With temperature in the 80s, we set off to hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. We started at Bear Lake’s trailhead.
The hike was probably 6 miles roundtrip. Unbelievable views at Alberta Falls & Mills Lake.
The night ended back in Moraine Park with Fat Tires around campfire.
Woke up to 40mph winds and light snow at Moraine campground. Took us awhile to repack everything and get into our car. On our way out of the park, we stopped on the side of the road to photograph some large elk. Heidi busted out the camera and was filming a short video clip when I happened to look in the rear view mirror for cars behind us. I didn’t see any cars, only a black bear scampering across the street about 50 yards behind our car. After that excitement we headed into Estes Park for breakfast and the free downtown internet access so I could post more pics/video. Eventually we ate at The Egg and I which is a small chain we found out afterwards. Good food and great service.
With the crappy weather conditions, Trail Ridge road was closed which sucked since that was our plan for the morning. We decided to head to Fort Collins on our way to Boulder. Fort Collins has many things to do, but we were primarly there for one reason: New Belgium Brewery, the 3rd largest craft brewery in the US (behind Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada).
New Belgium Brewery was interesting. Huge on the marketing side. Tons of mercandise to buy, lots of modern/eco-friendly memorabilia and oh, beer on tap. The tour was fun, but I’d actually agrue Summit’s tour was better. Sure, New Belgium has a huge 60 acre campus, fancy nik-naks hanging everywhere, blah, blah…but not much was really mentioned about their brewing process or yeast strains, etc.
On our way into Boulder, we decided to stop by Left Hand brewery in Longmont. Tried their Sawtooth Ale and Porter, both were fantastic. Left the bar with a sixer of the Sawtooth. (We later found a sampler pack with 4 different beers)
Drove to boulder, stayed at the Days Inn. The place needs a remodel! But it was clean and cheap.
Foolish Craig’s for dinner(Thanks Shern). Had a great vegan sandwich which lit my mouth on fire…awesome.
Day 2 started off with great weather and a gorgeous drive to Rocky Mountain National Park. 
Getting into the park and into Moraine campground was a breeze. 20$ for us, 20$/night to camp. Great deal. Our campsite was on Loop B, very quiet, great view. Here is a shot right behind our campsite:
We didn’t want to cook in the park due to Heidi’s fear of animals. 
So we headed into Estes Park, a big tourist town right outside the park. Pizza and Fat Tire was great @ Poppy’s.
The rest of the night was back at the campsite. A nice warm fire and a game of cribbage (a lucky game for Heidi) kept us busy. The view of the stars was spectular.
Heidi and I woke up at 3:30am in Owatonna. On the road by 4:00am! We could summarize most of the ride as crappy. Throughout southern MN and all of Iowa it was raining, at times a down pour. Nebraska was, well, Nebraska. Pretty boring.
13 hours in all with a few quick stops and a nap at a rest stop in Iowa (they have wifi at most rest stops!). We got into Denver early evening with enough time to go eat at Breckenridge Brewery. Wow, the food was good and the beer was GREAT! I tried their Vanilla Porter and Pale Ale. I’ll be looking to pickup some Vanilla Porter before we leave.
Barack Obama is supposed to be at the Pepsi Center today planning the DNC convention which will be in August. We might stop by to see if anything is happening.
On Friday night STP rocked the Roy Wilkens auditorium. The whole band is back together again and it’s apparent when you hear them play. I was pleasantly surprised to see the band play with cohesion after years apart. Weiland was his usual goofy self, dancing all over the stage. The DeLeo brothers had great stage presence as always. Tickets were about 65$ with all the lame Ticketmaster fees, but it was well worth it. Check out their schedule and go see them!
( photo from Tom Wallace, Star Tribune )
Set list:
Big Empty / Wicked Garden / Big Bang Baby / ?? / Vasoline / Lounge Fly / Lady Picture Show / Soul Girl / Creep / Crackerman / Plush / Interstate Love Song / Too Cool Queenie / ?? / Sex Type Thing / Sin
Encore: Dead & Bloated / Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart