After yesterday's blog, Mrs. C' and I went to explore RMNP a bit more. We drove the Trail Ridge Road as far as it was open -- just above 10,500 feet. That's still 2,000 below the top, but the road isn't open up there. The view was fabulous. We are running on batteries again tonight, so the pics will have to wait. Also, cell phone data is seriously limited here. Just getting connected to write this is a challenge.
Sometimes the best way to enjoy a National Park is to step back from it. That's what we did today. After coffee, breakfast and a nap (camp life can be exhausting) we headed to nearby Lyons, Colorado. Having been conditioned by our initial impressions of Estes Park, we were prepared for anything in Lyons. We were pleasantly surprised. It's a smaller town than Estes Park, buts its mix of hardscrable, older, upscale, hippie, mountain presence was more balanced, more authentic and more pleasing than Estes Park. After some shopping, we ate lunch at the Farmer Girl restaurant. It's a farm to table type place with an eclectic menu. It did the trick.
Still trying to avoid having to look at one more amazing, snow-capped peak, we decided to stop in Estes Park for a movie. I told you how small the town of Estes Park is -- 5,800 year round residents. I also told you that the summer season sees 1,000,000 visitors. So, what do you think Estes Park would have for a movie theater? Did you guess "12 screen multiplex"? Wrong! Did you guess " a single screen with 250 seat auditorium built in 1913"? Right! If you added that the Park Theater is the oldest continuously operating movie theater in the western US then you get bonus points.If you also knew it's listed in the National Register of Historic Places then you go to the head of the class.
The owner are a couple a bit older than us. She sold us ths tickets. He ushered us into the theater and proceeded to give us a history of the theater including detail of the flood of 1982 that flowed through the auditorium where we were sitting. We were the only people in the theater to see Tom Hanks in The Circle. It was a private screening in a historic building. The experience with the theater building, history, and the townsfolk definitely upped my opinion of Estes Park. It didn't rise as high as Lyons, but it certainly popped enough to leave Jackson, Wyoming secure in its place and the least genuine town we've visited in the west.
So tomorrow we move back into the Central Time Zone and back into lower, warmer climate. We're ready. Colorado has been beautiful and welcoming from Trinidad to the San Luis valley to the front range, but our next stops are pulling at us. We've also got a mechanical issue brewing with the trailer -- we're leaking fresh water -- and I'm hoping to carve out a day in the next few to address it.
To any Moms who are reading this on Mother's Day (including my own... Hi, Mom!... you see... I grew up to be a blogger... a REAL blogger!) Mrs. C' and I wish you a Happy Mother's Day. Thanks for all you do to keep our families strong!
Later...
SC'
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