Day 82-85 Estes Park, Colorado - I could so live here!

Dropping 400 or so miles down from Hill City, Wyoming through some grass plains, and high desert we finally entered into a canyon and rode beside the Big Thompson River at the bottom of canyon walls that seemed to go straight up a few hundred feet, winding our way through like we were at the bottom of a giant crack in the earth. This is beautiful country here in Colorado just east of Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Entering into Estes Park, it is more than a tourist town and the gateway to RMNP. I had a bit of trouble putting my finger on what makes this place different, but it is almost like a tourist town that hasn't quite yet become spoiled, i.e., it has been able to hang onto its roots and managed to serve the traveler without giving up it's hometown feel. Hard to describe but great to experience. One experience we have had of late has been issues with the availability of places to stay. When we started this journey in May, we would simply drive as far as we could, pull into a park and stay the night, no problem. With the increase in summer travelers, that has now become a thing of he past and we must spend considerable time working reservations along the way. Sometimes we have to move within the park we are staying in due to prior commitments. That part isn't much fun any more. When we arrived at the RV park we picked in Estes, they had botched our reservations and put us in a psace that was too small for our motorhome and only had 30 amp power. After 30 minutes of haggling, they moved some reservations and finally got us in our spot. Whew! We ventured into RMNP and were wowed once again by the beauty of nature. Throughout our stay we hiked from 7500 feet up to 8000 to view beautiful hidden lakes with trout that moved in the water beneath your feet, and saw views straight from photography books. I had a chance to fish both streams and lakes and the trout are aggressive and great fun to catch. Again, a beautiful place to visit and one I could actually live in. Tomorrow it is on to Denver to have manuals printed, make final preparation for next week's class, pick up our care packages from home we had shipped to the training hotel (our mail, things for my class ,etc) .