Vivian's RV Vignettes

As I said at the end of my last post, I found out at the last minute that Wind Cave National Park’s main attraction, Wind Cave, is closed this year because they are redoing the elevator shaft that leads down into the cave. That’s a bummer, and I definitely want to come back sometime when the cave is open, but I’m glad I still went ahead and visited the park, even if I didn’t get as “deep” into it as I had hoped.

The Visitors’ Center did its valiant best to recreate some of the cave interior, including this really cool display of naturally-occurring crystals that look just like flowers. I hope to go in and see the real thing!

This is the natural entrance to the cave. The shaft is only ten inches wide, so nobody bigger than a baby can actually go in that way. However, it’s a cool experience (literally) to stand next to it. The cave “breathes” out cold air from underground… it feels like standing next to a floor air conditioning vent. As the sign explains, the spot is sacred to the Lakota Nation because it is the focal point of their tribal origin mythology.

On the advice of a park ranger, I also did a loop drive around the park’s perimeter to see the surface topography and wildlife. Part of it was unpaved, which I don’t love, but it was totally worth it. In addition to the stunning Black Hills scenery which I first fell in love with on a visit three years ago, I saw pronghorn antelope, prairie dogs, and a whole herd of buffalo.

After that, it was time for an Altitude Adjustment, as I set off for Loveland, Colorado, near the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains and Rocky Mountain National Park. I chose to camp at Boyd Lake State Park in Loveland rather than getting a place closer to the park entrance at Estes Park because it was a lot cheaper and had more availability. And Boyd Lake is lovely in itself, as is the drive through Big Thompson River Canyon between the two, so I’m glad I got to stay there.

I’ve actually been to Rocky Mountain NP once before, about six years ago, but I made an exception to my “rule” about not re-visiting parks I’ve already seen. For one thing, this was my birthday week (July 11), and I wanted to spend it somewhere special. Also, my parents made the trip out from Texas to spend the week with me, and I knew my mom in particular had always wanted to see RMNP. (As an added bonus, they just missed Hurricane Beryl by leaving when they did!) And on my previous trip to the park, I knew I hadn’t seen nearly all of it. So I deemed it a side quest worthy of a week’s stay.

I don’t have any pictures to share from Sunday or during the day on Monday of that week, because the realities of traveling while working full-time as a grant writer kicked in with a vengeance. I had two grants due on those days, and I was trying to help a client submit one of them on Monday while the storm raged outside and she was sitting in the dark with a dwindling laptop battery and sketchy-to-nonexistent internet access. It’s really a blessing I wasn’t there, as I had plenty of power and internet to be able to help remotely. Thankfully, we got it in.

That evening, I met up with my parents and we drove over to Estes Park to check out the lay of the land. I didn’t think we would be able to actually get into RMNP that evening because they have gone to a “timed entry” system to control the massive crowds. I had gotten us reservations for the 11th (my actual birthday on Thursday) and the 12th. But it turns out timed entry is only in effect until 2pm, and we were able to drive into the park after all. We didn’t try to go very far, knowing we’d do a longer drive on the days we had reserved, but we got some glorious “golden hour” pictures.

I worked during the day on Tuesday and Wednesday, but we made time for fun in the evenings. On Tuesday evening, we had a cookout at my RV in Boyd Lake State Park, and my mom and I went for a walk by the lake.

(Photo credit: Elizabeth Bush.)

For Wednesday evening, I discovered that it was the last night of Estes Park’s annual Rooftop Rodeo, so we went to that. It was kind of special that they opened the show with the Rodeo Houston theme song, “Welcome to the Show” by Cody Johnson, which includes the line “Here in H-Town, where we’re stronger than a hurricane.” Knowing what my friends and family at home are going through, that meant a lot. We also got to see one of the bull riders succeed in staying on for 8 seconds… apparently nobody else had, during the previous 4 days of the rodeo, so he won the whole pot of $16,000.

(Photo credit: Elizabeth Bush).

(Note that this video wasn’t the winning bull ride… unfortunately, I didn’t get that one… but this will give you an idea of what they were up against!)

On Thursday, my birthday, I took the day off and we drove up into Rocky Mountain National Park for the day. I made a special birthday Spotify playlist for our drive.

We drove over Trail Ridge Road, which peaks in the mountains above 12,000 feet before descending to Grand Lake on the other side. Given that we are from Texas and not used to that kind of altitude, we took advantage of the canned oxygen on sale at the local gift shop. My dad got good use out of it, and I took a whiff or two myself. I didn’t notice the thin air so much when sitting in the car, but I sure did when my mom and I got out for a short uphill walk!

It’s tempting to do a huge photo dump here… RMNP is SO photogenic, you almost can’t take a bad picture. But I’ll try to just pick out a few of the best so it’s not too overwhelming. The park is more or less divided by elevation into sub-alpine and alpine sections. Below the tree line (11,500 feet, or 3,505 meters) you get conifer and aspen woodlands, with mountain meadows and small lakes where rain and snowmelt form pools. You can often see quarts rocky outcroppings.

The Continental Divide passes right through the park along the ridge line, across the peaks and through the passes. A drop of water that falls east of the Divide will eventually flow into the Atlantic; a drop that falls west will end up in the Pacific.

Above the tree line, you enter a different world of alpine tundra. In summer, it is covered in colorful tiny flowers, lichen, and small “shrubs” that are actually mature trees adapted through miniaturization to their harsh environment. Pockets of snow and ice remain even in summer, and some of the highest elevations have active glaciers.

In winter, of course, the whole thing is covered deep in snow… up to 12 feet (3.7 meters) deep! We were privileged to see some of the inhabitants of the alpine environment, including elk that came right up to the road and a yellow-bellied marmot in the mountain meadow.

After driving the road from the east to the west park entrance and back, we wound up the day in Estes Park, where we celebrated my birthday with barbeque baked potatoes and s’more pie.

(You can skip this paragraph if you’re more interested in travelogue and not so much the gritty details of RV life.) Friday morning, I took a break from both work and sightseeing to get my RV an oil change. It’s one of the weird realities of RV life that you have to take your whole house to the mechanic from time to time for necessary maintenance work, and honestly, it’s a huge pain. Most mobile RV techs only want to work on the “house” part of the RV, not the chassis; most car garages and lube shops aren’t equipped to handle anything that big; most truck garages consider RVs too small to be worth their while; and the rare places that typically handle RV chassis work tend to be backed up for days or weeks. If you are a full-time RVer that can’t afford to be without your home for days while it sits in a mechanic’s lot somewhere, everyone tends to treat you like a nuisance. But I really did want to get an oil change before I take my rig into tough mountain and desert environments in the next couple of months. So, after calling around to a bunch of Loveland-area lube shops and garages, I was thrilled to get a referral to AAMCO of Longmont. The husband-and-wife owners are RVers themselves, and they provided Chick-Fil-A levels of customer service (along with a nice conversation about RVing with co-owner Heather). I got an oil change and tire pressure check in less than an hour. It was SUCH a relief to get that done with so little hassle!

Friday afternoon, we paid one last visit to RMNP. This time we had timed entry reservations for Bear Lake Road, the other major road in the park. It runs at a lower elevation (only up to 9,500 feet or so, well below the tree line), but it is incredibly scenic. A couple of dozen hiking trails branch off from various points along the road. We weren’t out to do any strenuous hikes, but we visited Bear Lake itself and walked the easy 0.8 mile trail around Sprague Lake.

Soon after we reached Sprague Lake, we realized that there was a mama moose and her calf standing chest-deep in the water, browsing on aquatic plants!

They came right out of the water near the point where we (and a bunch of other visitors) were standing.

My quest for adventure has scared my mom lots of times in the past 46 years, but this time she turned the tables on scaring me by getting WAY closer than recommended to the moose (75 yards is “safe”… she was more like 15-20 yards away). Mama moose and baby basically walked right past her and a couple of other people, completely ignoring them, but they did get an amazing view. I’m just glad mama moose didn’t get upset and charge at anyone. There’s a viral video of a moose mother successfully defending her calf against a grizzly bear… I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that!

We also saw a family of mallard ducks, and a whole lot of breathtaking scenery.

We ended up with a picnic near the lake.

And that brought our Rocky Mountain National Park adventures to an end. Next day, my parents started back for Texas, and I headed southwest to Gunnison, Colorado, where I’m booked in for three weeks at Thousand Trails Blue Mesa. I won’t lie, the 4.5 hour drive had some white-knuckle bits as I crossed the Rockies over two high passes (Kenosha Pass, 9,997 feet/ 3,047 meters and Monarch Pass, 11,312 feet/ 3,448 meters) with a high plain in between. The roads were well-engineered all the way, designed with wide curves rather than sharp hairpin bends, and the grades were only about 6-7%… but in a big sluggish vehicle towing a truck behind it, that still feels pretty steep. On the uphills, the speed limit becomes an unattainable goal rather than a prohibition, and on the downhills, it’s a matter of juggling with gears so that you don’t wear out your brakes or take curves out of control. I was glad I got that oil change.

Now I’m here in Gunnison and preparing to see a couple more parks in this part of the country. But those will need to be weekend visits, as I have some important work deadlines coming up (as well as the research proposal for my dissertation) and I really need to focus on those during the week. Fortunately, I’ve got plenty of time here, so I shouldn’t be rushed. Expect my next post in a week or two.