Not too much to report other than Wyoming is a REALLY large state…especially when you drive from one corner to the other.
We awoke on our covered porch Air BnB accommodation when the sun came up over the mountains. It was a very nice way to start the day, albeit about an hour earlier than we would have liked. We hit the road around 8 am and drove pretty much nonstop for 6 hours until we reached Fort Collins, CO. Once we left the Cody area, things got really flat – lots of scrub, some weird rock formations, the occasional tumbleweed across the highway. We were very glad to stretch our legs and fill our bellies at a brew pub (Coopersmith’s) in Fort Collins. We went for the beer, but the food stole the show – JD had the bison burger and I had a corned beef sandwich with tomato mushroom bisque soup that was delicious!
We then were racing daylight to make it across Trail Ridge Road before nightfall. We just barely made it. Sunset over the highest paved road in North America seemed like a great idea, except for the fact that we were driving directly into the sunlight. No sun visor and sunglasses could help. This, combined with the precipitous drop-offs made for some harrowing times crossing some VERY large mountains.
We decided to stay at the south entrance to the park, as it’s much less of a zoo than the Estes Park entrance, plus we found an adorable Air BnB on a lake with self-proclaimed adopted “grandparents” that came highly reviewed. En route we had two elk buck sightings, one of which included us braking so he could mosey across the road and let out his high-pitched bugle to his lady friends.
We arrived in Grand Lake safe and sound and can’t wait to explore the park properly tomorrow!
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