Estes Park

If you have never been to Estes Park, Co you should put it on your list of places to visit. I have been here a number of times and as you drive up Rte 34 and enter the park the view of the mountains is inspiring. This trip was no different. Colorado has been blessed/cursed with rain and thunderstorms and unusually cold temperatures this week. All while the east is being hit with record heat, but I don't have to remind you of that. As I began to climb from the town to over 11,000 feet I expienced about everything nature could throw at me. The temp went from the low 80's to the low 40"s. Sun turned to clouds which then decided to dump rain, then sleet, then thunder snow and finally pea size hail which lasted for about 15 minutes and covered the road with ice balls. At the time of the hail, I was stopped in one of the two 25 minute construction zones where the traffice went to single lane with a pilot vehicle to follow. The Harley guys were really fit to be tied with all that chrome. My bike just seems to absorb the dirt. I am still cleaning mud from the Alaska trip last summer. I just leaned over my tank bag to take a nap and put my hand over my GPS to keep the hail from hurting the screen. Pea size hail hurts and the noise on my helmet was just "peachy". All the while the lightening is striking all around. This is well above the tree line so there is nothing but rocks and me sitting on a nice hunk of aluminum and steel. I just kept hoping that all the SUV's and motorhomes were a better target and I would be spared. This is the second time in a row that this mountain has dished out some pretty nasty weather. On my last visit with the Phat Pac we had to do a quick exit as a somewhat smaller storm blew in within minutes. One highlight though was that there was a huge heard of Elk at the top very close to the road. Unfortunately, my camera was put away to protect it from the weather and there was no place to pull over and dig it out. Sorry folks... here is what I did see though!