Day 19 - RMNP Day 6

 Our last full day in the park began with a visit to the Alluvial Fan. 

We headed out around 8:20am and within a few miles arrived at the Fall River entrance to the park. We had no wait at all. It was a short ride over to the Alluvial Fan trail head parking area. The temperatures were about mid-50s, the skies were overcast and the ground was still damp from the showers that fell overnight.

This area was formed in 1982 when an earthen dam (naturally made) at Lawn Lake broke. This allowed approximately 300 million gallons of water to rush down the Roaring River. The rush of water collected trees, rocks (some as large as 450 tons) and drove them down the mountain to this area. The resulting debris field created the Alluvial Fan which is 44 feet deep in spots. It also created Horseshoe Falls. The rush of water and debris didn't just stop here. It continued down into the the town of Estes where it caused significant flooding with water and mud as deep as 6 feet. A more recent flood has also added to the debris field. The park service reconstructed the area in 2020 to an accessible trail to the falls.

We parked in the East parking area and had a short but steep climb up the path. There were signs saying it was a 19% grade, which didn't seem especially accessible. Once we got up to the flat area facing the falls, we could see the West parking area. It had a pathway with a much more gradual ascent. Rob used his tripod to get some long exposure shots of the falls and runoff area. The cloudy skies helped as the lighting was a bit dim. He even got a few long exposure shots with us in them (first picture at top). Rob had about 12 seconds to run up the rocks to stand next to Michele since he left his remote clicker in the trailer.

Some rocks were especially pretty with pink quartz in them, this one is well over a foot in diameter.

The park service took great care to make this path, we figured a lot of heavy machinery was involved in making the path borders out of the boulders.

There weren't too many people in the falls area making it possible to get pictures of the falls without anyone in the way. With the pictures of the fall taken, we walked towards the West parking area a little, then turned around to walk back to the East parking area where we had parked. Just in those few minutes many more families showed up. As we walked back down the steeper path on the eastern side, an older lady was struggling a bit up that steep section, helped by her family. Rob told them that the walking from the western parking area would be an easier walk up and it was only a 2 minute drive from the East parking lot. The folks thanked us and turned around to go back to their vehicle so they could walk from the west side. The lady told Michele she's 88 and walks a bit slow these days. We thought she'd do just fine from the West parking lot.

We finished up there and headed directly to the laundromat so we'd have a new batch of clean clothes for the rest of the trip. Village Laundry in town is a nice laundromat and had good online reviews. We were able to each get a load washed and dried in an hour total. It was lunchtime when we were done, and the skies were starting to look a bit gray. We rode back to the hotel and covered the bike, but the rain didn't materialize. We ate lunch and used up our picnic ingredients from the week. By now we're a bit tired of ham and cheese wraps with red peppers, tomatoes and stone ground mustard!

We spent the next hour or so getting our bags repacked and reorganized after being in one location for an entire week. With those chores done, around 2pm we decided to take a walk around town since we had not really explored it yet. We think 50% of the shops in Estes are t-shirt stores. There are a ton of them! The shops are nice and it's definitely touristy, but not tacky. In front of the Town Hall there was a craft fair going on. Locals had nice tent canopies set up and were selling crafts and products, so we looked around a bit. The skies started to turn really dark in the westerly direction of the mountains, so we started making our way back. There is a glassblowing shop close to our hotel and Michele wanted to visit it all week. A man was pulling hot glass as we walked in. It is a beautiful shop with decorative items of all colors and types. Rob even commented that it was a cool place. 

Back at the hotel, Michele FaceTimed her parents to say hello. Then we watched movies and made dinner in our kitchenette.

Tomorrow is our last day to visit the sights in the park on this trip. We plan to drive through it via the entire length of Trail Ridge Road on our way to Golden, Colorado where we'll stay for two nights.