In our family, I am the activity pusher. This sometimes makes me highly unpopular. Part of the reason comes from my delivery. Take Tuesday for example. It is only Tuesday and already John's week has been...trying. He is in charge of creating the AI component for his company. He has the added challenge of doing something that hasn't been done before, faster, cheaper and with European red tape. To add insult to injury, his day starts with calls at around 5am. That is a layered stress cake. John's way of dealing with stress cake is to spend money. So Tuesday he pops up like a prairie dog from the basement and says, "When my work day is over, I am going directly to Best Buy and buying the new Sonos sound bar that is coming out today."
I look at him blankly, "I have reservations for us to go to Rocky Mountain National Park at 4pm." This is an instant WTF moment for my husband. He operates on an assumption that I maneuver through life with the same type of logic he does. "It is a Tuesday," he says. "It is a two-hour drive (counting there and back). It is supposed to rain. When am I going to get my sound bar? Why didn't you plan this for the weekend? This does not sound fun to me."
I really should have told him about this when I realized the reservation was for that day. I thought it was for Thursday. Not that it would have made any difference, we would have been having the same conversation on Thursday rather than Tuesday. My logic says "ooooh, Fall color is coming to Colorado. We live here now. Claude, where can I see Fall color? RMNP you say, you have a link to reservations? Perfect." Only not so perfect. The first day to make reservations for Bear Rd. was August 1st. I am making these reservations at the end of August. Which means, nothing but 4-6pm slots on weekdays. I justify this as better because, A. fewer crowds, and B. John is usually done by 3pm, right around the time that we need to leave. I pay my $7, make a reservation, and promptly forget about it, until this past weekend when the alarm goes off in my brain that I think the reservation was right at the end of September. And it was.
Can I just take a moment to address the confusing situation that is Bear Rd. To get into RMNP between May and mid-October you need a reservation. That is between 9am and 2pm. Before or after that, you can just go in. However, what you can't do with that, is go on Bear Rd. That takes a separate reservation. If you just get a Bear Rd. reservation, you can't go into the park until the reservation time for Bear Rd. Unless of course it is after 2pm, then you can go into the park, but can't go onto Bear Rd, until your reservation time. Yes, this is all a complete pain in the ass if you don’t know what you are doing. Is it worth figuring out? Absolutely.
The reason the Bear Rd. reservation is so coveted? There are like 6 hikes to different lakes from this road. There is a giant meadow with a herd of elk that roam through it with views of Longs Peak, and a grove of Aspen. It is spectacular. For the McGurk family, Bear Lake is what we call BIG BANG FOR THE BUCK. John and Lauren don't like to hike unless the pay-off is big. There needs to be a waterfall, gorgeous views, something. They do not hike just to hike. Bear Lake is like 20 paces to the left off the trailhead. You can walk completely around the lake in 20ish minutes. For my husband who hates to backtrack, a circular trail is a bonus.
The conversation about Best Buy vs. RMNP occurred around 10am. We proceeded to ignore the pending dispute. At 2:30pm John seemed to be wrapping things up. I helpfully suggested we could stop by the Best Buy in Boulder on our way to Estes Park. I offered to drive so John could relax and enjoy the scenery. This produced a heavy sigh. Apparently my driving through the curvy pass isn't as relaxing as I think it is.
At this point, Lauren didn't seem to want to go. John was absolutely going to complain all the way on the beautiful drive. I marched upstairs, took off my pants (partly in protest and partly because I hadn't worn jeans in several months and my fat was being uncomfortably squished out the top), and got into bed. "What are you doing?" asked John. "Go get your sound bar. I am going to read." I say. "No, you're not, I changed clothes for the hike. I don't want to listen to you complain for 20 years if we don't go." I respond that I don't want to listen to him complain the whole trip AND for 20 years if we do go. That is what 27 years of marriage gets you. The knowledge that whoever doesn't get their way WILL be the martyr for eternity. John did say that Lauren and I could take the car and leave him at home. We only have one car and I am definitely the one who uses it the most. So, taking the car, on a Tuesday, for an unsanctioned field trip, that was a level of Martyrdom I was not prepared to deal with. Plus, we were going to get some good quality family memories dammit!
We did stop at the Best Buy in Boulder. "I hope they aren't sold out of the Sound Bar! It is the day of release and it is late in the day!" John said accusingly. I didn't say anything. What I was thinking: this is Boulder not Dallas. They have outdoors, that is their sound bar. But the minute I said that, we would arrive to them being sold out. Fortunately, I kept my mouth shut and they had plenty. So, with a subwoofer and speaker in the trunk, we headed off to the mountains.
I like the drive from here to Estes Park. Even with a terse family. Even while worrying I was dragging everyone on a fiasco. I had heard the color wasn't good this year because of the drought. It was obviously raining in the park. You could see thick heavy clouds shrouding the mountains. The 4-6pm slot was open because everyone knows you get storms later in the day. One of us was likely to be struck by lightning. Oh. My. God. My desire to see yellow aspens was going to fry one of us.
I emerged from my own thoughts of a crispy death to hear John's concerns that he had worn the wrong shoes, that the path was going to be more arduous than I had let on. That the drive was actually an hour and 25 minutes rather than an hour and we were spending 3 hours driving time for this instead of two. And, food needed to happen before a walk happened, McDonald's, just a couple of hamburgers would hold him over. It was my turn to sigh, which was a far better coping mechanism than screaming. I tasked my phone with guiding us to McDonald's. It was just starting to sprinkle as we exited the car.
Oddly, Mickey D's fries, cokes and cheap burgers performed their magic on our moods. We got back in the car far more pleasant humans than we had been. In fact, the drive from that point on was downright pleasant. Unsurprisingly, throngs of people are not rushing the Ranger station to get into RMNP at 4:30pm on a rainy Tuesday in September. We marveled at the stripes of gold coming down the mountain, like someone had inlaid precious metal between the evergreens. Smoky clouds swirled below the peaks. It felt like a scene one of my kids would dream up for a DnD campaign.
At such times I wish I could just sit and be satisfied looking, but I feel compelled to capture the uncapturable with the camera on my phone. I had 20 pics before we had even made it to the park and ride. John, "Park and Ride, you did not divulge that this was a park and ride. I do not do park and ride." Me, "Don't worry, I am pretty sure there will be plenty of parking at the trailhead." John starts counting the cars coming down as we went up. "There should be at least 3, 4, 5 spots." He exclaims almost happily. And there were, in fact, so many spots that we were able to park very near the front.
We step out of the car, into the scent of wet earth and pine. It had really dumped earlier. There are actual puddles on the path. How could the water be like a mirror so quickly after a downpour? It was stunning. Even Lauren said as much. My favorite time to be outside is Fall. Make that Fall, with a lake, leaves turning, my family (especially my no longer grumpy family), and crisp air refreshed by a mountain shower, that is a little bit of perfect right there.
We meandered for as long as people who have had two large McDonald's cokes can. Then we hurried to the pit toilets. Grateful they were right at the edge of the parking lot. The conversation going down was much different than the drive up. John, "That would be a really nice spot for a picnic. I had no idea this portion of the park existed. I had only been on Trail Ridge Road." I knew what he meant, that road is spectacular, but it is above the tree line, windy and unforgiving. It can be a continuous line of cars. It isn't the experience of finding a beautiful unpopulated corner by a stream and having a ham sandwich.
We came into the meadow where the paparazzi was photographing elk. The lenses were spectacular. Some were as wide as my forearm. I felt silly rolling down my window as we drove by, taking pictures with my phone.
All said and done, we were home by 7:30pm. We saw a beautiful lake, some lovely trees, a lot of deer and elk, and the cherry on top, a clear pink sunset after the clouds rolled away.
Success! Tuesdays can be something special. Even the grumblers agree.
Nice trip! Thanks for sharing, Jeanette.💚