Estes Park cabin overlooking  Lake Estes with mountain views too. Beautiful half acre lot with mature trees. This home has totally been redone with hickory hardwood throughout, new hickory kitchen cabinets, new appliances, roof, siding, deck and stamped concrete patio. Cozy fire pit off the deck.  This truly is an amazing 1 bedroom 1 bath home with large mud room and abundant storage, over 700 SF with all city utilities. Offered at only $259,000.  This won’t last, call Lori 970-232-5511 today!

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.

My husband, Alan, and his friend, Michael Hodges, ran up to the Alpine Visitor Center on May 19th before the road opened.  They drove to Rainbow Curve on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park and parked there to start their run.  It is 17.25 miles round trip to the visitor center and back with 2000′ of elevation gain.  They did have to deviate from the road because of the snow removal operations going on. Here is a short video of some amazing snow I think you will enjoy

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.

The hottest real estate deal of the summer is happening. One of the most talked about listings in Estes Park is now under contract.

This is the highest priced single family home ever listed on our MLS. Listed for $7,500,000 this beautiful mountain home in Windcliff Estates has views that are unsurpassed and a heated driveway. This spectacular structure boasts 7500 sq. ft., 7 bedrooms, 8 baths and a custom built circular log stairway to each of the four levels. With views like you might find in Switzerland, you do need a Swiss Bank account to afford it. This price might not seem like much for a ski resort town, like Vail or Aspen, but until now the highest priced sale on our Northern Colorado MLS was just under $3,000,000. Not that we don’t have property valued in this range, it’s just that nothing this expensive has been listed in the MLS before now. Currently 18 single family homes are listed for over a million dollars, compared to only 4 homes five years ago. We have to wait to see what it sells for, but one thing is for sure. Estes Park is moving up!