Mark your calendars for May 7th, you do not want to miss the Estes Park Duck Race. This event is organized by the Estes Park Rotary Club. For a $20 donation you can  ”adopt” little rubber duckies and choose one of 69 different Estes Valley charities to benefit from your adoptions. Rotary keeps $1 to cover costs and gives $19 to your chosen charity. At 1pm these ducks are dumped in the river at Nicky’s and they travel down the cold Fall River to the finish line at Riverside Plaza.  If your duck crosses the finish line first you can claim one of the major prizes: 46″ LED TV, iPod speaker system, Nook e-reader, NetBooks or 700 other prizes. This is a fun event for the whole family so come on out and cheer the ducks.  Wear your long underwear, it is snowing as I type this.  Crazy spring weather!  See you there!

Savor Estes Park is the opportunity to sample 24 different restaurants in town each Thursday in March.  Patrons are encouraged to visit 2-3 restaurants each week and enjoy quality dining at a discount price of $3 for a 6″ plate of their specialty foods and a glass of wine, beer or soft drink. Reel Mountain Theater is also participating by offering a matinee show at 1pm each week.  Over a thousand people participated last year so mark your calendars for lots of fun and food.  Download your map here. I hope to see you there.

A couple weeks back I went to the Ski and Recreation area presentation to the Estes Park Town Board. Here is my brief description: This project would involve a redevelopment of the Elkhorn Lodge and Guest Ranch property on the West end of Elkhorn Ave in Estes Park turning it into a small scale ski area and 4 season recreation area. This historic property is one of the oldest continuously run historic properties in the country and unfortunately one of the most endangered. This is an exciting opportunity to renovate the old lodge, offer a year-round adventure and ski park for people of all ages.
The snow would obviously be man-made, with a chair lift to take you up the ski run, and an alpine coaster that could be used year-round. In the winter there would be skiing and snowboarding for beginners to intermediate levels, lessons for skiing and snow boarding, tubing, the alpine coaster, snow shoeing and ski biking.

Summer activities would include the alpine coaster, canopy tour or zip lines, mountain biking, hiking, fishing, horseback riding and mountain boarding. Pinch me please, can you believe this? The final, also very exciting, aspect would be an arts district with possibly a performing arts center.

The project developers are seeking the Town’s cooperation to be the applicant for state regional tourism funding via state sales tax incremental funds. The application must be completed by mid March so the presentation was made in a hasty manner and with apparently not enough details for the Town Trustees who varied from supporting the project to combative. The short time line is unfortunate because the town is only able to support it in name only not with any financial backing for the research. Frank Theis and Todd Jirsa made the presentation and have done an outstanding job researching and putting this together. I do want to thank the Trustees who are open to this concept and voted to support it. Continue to contact town board members and let them know your thoughts. Many many questions to consider but it’s nice to see people open to dialogue that will bring us closer to a clear concept of this project. We can’t know if this might work here if no one is willing to take a risk. Being a real estate professional here and also recently sitting on the Fine Arts Guild of the Rockies board I can see huge benefits for the entire town. We may not get a performing arts center built otherwise. I personally would really like to see it done soon so I can enjoy it.  I would love to hear your thoughts on this so please leave me comments here.

Estes Park has pedestrian trails that connect downtown to Lake Estes and then continue West to Fall River Rd and also South to Carriage Hills.  This includes the Riverwalk trail along the downtown river corridor and also the trail around Lake Estes.  Locals and visitors alike take to our town trails to enjoy our outdoors, exercise or simply get from point A to point B. With shopping and dining so close together it is great for visitors to park their cars and breath in some crisp mountain air along these paths.  As a local, my kids use it to ride their bikes to schools, I use it to walk my dog and run safely away from traffic.   In April, the Parks and Recreation Department received a grant to assist with an addition of a new section of trail.  The grant is slated to fund an 2.43 mile section beginning at the Fish Creek Trail and ending at the Lily Lake Trail head.  This new section will be an eight foot wide soft trail estimated to cost about $875,000.  The grant from Great Outdoors Colorado is covering $450,000 and the town is contributing $50,000.  The remainder of the funds come from the mill levy increase approved by voters in 2008 for trail maintenance.  Upon its completion we will have a continuous 9 miles pedestrian trail from downtown Estes Park to the Lily Lake trail head.  Construction will be in early 2011 and be complete by the end of the summer.  I am excited, what a huge benefit to us.  I love the outdoors and Haley (my Golden Retriever) and I are going to enjoy using this new trail.  Thanks Estes Park!

I have been doing a lot of research for a historic listing of mine on Virginia and came across this old video. This historic Rocky Mountain National Park video shows old lodges from the 1920′s time period and is fascinating.

If you know where these are located it is fun to explore these sites and look for clues of earlier inhabitants …. If you note the locations of trees and other natural landmarks you can see today that many of the trees still stand today. The lake at the Hallet Lodge has been drained, but you can see the hill where the lodge sat and a two of the large Ponderosa Pines remain on the site. This lodge is seen from Horseshoe Park close to the Lawn Lake Trailhead. We are rich in history here in the Estes Park Valley I encourage you to take the time to explore and learn more about it.

When I lived in central Kansas I had an acre of land surrounding my house with lush flower gardens, a vegetable garden and an herb garden.

Prize KS Sunflowers

From April to October there was always something in bloom. I couldn’t really grow grass, but anything else did well in my yard. I really miss playing in the dirt so I am gardening again this time in the mountains, well trying…between the animals and the climate I am ready for a war.

I have lived here for 4 1/2 years and last year was the first year I actually put anything in the ground. Before that I had containers all over my deck and front porch. I got tired of replacing plants after they were destroyed by a herd of elk grazing through the neighborhood so I gave up for a while. After we got our dog, Haley, we put up a fence and so that helped keep the elk away, but they still eat flowers in the front yard. Haley is Garden Enemy #1 in the backyard. She stomps on my plants constantly. I think I had two tomatoes last year and only a few peppers.

Haley=Garden Enemy

Elk love Petunias

There was a existing raised bed that I have cultivated so I can experiment. I have mostly perennials in one half and veggies in the other. So far I have Columbine, Hyssop, Daisies, Purple Coneflowers, Poppies, Sunflowers, Yarrow, and Gaillardia. In the other half, I still have a few flowers but planted Blue potatoes, Russet potatoes, Roma tomatoes, Rhubarb, Cucumbers, Sweet Baby Watermelon, Canteloupe, Zucchini, and Strawberries.

Strawberries

Veggie Side

I also have two hanging planters the upside down kind. They stay soggy all the time I am doubtful they will work, but I planted Toms in one and Peppers in the other. I was only able to do this in the last two weeks because it got so cold late in the year. Last weekend I took all the containers in the garage and tarped the bed. Now it is warm and sunny and we should get growing soon. Tonight I laid out my soaker hose and tomorrow I will stake it down. I will keep you posted about my progress and hopefully I can inspire some budding gardeners who are frustrated with gardening at 7500′ of elevation like me. Please post any suggestions!

You start this hike from the Glacier Gorge Trail Head.  Parking this time of year is starting to fill up, but this Monday it was fine.  Shuttles are running from the Park-n-Ride if you need them.  Slightly overcast and warmer than the cold weekend weather I was able to get by with a fleece and raincoat. The day before I would have wore a parka.

The water is still running fiercely in the rivers, streams and trails in the park. I had to do a lot of rock hopping to keep my boots dry.

Along the trail to Alberta Falls

I usually don’t go by the way of Alberta Falls and prefer to short cut, but today I wanted to see the falls with all the amazing snow melt we are experiencing. It is still early summer and the trails were not crowded. Alberta Falls is such a short hike you see all types of hikers-serious backpackers or people out for a stroll wearing pressed shirts and Dockers pants.

Marsh Marigolds

Glacier Creek

Alberta Falls

The plants and wildflowers are going to be extravagant this year. You can see the foliage starting to come out as the snow melts away. We didn’t encounter any snow on the trails until right before the Loch where there is still a large snowfield. The sign for the lake is still partially buried in the drift.

Snow field before the Loch

Cathedral Wall at the Loch

This is a great intermediate hike, only 2.95 miles to the Loch. If you are hiking with children, places to stop and rest along the creek are plentiful. Later in Summer you will find raspberries and lush Columbines in the area where the trails split to go to either Mills Lake or the Loch. Right now you can see the Marsh Marigolds ready to bloom along the creeks and drainages.  Great views of the park to North and also Half Mountain as you hike. Once you arrive at the Loch the landscape and cliffs are amazing. Sit on the shore and enjoy views of Powell Peak, Taylor Glacier, the Cathedral Wall, in the distance Timberline Falls. If you choose to continue you are only 1.4 miles from Lake of Glass.  See you on the trail!

This week in June our community comes together under the co-direction of Terry Chiplin and Belle Morris and puts on the Estes Park Marathon, one of the premier high-altitude races in the country. This weekend of events includes a fun run, 5K, 10K, half and full marathon.The courses are all beautiful, if you love to compete you do not want to miss this event.  I had two runners this year so I was crew, cheerleader, mom, wife, and volunteer today. My daughter who is in 8th grade ran the 10K and my husband ran the marathon. Since he is training for the Leadville 100 Trail Run, this should have just been an easy run for him except for the weather.   The forecast was for rain and a cool 36 degrees. We don’t mind the cold, but wet is another story. It wasn’t just sprinkling, it was a downpour.  The dedication of the volunteers and runners was inspiring.  Cold and wet, but both kept going until the end.   Two new items this year were the chip timing and the promotion of going cup-less.   All runners were given a chip to tie on their shoes and at certain intervals on the course they had to run over timing mats which record their splits and finish times.  Also all the half or full marathon runners were given small plastic pouches called HydraPouches that clip on their belts so that they can just fill them and not have to get a paper cup each time.  My husband didn’t use his because they only hold about 3 ounces and that is not enough.  One of the major problems at the aid stations was the drinks, iced down water and Gatorade.  The runners were frozen like popsicles and needed warm liquids, but no one thought of this.  I was running home to get warm water to fill my husband’s bottles because his hands were blue from carrying ice water.   My husband did have a scare and the aid station medic tried to get him to drop because he got too cold and was shaking uncontrollably, but after sitting in a warm truck for 30 minutes he was ready to finish it out.  The volunteers were just outstanding, I can’t say enough about their dedication and concern for the welfare of the runners.  My husband got an Estes Park Marathon finishers medal and is still grumpy about his time of 5 hours, but you never know what mother nature is going to hand you in Estes Park.  My daughter set a new personal record for her 10K time and finished first in her age category.  Being 13, she doesn’t have much competition because all the teen runners run the 5K instead.  I was very proud of her. You can check out the results on the EP marathon.org website.  I didn’t take many photos because of the rain.  Here are a few from the start line.

Estes Park Marathon 10K Start

Video of the start, I don’t think the staff realized that by letting the runners step on the mat it started the clock. My daughters started her watch at the countdown and she was 2 minutes off and so were some other people we talked to at the finish.

What is an Estes Park Snow Day?  Here it means that we have a foot of snow on the ground,  it’s still snowing and quite possibly the weatherman is going to be wrong, but we aren’t sure which way.  Last Wednesday was our first day of canceled school for the year.  You can check your calendars again, yes it was October.  I can never get my kids up in the morning, but at 7:30 am they were outside with me shoveling snow and for the rest of the day sledding and building forts.  Fortunately it stopped snowing that evening so we missed the 3 feet that was forecast.  Across the rest of the state it continued to snow that night and the next day with up to 2.5+ feet in some areas.

In Estes, we have our own little micro-climate.  We are completely surrounded by mountains and usually that works in our favor.  When big storms come through we almost always get less snow than the Front Range.  It was a regular work day for me so I headed to the office, later at the grocery store it was a social occasion I saw so many people I knew.  The snow didn’t keep most folks home.  There was school on Thursday, all the roads and paths were cleared.  The park department is so great usually the walking paths are cleared before the roads are.

walking path

I could have gone snowshoeing or hiking, but decided since it was so pleasant on Thursday I was going to take Haley for a run and we ended up at the dog park.  She loves the dog park and pulled me the last quarter mile.  When we got there she was so sad, there were no other dogs there. She really didn’t know what to do with no dogs to chase.

She loves the snow and dove into a snowbank on our way back.

snowbank

Mt. Olympus

Elk on 18 hole golf course

Well now as I write this almost a week later it was 60 degrees and breezy with beautiful blue skies. Other than the January winds there is not much that keeps us inside. Please visit us in the winter, you will be not be disappointed!

We are reaping the rewards of a very wet Rocky Mountain Spring in Estes Park. I recently hiked to the Big Pool on the North Inlet trail leaving from Grand Lake. It was 10 miles or so round trip and the wild flowers were the best I have ever seen.  The first mile or so of the trail is a jeep road because there is a private cabin along the trail. Once the trail narrows we saw fields of columbine in varying colors of rich periwinkle and light blues.  On the East side I have seen clumps of columbine, but these fields were amazing.  I also saw my first Calypso Orchid in a top secret location.  Along the trail further in we saw red columbine.  The vegetation was lush and we had to keep moving to ward off the mosquitoes. We stopped at Cascade Falls on our way to The Pool and took a break on the huge boulders and listened to the roar of the water.

Blue Columbine

Calypso Orchid

Red Columbine

Lush vegetation along the trails

Cascade Falls

I know many visitors to our area in Estes Park choose to remain on the East side of the park, but I would highly recommend exploring the trails in the West section of Rocky Mountain National Park.