Rocky Mountain National Park

Calamity update:  On Friday at 7:00 AM they took the coach into the shop for a complete engine diagnostics.  The results showed, as we suspected the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) was shot.  Not good.  In addition to the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF), the Inlet Catalyst Module aka Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) was also bad.  The DOC likely failed first, dumping raw soot into the DPF, causing its failure.  Both are high dollar parts.  CRAP! The DOC is not in stock here and has been ordered, along with a couple of related air tubes and other minor parts.  Best case scenario is parts arrive Monday and repairs are completed on Tuesday.  So, we'll be parked at Cummins at least until Tuesday evening, maybe until Wednesday or Thursday depending on how things work out.

So, what do you do when you get bad news and you need leave your woes behind?  ROAD TRIP!

So, on Saturday August 10, we made a day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, about 65 miles from our parking spot.  Along US 36 between Lyons and Estes Park we saw a number of strange towers along the highway, about every 3/4 mile.  Dorcas asked me what they were, and I told her they were high water sensors for when the Little Thompson River floods.  Dorcas can sometimes be a little gullible, but she's not that gullible.  We learned later that they were actually cell towers.  This section of highway is very dangerous and previously had no cellular service.  Hence, they erected 31 mini cell towers along this 20 mile section of road. 

Many months ago we had made a 7-day reservation for Site #133 at Glacier Basin CG in the interior of the park starting Friday (yesterday), but due to our calamitous circumstances, we would not be able to use that reservation.  We could have checked in one day late (today) but our coach was still broken.  RMNP is an extremely poplar park and very crowded.  In order to reduce crowding and enhance the visitor's experience, they use a timed entry reservation system.  We had looked online and no entry slots were available for at least a week.  However, we were able to use our camping reservation confirmation to gain entry to the park anyway.  SWEEET!

Traffic jam at the park entrance 

After we entered the park, we headed to Glacier Basin Campground to check out our reserved Campsite D133.  It was an excellent site with a large parallel parking space and close to the bath house. We had not yet canceled our reservation, hoping for a miracle, so the site was vacant.  So we parked on it a while and walked Ginger around the loops. RMNP is not particularly dog-friendly, less so than many other national parks.  Dogs are only allowed in the campgrounds and on paved trails. 

It is a beautiful site!

What a view it would have been!

Glacier Basin Campground is on the road to Bear Lake, a very popular destination in the park.  We had passed signs alerting us that the Bear Lake parking lot was full, but we drove up there to see for ourselves. Sure enough, the lot was full and rangers were turning cars back.  There was a shuttle bus stop near the campground and we could have taken the bus to Bear Lake, but dogs are not allowed on the bus.  So instead we headed up Trail Ridge Road to the top of the world.

There were no bikes in the rack! Go figure

The Trail Ridge Visitor Center is at EL 11,796

These poles mark the corners of the building during high snow pack

Wildlife sightings on this trip were very sparse.  We did see a few herds of elk, but they were too far away for a decent photo.  We looked hard for marmots and pikas. but we found none.  DANG! I love to watch marmots and pikas.  I guess your wildlife sighting chances are reduced when you just have one short day trip to look for them.  But we did find some not-so-live wildlife at the Fall River Visitor Center.

I finally found a marmot!

As we were leaving the park I received a phone call from a National park reservations representative.  She was aware we had not checked in at our site and wanted to know if we were coming or wanted to cancel our reservation.  I had looked into canceling our reservation the day before and, based on the posted cancellation policy, we would not get any refund.  We still intended to cancel, to free up the site for another camper, but not before this day trip.  I learned from the representative if we canceled now, we would get a significant part of our reservation fee refunded.  So I did.  Every little bit helps.