Day 6 - 12/01/2021

 Day 6 - 12/01/2021

Today's plan was to visit Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park. Today was a work-day and expecting the work traffic as usual, we started our 2-hour ride to Estes Park at 8 AM, but only after eating delicious "Pohe" Kishori made for us in the morning.

We reached Estes Park at around 10:10 AM. First stop was The Stanley Hotel. The Stanley Hotel is where they shot the movie - "The Shining". Being a "The Shining" fanboy I was excited to go on the ghost tour, which starts at 4:30 PM and onwards. We grabbed some brunch at Stanley - Delicious Pancakes for Rohan and Eggs for both of us.

After brunch our next stop was Rocky Mountain National Park. First stop - Beaver Meadows Visitor Center to get some information and more importantly - stamp the Passport. As soon as we started approaching Rocky Mountain National Park, the snow covered peaks, rugged hills with pine trees, the presence of tall peaks that start to captivate you in your own thoughts - simply whelmed me. It wasn't any different than meditation - so calm, so fresh. It was a perfect day for me.

After visitor center, we stopped at Sprague Lake trailhead. There is a short-trail that we decided to walk on. It was a simply marvelous scene - The Sprague Lake, which was half frozen at the altitude of around 8,700 ft. On the backdrop of the lake beautiful hill covered with pine trees and behind it - massive peaks covered in snow - reminding you of the strength and just raw power to withstand anything. It certainly took me into another world. It reminded me of the camping trips and hikes I used to do in Himalayas. Makes you feel so insignificant and small in its presence that you do not feel any shame to just open yourself in its presence. It was simply breathtaking, and before I realized I was singing "Yeh haseen waadia" song. It was just so satisfying and fitting.

On the trail, we met a guy named John Berry - who was a photographer for "Visit Estes Park" staff. He was interested in shooting some photos for marketing purposes and we didn't mind. Perhaps we will feature on "Visit Estes Park" website - who knows?

After Sprague Lake, our next stop was Bear Lake. It is one of the most popular destination in Rocky Mountain National Park. Bear Lake is located at around 9,500 ft. and it leads to many other lakes such as Dream Lake, Emerald Lake, Bierstadt Lake, Nymph lake. The trail around Bear Lake is about 0.6 miles long, but it was covered in snow and ice for most part- we learnt that people do rent an additional accessory for your shoes to walk on ice and snow. Its called as snow-shoe. It has metal spikes or rings at the bottom that helps break the ice and get better grip. But we were too late to go back to the town and rent those, so we decided to just trust our Timberland shoes grip and started walking on the trail.

The initial part was all dirt and we had no issues, but as we approached the shadowy area, it was icy, and a lot more slippery. My experience with hiking for almost all of my growing up years came handy, but for Vijeta and Rohan it was quite challenging in the later part of the trail. At one point Vieta did contemplate turning around and go back the way we came from, but learnt quickly that climbing down the ice is much more difficult than climbing up. They decided to move forward and I am proud to see them complete that slippery trail and get back to the parking lot.

I wanted to try and go visit Dream Lake as well. I know I wasn't prepared with snow-shoe but I wanted to go as far as I could - I mean when am I going to come back and visit here? Vijeta and Rohan were too tired and exhausted from the icy trail and they decided to stay back. I went on to another mile long hike on icy paths and steep slopes towards Dream Lake.

It was a very beautiful day and the sun was exactly at an angle that was perfect was shooting photos. The trail was flat and covered with dirt for first few feet and then it started to get icy and slippery. My instincts for finding my footing kicked in and automatically I started looking for grips on rocks and boulders where I can take some support and continue forward. I met two fellows from Phoenix, AZ on my way to Dream Lake- Naveed & Najim - both were brothers originally from Afganistan. They were going further ahead towards Emerald Lake and Alberta Falls. that was another 1.5 miles ahead of Dream Lake. We started chitchatting and walking towards Dream Lake.

After about 40 minutes in and we reached Nymph Lake - another frozen lake at around 9,905 feet altitude. The sun was about to set and the dawn-ish light was making the whole scene very pristine. I captured a few photos at the location and we moved along towards Dream Lake. Few hundred meters in and we came across a very steep slope. It was icy and slippery, and the only support I could see was a big, vertical rock that I could climb to bypass the entire icy slope. Being a born daredevil, I told Naveed and Najim that let me go and check path ahead. I climbed up the rock and as I was looking forward, I saw the steepest part of the trail we encountered so far. And it was covered with snow and ice. Sun had almost set as well and it was getting dark. I climbed down the rock and just informed them - "No point in going forward. We are certainly not going to make it down even if somehow we manage to reach Dream Lake". They were kind of shaken up a bit with slippery slopes so far and they didn't argue either, and we turned around and started walking back towards parking lot.

Now getting back was more challenging. We were on a downward slopes covered with snow and ice. Again I relied on my instincts to find good footing and Naveed and Nagin followed.

Fortunately all of us made back to the parking lot without any accidents, and by the time we reached it was already dark. Rohan and Vijeta had taken a nap and were fresh for our next stop - The Stanley Hotel.

At around 5 PM, we reached The Stanley Hotel and I went in the lobby to check out the ghost tour details. When they informed me that tour is for one hour and Rohan would not be able to take it since he was too young I was disappointed, but I decided to not go on the tour. Vijeta & Rohan already had spent time in the car at Bear Lake Parking lot for about 1 hour and 20 minutes or so, and all of us were actually tired and were ready to hit the sack.

As I came out from the lobby and approached the parked car, I was frozen by the sight of a huge elk just standing and eating grass right next to the car. His antlers looked big, strong, and really pointy. I had heard about elks and their aggressive nature, and I certainly was no match had he decided to approach me. I saw from corner of my eye that Vijeta was waiving at me to quickly come and grab few picture. I moved as calmly as I could and fortunately was able to get in the car without attracting any attention. Elk was still busy filling up its belly. I grabbed few clicks and we started our trip back home.

During the day, the winding road was no issue since we were climbing up. While on our way down the effect was exagerated and the result of it was not pleasant. Rohan got sick and threw up in the car. Fortunately we were almost down in the Boulder, CO and were able to take a break and let Rohan breathe some air, and opportunity for us to clean up. Couple of good neighbors did help us out when they realized that we could use their help. Poor Rohan - he was very scared and thought we were going to be mad at him. It was a new experience for him, and it took some time for us to console him and ensure him that it was all okay. Once we cleaned up and calmed Rohan down, we were once again on our way back home and the rest of the trip went by without any additional "events".

So that was our Day 6. It was so far the most tiring day and most eventful day. I hope I don't get any sore muscles tomorrow as we are going to Pikes Peak tomorrow - Last checklist item on my itinerary.

I will stop here for today, as it has passed way longer than my usual tirade. more to come tomorrow...