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| Map of Colorado River |
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| One of Several CD Crossings on the Trail Ridge Road |
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| Tundra Hike |
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| View from the Deck of the Alpine Visitors Center |
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| Our Campground |
Today we were supposed to take the Trail Ridge Road over to
the east side of the park and set up
camp in the Timber Creek campground.
The weather was stormy last night and we figured that the east side of
the mountains would be the wet side, so we elected to drive the highway across
the mountains, see the east side and return to Moraine Campground for one more
night. Few decisions turn out so
well. We had a terrific early morning
drive over the spectacular Trail Ridge Road featuring 11 miles above the tree line
across the arctic tundra. This road features at summit over 12K feet, some steep assents, tight curves, drop away shoulders, and no guard rails. A few seconds of inattention and you end up in a wad of sheet metal. Temps at the summit were in the high 40's and winds were gusting to 40. Burr! We passed on the 1 hour nature walk at the summit.
Once we got
over to the other side, the Timber Creek Campground was anything but inviting.
The Pine Borer Beetle has decimated the forest on the other side and the
campsites were out in the sun with no trees around. We visited the site of a 1920’s fishing “resort”
at the headwaters of the Colorado River.
We are back in our campground enjoying a glass of North
Carolina wine while we wait for our sun shower to heat up. The Moraine Campground offers roofless stalls for use of your sun shower. We had terrific hot showers in a National Park!
No complaints about the TDI Sportwagon for this
trip! We are delighted with the
RMP. But since it is just a short drive
from Denver, It is a little crowded on the weekend.
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