Rocky Mountain National Park & Staying with Strangers 2

Riding around the Rockies is a blast but I was tired of seeing all the mountains from the road, I wanted to get off the bike and do some hiking. It was time for a little excursion into Rocky Mountain National Park.



The vistas were endless at the park and so were the amounts of other visitors that I had to fight with to get a good camping spot. I got lucky and found a vacancy in a beautiful valley in the Bear Lake area. All was well until the park ranger charged me $20 for a campsite. This is one of the few downfalls of traveling alone, incurring all of the costs for accommodations. So, with pain, I forked over a crisp $20 bill and told the park ranger that I was willing to share my site, since all I had was my little motorcycle and tent. After a leisurely dinner of canned ravioli with the friendly family across the dirt road from me, I needed some fire to heat my cans of food and you have to BUY wood at the campground, a older biker pulled up to my site and went half-zies with me on the price. He was from Kentucky and talked a lot like Boomhower from King of the Hill. He recently sold his house to live in a trailer. He had his own tent and didn't try any funny stuff so he gets an A on the nice stranger report card. Although he was pretty boring.




The next day, I did a long hike up to Flattop Mountain. It wasn't too hard but it did take 4.5 hours and I didn't use any high tech backpacks, hydration bladders or walking sticks. I had my water bottle and rain jacket tied to my belt and a granola bar in my pocket. I got lots of great pictures and a few are in this entry and the rest are found through the link. What I didn't catch on with the camera was some of the high altitude wildlife, such as: Marmots, little running bird things, and a rabbit thingy but with short ears, dear and elk. The view from the top was amazing and I even got a panoramic video that will be up soon.






Everything from my knees down ached and I still didn't know where I was going to sleep that night. I had the best luck of getting a spot at the camp grounds on the other side of the park because they were less crowded. So off I went on a ride that was much more than I expected. It was hard to drive for more than five minutes without having to jump off and take another picture of a awe inspiring vista or massive wild animal munching on greens. The road zig-zagged up the mountainside, up and up, higher and higher, until I was well above the treeline. I eventually found myself in an alpine tundra, bundled up in every piece of clothing I brought and on the crest of a mountain range. The pictures do the best talking, I cant do the views any justice with words.



I eventually found myself at a west side camp ground searching for water. I was very dehydrated because I ran out of water at the top of the mountain trail I hiked earlier and had to pack snow in my bottle in case of emergency. I struck up a convo with the family camping where the water spout was. It was their family reunion and the mother was telling me how they ONLY had 14 people this year. So I replied, "Oh, that's too bad. Want some more company?" They immediately welcomed me in for the night and even provided an extra blanked and to share a tent so I didn't have to set mine up. It was a long night of stories by the campfire and music by The Pogus. The Richardsons kept me laughing until late in the night and stuffed my face with a delicious breakfast in the morning. When it was finally time for me to leave they declared me one of their own and said they would keep track of me on this website. THANKS AGAIN RICHARDSON FAMILY! I might show up for next year's reunion.