Rocky Mountain National Park

I spent two nights in the park. The first day I did a quick “warmup” hike from Bear Lake up to Emerald Lake, just a bit over three miles.

The next day I started the morning from the Storm Pass trailhead, and hiked up to the top of Estes Cone, 11006. Over ten miles round trip and 3000ft. AMAZING views from the top.

The Mummy Range

Looking North-ish. You can see Lilly Lake in the foreground, Lake Estes in the background, and the Twin Sisters mountain on the right.

South view, I believe it’s Battle Mountain.

Some bad news, the Glacier Basin campground had been cleared of trees aggressively to combat a bettle infesttation, so there was no shade and whipping winds. If you camp in RMNP, make sure to book a site that sttill has trees.

Alpine sunflower

Moose!

Estes Park, CO

I spent three nights in Estes Park with my good friend Adam and his sister Alix. We hung out and caught up mostly, with fly fishing, a test drive of a Tesla, and a good hike in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Tuesday morning we went on a fly fishing outing with a guide. The fish weren’t biting much, but Adam landed two trout. Alix and I got skunked. We could see the jerk fish in the water looking at and then ignoring our lures. Our guide was great, worked really hard to keep us trying different techniques and lure types. I came to enjoy the appeal of the cast and reel; there’s a certain meditative Zen to it. If I could do that and catch dinner as a result, I can see some real appeal.

A friend of Alix’s has a Tesla Model S and after chatting with him passionately about it and the future of transportation, I asked if he’d take us for a ride. We all went Wednesday morning. He, unexpectedly to us passengers, let us all get behind the wheel and experience it ourselves.

The handling and acceleration are like nothing I’ve ever driven, even with four people in the car and going uphill in the mountains. The motor has so much torque and it responds instantly, giving the most generous and smooth acceleration I’ve ever experienced—it can just slam you into the back of the seat when you step on it. Conversely as soon as you let off the accelerator, that is, command the car to give less power and speed that it presently is, it immediately recaptures that power back into the batteries, which decelerates the car extremely quickly. There’s no “coasting,” that would be wasteful, as much power as is possible is kept in the system. With the low center of gravity and the immediately responsive acceleration and deceleration, you’re able to put the car just where you want it at just the speed you want. The connection between your mind and your foot and the movement and placement of the car is so tightly coupled that you feel a strong almost psychic connection to the car. That’s a big reason I enjoy driving a stick shift, I have better intuition and connection with how the car’s power will behave. The Tesla mind/body/car connection is so much better than a stick shift I would never look back. It was a totally new experience, and an absolute pleasure to drive.

Aside from power and handling, the car is a beauty to use. Magic door handles that appear and disappear when you’re close. Near silent operation (just tire and wind noise, but no engine). No fluids to maintain (only window washer) or oil changes. Amazing cargo space since there’s no engine. Simplicity of engineering, no liquid cooling system or lubrication system, pretty much just batteries, a motor, and steering. A clever glass cockpit. Free super-chargers (no fuel costs!). Free maintenance. The car has 3G built in, wifi and a mobile app to monitor charging status etc. Adjustable car height above the road. The only drawback is range anxiety, but if you look at Tesla’s 2015 vision for super chargers you can see that won’t be a concern for long.

I had high expectations for Tesla, and they were exceeded. Adam and Alix knew very little about Tesla at the start, both ended the day looking at price, tax credits and lower cost of ownership than a petrol car, and concluding that the Model S and X are reasonable purchases, not just luxury automobiles. I couldn’t agree more.

After the drive we went for a hike in Rocky Mountain National Park at Wild Basin, about six miles round trip with a few beautiful waterfalls.

It was great staying in one place with a living room and friends—it recharged my road trip batteries a good bit. Thanks guys!

Denver, CO

I overnighted in Denver after the previous night in Westtcliffe with my buddy Greg. Just outside of the city I went to the Wings over the Rockies aviation museum. I like military aircraft so this was a pretty neat collection. The B1 and F14 were favorites, along with the nuclear bomb (case only of course) collection.

I stopped in Colorado Springs for brunch and found a gluten free bakery and diner, Coquette, that was great. First time I’ve had French toast in a long time!

I then met up with Greg and his friend Jen, and we had dinner and a couple drinks on his building’s rooftop. A neighbor was there too and we had a great time getting to know each other. In the morning, I joined Greg at his yoga and then I left town. Good first look at Denver, I owe it a lot more attention than I gave it.

Westcliffe, CO

I met up with an old work buddy from quite a few years ago. All I knew was that on Facebook he was now living in some mountain retreat somewhere with wildlife and amazing views. Turns out he had a health scare a few years ago and given a short time to live – so he looked around at his keeping-up-with-the-Joneses lifestyle and decided to give it up and go live on some spacious land. He ended up buying this 35-acre property in Westcliffe, and it took 15 minutes of gravel road driving to get there. Thankfully the health scare was a misdiagnosis, and now he has this amazing lifestyle that he deliberately chose and created for himself.

Inspirational story. We should all be conscious of what our goals would be if our days were numbered. And challenge ourselves to make it a reality and understand why we haven’t yet. Are we held back by societal norms – the Joneses? A mortgage, a car, your obligations, too many keys on your keychain? Relationships, employment? Or perhaps the most insidious reason of all – keeping of the status quo.

Mesa Verde and Durango

After the Grand Canyon, I was motivated to work North toward Estes Park to meet a friend visiting from Australia, so there were a few quick days of driving. The first night was in Durango, CO, and I passed through Mesa Verde National Park along the way in. Cool native American history, as these mud brick buildings were built into cliffs and inhabited about 1000 years ago. The ruins are almost entirely original structure too. I just did a quick stop, one cliff dwelling and the museum, but apparently there are quite a few cliff dwellings to see.

Dinner in Durango was at Serious Texas BBQ – very good brisket and pulled pork and reasonably priced.