Breckenridge CO

80 miles west and 4,320 feet higher in elevation is Breckenridge (or Breck as we locals call it), our next stop. A cold front with snow is predicted for the Rockies in the afternoon, so we need to make sure to get past the Eisenhower Tunnel (11,158 ft.) before the storm starts. The drive is beautiful.

We're spending a few days at Tiger Run RV Resort halfway between (5 miles each way)  Frisco and Breckenridge.

The area is beautiful with mountains and aspens all around. Altitude... 9,200 ft? No problem, I'll adjust to live here...

Tom and Tank take off up the hill just behind the RV park, which is U.S. Forest Service land. They have a nice little hike up to a meadow with beautiful views of the valley below as well as the mountains on the far side of the valley.

Breckenridge is a touristy town that is popular during the summer as well as the ski season. We treat ourselves to a fancy dinner at a restaurant in downtown Breckenridge called Relish. We started with escargot and a curried butternut squash soup made with coconut milk.

Entrees are: herb grilled Cullotte steak in truffled hunters sauce with creme fraiche mashed potatoes and haricot verts and seared Peking duck breast in a bourbon maple blood orange glaze and butternut squash duck leg confit hash.

Finally, dessert is baked Alaska. MAN, that was good!

The next day, to work all that food off, Tom decides to dust the cobwebs off the road bike. He goes for a ride up thru Breckenridge and beyond up to the town of Blue River before turning around and having a blast bombing back down the hill.

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Denver area

Grand Lake CO was a wonderful place to visit, but Denver is calling us now.

We're headed 105 miles southeast to Standley Lake Regional Park in Westminster at the north end of Denver. To get there, we get to cross the Rockies while it's snowing. Awesome!












We spend a couple of days at Standley. It's no longer snowing, but our time there is rainy and overcast. While we are there, we visit Boulder, a cool college town, and Arvada, apparently a pickleball hot spot.











From Standley, we head 35 miles south to Chatfield State Park in Littleton at the south end of Denver. The Denver metropolitan area has a population of over 3 million, and we got to see how much it looks like many other large cities as we drove through.

Chatfield has a resident herd of deer, that we saw frequently, and numerous bunnies that taunted Tank mercilessly.

We start our first day with breakfast at Pierre Michel French Cafe. The owner is a transplant from France who came to the US to give his children more opportunity. Breakfast is the Croc’Brie, ham and brie on their home made Brioche bread, for Tom, and blueberry and raspberry French toast made from their home made Brioche bread, for Wendy. Do I even need to say that their home made Brioche bread is heavenly?

After breakfast, we drive around the foothill area of town and end up in Morrision at the Red Rocks Amphitheater.

It's an open-air amphitheater in a spectacular setting. We did not get to go inside because they were setting up for a concert, but Tom decides to take a little hike to see if he can get a better view.

Red Rocks is also home to the Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame. Their biggest exhibit is of John Denver memorabilia. One other cools thing about the Hall of Fame is that they allow dogs in the building. National parks and many state parks won't even allow dogs on the trails let alone in buildings, so this is pretty astounding for us.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Although it is beautiful at Chambers Lake, and we would love to stay longer, it is now time to move on. We've had a few days to acclimatize to 9,200 feet, so now we're ready to tackle the rest of this high elevation state! The next leg of our journey is an 81 mile drive west, then south, then east to the southern entrance of the Rocky Mountain National Park.

The drive is a bit of a shock. The forest at Chambers Lake was beautiful and full of gold and green from the trees. As we progress further into the Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests, the devastation from the pine bark beetle becomes obvious. One-third to one-half of the pine trees in the forest are dead, so very sad to see. We stop just outside the Park entrance at Elk Creek Campground & RV Park in Grand Lake, CO (elev. 7540 ft.).

The campground has willows all around and is just a nice rustic setting. Apparently, willow is a favorite food of moose. The first day there, we met one of our neighbors who said he had a couple of run-ins with moose (including a face-to-face in the dark) in the campground. Although we kept an eye out, we did not see or meet any moose in the campground.






The day after our arrival, we check out a couple of other campgrounds, including Timber Creek Campground inside the park, as possible base camps. When we reach Timber Creek Campground, it's a little barren. Unfortunately, all of the trees in the campground have had to be cut down due to the pine bark beetle infestation. This and the fact that our RV is too large for any of the campsites, makes staying at Elk Creek Campground a much better option.

Another to do item is a drive on the Old Fall River Road. On entering the park for the drive, there are a lot of cars stopped along the roadside. This can only mean one thing, wildlife! It's a herd of elk in the meadow.

Our first chance to see them up close. There's a buck with a full set of antlers too. We get to hear him bugle; what a treat.

To get to Old Fall River Road, we must drive the Trail Ridge Road, which is the highest paved road in any National Park, cresting at 12,183 feet, to the opposite side of the park.

It was darn cold and very windy... for Wendy at the summit

The Old Fall River Road is the original auto road into Rocky Mountain National Park. It was opened in 1920 and the Park Service calls it "a motor nature trail." It is a one-way, uphill, gravel road that twists and turns and exits at the Alpine Visitors Center.

The next day is an easy hike through Coyote Valley, where we hope to see moose.

Someone on the trail sets us on to a bull, cow and calf he had seen down the road. We go down the road and find the moose resting. We do get a few so-so pictures before we are chased off by a park volunteer.



On the way off the trail from seeing the moose, Wendy twists her knee and can't even walk to the car. This means a visit to the emergency room and rest for the next couple of days of our stay.

Fortunately for Tom, he's not confined to the RV while Wendy recoups. He finds there is pickleball in Grand Lake and it's just up the road from our campground. As usual, he makes new friends who want him to stay, but we've got to be on our way.

Chambers Lake Campground - Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests, Colorado

As we head into Colorado, our original plan was to head south towards Denver and visit the east side of the Rocky Mountain National Park along the way. Discovering that all the campgrounds around Estes Park (on the east side of the park) are either closed or totally booked, we, instead, head to the, less easily accessed, west side of the park. Considering that this is a 220 mile trip through the mountains, we need to find a campground somewhere along the route.

We pass several campgrounds along the way. Fortunately, Labor Day has passed, so the campgrounds are not packed to the gills. The first stop is at Canyonside. The on-paper appeal is electricity to run everything. Unfortunately, the in-person appeal isn't there. Next stop, Aspen Glen. Beautiful aspens everywhere...and a drive through so tight, we almost lose the Subaru! Onward again! Too bad Chambers Lake is so far off the highway...dirt/gravel road...too narrow...Hey! Wait! the turn-off is paved! Let's take a look!

After circling the campground, we find a site high on a hill (as if being at 9,200 ft isn't high enough!) with a view of the lake.

It was getting pretty chilly, so Wendy set about building a nice, warm fire. The next morning we got our first dusting of Colorado snow.

While we are here, we get our first view of the aspens as they turned for the fall.

Robidoux RV Park - Gering, NE

Now that we've seen the Badlands, what do we want to see next? Answer: the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. We decide the best route is through a state we have yet to see, Nebraska.

9/5: We start by heading 118 miles west then south to Hat Creek Campground in the Angostura Recreation Area in Hot Springs, SD. It's mid-week, so we are able to find a nice campsite next to the reservoir where Tank and Tom can play in the water, so we spend a couple of days there.

9/7: We continue south for 143 miles into Nebraska. The destination is Robidoux RV Park in Gering, a nice little community just south of Scotts Bluff, NE. Getting in late, we debate on where to find dinner. Everything seems to be closed, so Tom picks Antonio's Taco Shop. Wendy is a little leery of Mexican food in Nebraska and chooses something safe for dinner. BUT OMG!!! Best Mexican food she's had in years! Just had to get that plug in...if you're ever in Scotts Bluff NE, go to Antonio's.

The Scotts Bluff National Monument is just a few miles from the RV Park.

We spent a day hiking the Saddle Rock Trail from the Visitor's Center to the top of the monument. The trail is 1.6 miles up to the top and has beautiful views along the way.

There is a foot tunnel that was carved by hand and passes from the south to the north side of the monument. 

Overlooking Gering NE

Not far from the top is a view of Saddle Rock.

Not much farther and the heat and dehydration does Wendy in. We call the visitor's center, and they send a ranger to shuttle her down while Tom and Tank take the trail.

We should be moving on to our next stop, but Tom finds a reason to stay a couple of extra days--pickleball!!! Tom even meets wonderful people who share their heirloom tomatoes with us!

Before we leave, we have a last dinner at the Monument Grill at the golf course. Beautiful course with great views of the monument.

9/12: We drag a reluctant Tom away from Gering and pickleball to head 102 miles south and west to the Cheyenne KOA. The KOA is only a stopover where we have electricity to battle the 90 degree temperatures before we reach Colorado.