In fact it took us 20 minutes to go 8 blocks!   NO MORE!   We didn't go back downtown the rest of our stay!

Golden was only a short distance on the west side of Denver,  and we spent two days there.   The first day we visited the Colorado Railroad Museum, and the following day we toured Coors Brewery (yep, 2 glasses of free beer if you wished, or soft drinks).   Guess what we chose???   The tour was very worthwhile, and self-paced so you could spend as much time as you liked reading the information or looking down into the production area.   The packaging area was the most interesting to me, as I was fascinated watching the parade of bottles and cans into their cartons, and then rolling up the conveyor belts to the shipping area.  

From Coors we went to Lookout Mountain to see the Buffalo Bill Cody's grave at the very summit of the mountain.   It must have been a real challenge to travel up the mountain when he died.   It took us a long time to get to the top with all the curves and switch backs.  

IT was a great time in Denver.   Oh!   Denver is known as the "Mile High City".   The reason is that the 15th step of the capitol building is at 5280 feet!    How about that bit of trivia?