Estes Park

 After leaving Illinois, we turned back west.  Our first stop, other than overnights in Des Moines and North Platte, was Estes Park, Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park.  Penny had been here before, but although Ted had been in the Rockies several times, it was usually on business, so he looked forward to being a tourist.  After a winding drive on U.S. 34, a narrow two lane road, we had to navigate through downtown Estes Park to get to our RV park.  

 Most of the spaces in the RV park were unoccupied except by these little critters.  They were obviously used to getting handouts.  They quickly discovered that we were not going to feed them, so they mostly ignored us. 

 The park was nothing special except for this; the view through our windshield.

 Soon after we arrived, the clouds started coming in.  Fearing that they would obscure our views from the higher elevations, we decided to take a day to relax and wander through Estes Park.

 The lovely Fall River ran through downtown filling the area with the soothing sound of running water.  The town has made this river a feature with lots of rest areas along the banks.

 Most of downtown Estes Park was very touristy, and several of the shops were filled with disappointing schlock, but there were a few points of interest.  At the west end of downtown was this carillon.  On the hour, the doors opened and the area above the clock rotated telling the story of the area.

This is the famous Stanley Hotel.  It was built by Freelan Oscar Stanley, one of the most innovative of American entrepreneurs.  He and his brother, Francis, founded the company that built the Stanley Steamer after selling the rights to their photographic dry plate business to Eastman Kodak.  It was Stephen King's stay here that inspired him to write The Shining.  Parts of the mini-series version were filmed in this hotel, but the more famous Stanley Kubrick film version was filmed at the Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, OR, which we see from our house.

After exploring Estes Park, we returned to our coach, enjoyed the cool weather, watched as the sun set, and prepared for the next day's trip into the mountains.