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How hard is it to exchange into Estes Park?

Krteczech

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We'll think about extending the end into October - really want to be able to travel over Trail Ridge Road so concerned about onset of snow closure there.[/QUOTE said:
The Trail Ridge road is closed as of today due to snow. We were lucky to drive thru last weekend. Snowdrifts by the road exceeded eight ft in some places.
 

OldGuy

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So it would be hard to get from here to there. :eek:

My inner ears don't do elevated elevations well, so on some of those cutbacks it would be a tad hairy, so we seldom went all the way from here to there.
 

OldGuy

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So it would be hard to get from here to there. :eek:

My inner ears don't do elevated elevations well, so on some of those cutbacks it would be a tad hairy, so we seldom went all the way from here to there.

Related . . . 8000 foot elevation, and no elevators in The Golden Eagle, it always took a couple of days to get acclimated. Flatlanders can often underestimate that, and simple hikes become strenuous.
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There are a lot of beautiful drives around Estes Park. Not just in RMNP, but 36 from Longmont or 34 from Loveland, or the Peak to Peak Highway to the casinos at Central City/Black Hawk. Or, try north on Devil's Gulch Road from Estes Park, and back to 34 on Dry Gulch Road.

One night driving from Longmont/Lyons to Estes Park, we rounded a curve, and there was a mountain lion crossing the road in our headlight beam. We were both stunned, and said something like, "Wow! Was that what I thought it was?"
 
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TheHolleys87

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klpca

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We did a day trip from Beaver Creek to the west side of Rocky Mountain NP a couple of years ago to go hiking. It was about the third week of October and the weather was beautiful. It had snowed recently but enough had melted that the hiking was unaffected and driving was easy (it was still a good 2 hours drive, though). We were in Estes Park over Memorial Day the previous year and were able to take the Trail Ridge road to the Alpine visitor center (that was our destination - not sure if more was open) and had huge snowdrifts on either side. Hiking was limited to the lower elevations, even near Estes Park. Shoulder season travel always comes with a bit of uncertainty about the weather.
 

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We did a day trip from Beaver Creek to the west side of Rocky Mountain NP a couple of years ago to go hiking.

That's quite a drive to go hiking. I know that road, I think . . .

Berthoud Pass, Winter Park, Fraser, Tabemash, Silver Creek, Granby, RMNP

We had a week in Winter Park in '92, and the local realtor (Elk Horn Realty) did the welcome party for all timeshares. Then, you could go do other things with them, so we went trout fishing.

We wound up buying a diamond in the rough foreclosure from them.

FWIW, all of that is from my warped memory.
 

klpca

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That's quite a drive to go hiking. I know that road, I think . . .

Berthoud Pass, Winter Park, Fraser, Tabemash, Silver Creek, Granby, RMNP

We had a week in Winter Park in '92, and the local realtor (Elk Horn Realty) did the welcome party for all timeshares. Then, you could go do other things with them, so we went trout fishing.

We wound up buying a diamond in the rough foreclosure from them.

FWIW, all of that is from my warped memory.
We will absolutely make a 2 hour drive for good hiking :). Plus we had a guest who wanted to visit a national park. My daughter was driving so I have no recollection of the route, just the time involved. I remember thinking that I was glad that I didn't have to do the driving. I just took a look at my notes, and the trail that we did was the Green Valley Trail https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colorado/green-mountain-trail--2, easy incline with a gorgeous meadow at the top. I was surprised to see it rated as moderate because I don't remember it being that difficult - it still registers as an easy hike in my brain, but maybe that's because earlier in the week we went from Beaver Creek to Beaver Lake the day after we arrived from San Diego. Which meant that on Sunday morning I was at sea level, and on Monday we hiked in the snow from 8,000' to 9,600' elevation and I thought that my lungs would burst, lol. https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colorado/beaver-lake-trail But we passed a group of three ladies who were coming down from the lake after having consumed a bottle of champagne (props to them for hauling that thing up the trail, lol) so obviously it wasn't really that bad of a hike.
 

OldGuy

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http://www.rockymountainhikingtrails.com/hanging-lake.htm

When we were much younger, we went to the Hanging Lake trail, which is actually on I-70. Since it says moderate, we didn't give it much thought. But, on the way up we saw even-much-younger people sitting, winded, and everyone had ample bottled water.

Wow! By the time we got to the top, the waterfall and Hanging Lake, I remember that we drank from it.
 

Laurie

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http://www.rockymountainhikingtrails.com/hanging-lake.htm

When we were much younger, we went to the Hanging Lake trail, which is actually on I-70. Since it says moderate, we didn't give it much thought. But, on the way up we saw even-much-younger people sitting, winded, and everyone had ample bottled water.

Wow! By the time we got to the top, the waterfall and Hanging Lake, I remember that we drank from it.

Yes! We drove over and hiked up to Hanging Lake, during our timeshare week in Vail (preceded our Estes Park exchange) -- very worth it. I needed my walking stick for the descent, it's steep! Afterwards, a relaxing dip over at Glenwood Hot Springs pool, which I loved also.

We went to Glenwood Hot Springs pool 2x - one day we drove a big loop as I recall and came back thru Aspen way, visited Maroon Bells and walked as far as we could get around the lake -- I had read about this on TUG! -- absolutely stunning, lived up to all the accolades, and worth the time because we got to experience some of the very best of Colorado on this trip.
 

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Touching story from the Twin Sisters trail on ABC Nightly News today.

A blind hiker with a lady with spina bifida in his backpack giving him instructions.
 

TheHolleys87

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Our OGS matched! We just confirmed a booking for the Historic Crags Lodge in late June. Looking at the photos online on the Diamond Resorts website and others, it's just the kind of place DH and I love. Looking forward to enjoying the area!

PS I was hoping to update the Subject line for this thread to indicate that we matched, but I can't see a way to do that.
 

OldGuy

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Our OGS matched! We just confirmed a booking for the Historic Crags Lodge in late June. Looking at the photos online on the Diamond Resorts website and others, it's just the kind of place DH and I love. Looking forward to enjoying the area!

PS I was hoping to update the Subject line for this thread to indicate that we matched, but I can't see a way to do that.

Good for you. That's our kind of diamond in the rough, and we stayed there in June several years. If we had not, and if we had a TS bucket list still, it would be on it.

FYI, there are maybe three units in a building out in front of the main building, and the tram runs right by behind them.
 

OldGuy

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Our OGS matched! We just confirmed a booking for the Historic Crags Lodge in late June.

BTW, folks can call it the Crags all they want, but to us it will always be The Golden Eagle. One visit we actually saw one . . . golden eagle.

Looks like it might have gotten officially renamed in 1998. The Crags is the name of the small subdivision on the side of Prospect Mountain that the lodge sits in/on.

The Crags Lodge is eligible for the National Register under Criterion A in the area of entertainment/recreation for its association with the development of tourism in the Estes Park area from 1914 to 1935.

Another early hostelry was Elkhorn Lodge (National Register listed), formerly established in 1901 with the construction of a lodge building, but actually dating back to the late 1870s when the James family boarded tourists at their ranch house. The most famous and elegant of the early hotels was the complex erected on a hill at the north end of the park by P.O. Stanley. Stanley began construction in 1907 and two years later opened his Stanley Hotel (National Register). He soon followed with a manor house, built for year-round occupancy, and a theater building. Several other large Estes Park area tourist facilities trace their founding to the years shortly before the First World War. Automobile roads from Loveland and Lyons provided greater accessibility to the region by this time and stimulated the growth of the town of Estes Park, established in 1905. The new tourist hostelries included The Crags Lodge (1914), the Baldpate Inn (1916, National Register), and the Hewes-Kirkwood Inn (1917, National Register).

https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/0d92c6d0-c4dc-4af2-aee5-e2b63e16ee23


https://www.google.com/maps/place/C...92860296996ff!8m2!3d40.3719047!4d-105.5235628
 

OldGuy

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FYI, there are maybe three units in a building out in front of the main building, and the tram runs right by behind them.

The new-er annex was built around 1920, and there are six units there. The tram runs by the two (I believe) on the left. You can sit on their little decks sipping your morning coffee and wave at the people on the tram.

https://www.estestram.com/
 

TheHolleys87

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