It was snowing when we woke up this morning.
And, as you can imagine, it was quite cold. The temperature itself wasn’t all that bad – it was the 40 mph winds that we weren’t prepared for. Something about a wind storm of the century across the Midwest region. ??? Nice.
In addition to the snow day, it was also Twister's 10th Birthday so we had his birthday party before heading out. :)
We drove into town and stopped by the Colorado/Estes Park visitor center. The snow hadn't made its way to town, but the wind was still whipping and bitter cold. Across the bridge from the visitor center, there's a golf course with some odd players.
We were warned of the dangers of aggressive elk...
After observing these aggressive critters for awhile, we were lucky to get out alive... ;P
We drove around town and checked out the Costa Rican restaurant that was advertised at the visitor center. Uhh....???? Yeah, okay, everyone makes mistakes. I'll just ASSUME you'll be open tomorrow.
As we made our way through town, we found the Estes Park Mountain Shop Outlet Store and picked up a few things – a pair of waterproof and windproof winter outer pants, a neck gaitor, and a pair of fuzzy pajama pants for me and a pair of gloves and a couple pair of pants for Bill. Everything in the store was on an uber sale and I’ve never seen so much North Face gear in one place. The glove selection was phenomenal. Three entire walls easily held 100 different kinds of gloves. I had packed a lot of my winter gear knowing I’d be cold at elevation, but regular windproof/waterproof rain pants are not enough warmth for the cutting cold. It was time to bring on the winter gear.
The weather was starting to move through town,
so after our shopping spree, we went back into the park and stopped at the visitor center to watch the park video. Meh…not the best we’ve seen. I was however impressed and grateful for this...
Several parks ago, I told Bill that the NPS should put up posts in front of the park signs for picture taking. Finally! - someone somewhere is thinking.
The wind was blowing the snow and obscuring the sun and the wildlife from view...
We were back at the trailer by 3pm.
Neither one of us was inclined to hike in 40 mph winds. Hiking should be fun, not an exercise in warding off hypothermia. Everyone seemed happy to be inside and enjoying the warmth of the down sleeping bags...
You can likely figure out what our afternoon entailed. We’re just burning through those DVDs. :P
No comments:
Post a Comment