Lori Smith Estes Park Real Estate - LiveInEstesPark.com

If you have never visited Estes Park in the Fall, please add it to your list of MUST DO THINGS. The fall colors are breathtaking and the weather is surprisingly enjoyable. It’s crisp in the morning, but warm and sunny in the afternoon. . . and you don’t have to deal with the pesky summer thunderstorms so you can hike all day! Last week I hiked to the summit of Twin Sisters. This is a beautiful fall hike of 7.4 miles RT and is moderately steep. You enjoy views of Longs Peak, Estes Park and many snow capped mountains to the South in Indian Peaks Wilderness. I was hoping to see some Big Horn sheep, but they were all hiding out somewhere else.

As you near the summit there is a rocky lookout where the marmots hang out.  My husband seized the opportunity to play on the rocks while we waited to see some. No such luck, anyway gotta keep moving to the summit.  We were risking getting caught in some weather that was forecast to hit late in the day.  The views from the summit are fantastic.  Here is Longs Peak with HWY 7 below.

Finally the weather was coming in, we got snowed on coming down the mountain.  This pic is of the Twin Sisters summit as we drove back toward Estes Park.

I wanted to bring to your attention a couple of websites. The first one is called www.housingtracker.net. This site shows real estate trends in metropolitan areas around the country. I know with the upcoming election, bank bailout and stock market drop real estate buyers in our market are wondering when they should enter the market again?
Use this website tool to analyze three data points: selling price, inventory and median. The selling price shows the stability of a particular market. The inventory shows if the market is healthy or stagnant. In the Denver area you may notice the inventory is dropping as the median asking price is rising. That is good news for everyone.
In the Estes Park area, our 2008 sales volume YTD is $102,000,000 with the median last quarter being $342,500. Average days on the market for the 3rd quarter was 203 days.

For more information on the benefits of home ownership and how to know when the right time to buy is please visit www.housingmarketfacts.com . Owning real estate can give you a financial edge in today’s market. Hopefully this information can help you watch our market from afar and when you are ready to buy I would be happy to prepare some detailed market information just for you.

Hiking up the Moraine

When planning a trip to RMNP you really have to be ready for ALL the seasons. Mother nature could throw anything at you. Early this summer I had the day off and went hiking with my family and unfortunately it rained on and off the entire day. We had one extra layer and rain gear so it wasn’t so bad, but my girls thought it was torture. Chasm Lake is one of my favorite hikes so I pleaded with them to continue. We saw some gorgeous summer flowers and a herd of elk in Jim’s Grove with lots of new babies so it made it all worth while. If you have hiked this you know that on the side of Mount Lady Washington right before the lake in most months of the year there is a snow field. It was quite slushy and with only hiking boots and no poles only my husband and oldest daughter went on. It still was a great day, but my point is always think ahead.  I had extra layers and rain gear, but If we had hiking poles and yak tracks for foot traction we could have gone on to the lake and successfully arrived at our destination.  Instead we turned back early.

Wildflower