Yesterday we went down to Denver and again did the Banjo Billy’s bus tour. I have to say that again, I really like the whole concept of this. The tour guide reminded me of Louis, but with lighter hair. He told us a little about a lot. Nothai and I also went to the state capitol building and poked around in there, including a trip up to the top of the gold dome. We walked down 16th street, as I imagine every tourist feels compelled to do. I was shocked that the buses run up and down the street over such a short distance. Why can’t we expected to walk just a little? Walking around I was hit with deja vu, but this had really happened years ago! I was walking here with my friends Jeremie and Shannon. It was night time and we probably shouldn’t have been running around in the parks, but we were. On 16th street there was a big black guy who was yelling for the cops because he’d been stabbed and robbed. I had forgotten all about that. No, crime isn’t the norm in Denver, but at night the homeless are active like in any big city.
Today we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park and bought our America the Beautiful Pass which for $80 gives you entrance too all national parks. Most are $20 per vehicle admission, so after 5 parks the pass will pay for itself. We expect to go to well over this. Anyway, we head straight to Bear Lake. I was here once before when I was younger and had just flown to visit my dad from Chicago and wasn’t used to the altitude. I made it as far as the parking lot and felt sick so my dad had to take me back down. Bear Lake is just under 10,000 feet. I never even made it to the lake the fist time.
This time Nothai and I were at the lake when it started to hail. We could see dark clouds above rolling toward us. It turned to rain and kept raining for about 15 minutes until we saw blue sky coming. The rain hadn’t stopped completely, but we headed up in our rain gear. It was maybe 15 minutes later we already had stripped back down and the sun was back out. Welcome to mountain weather! There was only one moment that my mouth started salivating and my jaw clenched like I might be sick, but I pushed on and it passed. Nothai reported a similar story at one of our stops up the mountain. I stopped a lot to catch my breath. The hardest part for me was breathing most of the way. Nothai was having energy depletion issues too. On the way up more dark stormy clouds passed us on the right and left at one point (we thought we were gonna luck out), but then got a full face of hail about an hour later. It wasn’t that bad, but we did put our rain gear back on and get shelter under a rock for a moment while it passed. I was mostly concerned with lightening, which we could see in other storm areas passing us. Up at the top we were both dragging, but we made it. The view was fantastic atop Flatrock Mountain. It is supposed to be one of the most challenging but rewarding hikes in the park. My only disappointment was that when we were at the top looking over the continental divide there was still a lot of clouds (at 12,324 feet you might expect that)! We saw a lot of critters (marmots and pikas) running around the mountains, but no bighorn sheep, deer or bears. It was a long and satisfying day. The family returned from their trip tonight. Nothai and I will be heading out early Monday morning toward the Grand Canyon and other surrounding national parks. I likely won’t be able to update until we stop in San Francisco! In the meantime, all pictures and video's are uploaded - Enjoy!
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