I got up and headed into Rocky Mountain National Park. Here is PDF map of Park:
A lot of the trails were flooded and I had to regroup to find a decent one. I talked with the rangers at the main entrance and settled on the Poudre Pass Trail. It was about 15 miles out and back. Here is picture of the trail. It lies in the NorthWest corner of the park
I saw a variety of Moose on this hike. The hike itself was not too difficult. I got a lot of misinformation along the trail. I was trying to find out what was going on in the Eest section of the park. Some said they came from there, others said it was all flooded out and roads were washed out. I was interested because the plan tomorrow was to drive over to the East side of the park drive down to Glacier trailhead and do Bear Lake loop, Sprague Lake, Sky Pond, and Emerald Lake. I would then close out day with 13 mile loop of Fern Lake ( Download Fern Lake). I carried on with the task at hand
The Poudre Pass culminated at a Ranger Station where I rested for a bit before making the long return trip down the same trail
I drove across the divide to the East side of the park and was hit in the face with mountains of fog. When I got to the Ranger station seen below, they said there was no way that I could go any further for many days.
I retraced my steps back the way I came. When I got out of the park, my phone blew up with missed calls. Sprint had no coverage throughout most of CO. I soon learned that Boulder and the surrounding area was hit with huge rainstorms. The city was flooded and 300 people were unaccounted for. Now this is a terrible event but I did think back to my food poisoning in that town a few days earlier and could not help but wonder if I had some sort ability to cause natural catastrophes with my mind. Hence the name of this blog.
I carried on to Denver and did some sightseeing. I found a hotel for $75 just outside of Denver in the town of Aurora. I learned that the area had got 12 inches of rainfall in the last 4 days! I was able to find a flight back early to Detroit for $69, which was actually cheaper than changing my existing flight! And allowed me to avoid flying Spirit!
I went back into Denver and stopped at my home-away-from-home, REI. This is their flagship store and was monumental. They had 3 huge parking lots, serious climbing walls, Starbucks, and all the gear you could think of. I was in heaven.
I walked around the city snapping pictures of the usually calm rivers busting at the seams due to the flooding hitting the mountains to the West.
I closed out the day at a bar in the Shadows of Coors Field (Rockies baseball team park) The bar was huge. It had bean bag toss on the lawn and 3 floors of bars. In the last shot you can see the storms pounding in the background.
All in all the trip was good. It had some rough spots but I got a good primer for the state and know where I would like to spend more time on return trip.
Until next time
Darren
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