| Started: | Estes Park, Colorado, 7:40am (Mountain time) |
| Reached: | Fruita, Colorado, 6:15pm (Mountain time) |
| Miles: | 348 (2379 cumulative) |
| Route: | Colorado - Rocky Mountains National Park, Black Hawk, Glenwood Springs |
| Highways: | CO7, CO72, I70 |
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The visitor center of the Rocky Mountains National Park was still closed when we reached there, so we continued on the road to Bear Lake. We could now see snow shovelled on the roadside. Yes, this is in May! The hills next to the road were also covered in snow.
When we reached Bear Lake, we were greeted by a forest official, who was
busy shovelling snow so that he could get in his office! We started on the
Bear Lake trail, and saw that the trail had about two feet of snow!
Bear Lake was only a short distance away, so we managed it. We reached the
Bear Lake, only to find it frozen solid, as shown in the image on the left
(click for a larger image).
We started back on the Bear Lake road, and decided to do another hike to
Alberto Fall starting from Glacier Gorge Junction trailhead. Again, we
were faced by two feet of snow on the trail. The trail was the marks left
by previous hikers. By now, the sun was peeping from the clouds. As a
result, the snow on the trail, which was packed solid, started becoming
slippery. We tried walking along the side of the trail, but the snow was
so soft that I got buried knee-deep, as seen in the image on the right
(Click for a larger image). The trail soon became too steep for both of
us, and Alberto Fall was nowhere in sight. We were also out-of-breath
quickly because of the high altitude. Consequently, we gave up the hike.
We reached the visitor center and saw a
small movie on the history and geography of the park.
We took scenic routes to I70 from Rocky Mountain National Park.
The road went through a winding canyon with really steep and
rocky walls along the sides as shown in the photo on the left (Click
for a larger image).
Along I70, we saw some lakes that had green-colored water. It was not green with vegetation, since the water appeared very clear. It was probably the dissolved salts that gave the green color to the water. We could see the snow-covered peaks and ski slopes on the roadside.
The first tunnel we passed was the Eisenhower tunnel, at an elevation of 11000 ft. The car slowed to a crawl, but made it without stalling. The engine power was one factor, since we were climbing real steep slopes. Another reason was lesser Oxygen in the air. The air intake of the car was tuned at near sea-level altitude. At a height of 11000 ft, the air was less dense, so the engine does not suck enough Oxygen. We were warned about vapor-lock, in which, the car stalls even when you have enough gas. Fortunately, for us, it did not create a problem.
Soon we came to
the Vail pass, at 10662 ft. Again the car crawled, but we made it. After
this peak, we were just going downhill! The road joined the Colorado
river soon. We went through the Glenwood canyon carved by it. We were
travelling on one side at the bottom of the canyon, the river was in the
middle, and the railroad was on the other bank. The walls were steep on
either side.
The canyon ended rather abruptly. The mountains grew further apart and did not seem to be carved as in the canyon. The road became straight and more or less flat. Although there was a big river flowing through this region, we could feel that it was all arid! The sand was yellow or almost-white in color as seen in the photo on the right (Click for a larger image).