Great Western RV national parks tour - prequel and day 1

 Prequel:

Margo, mom and I flew to Denver on Sunday, June 27th to stay with my brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and niece until it was time to embark on our journey.  We picked up the 30-foot RV from Cruise America in Federal Heights, Denver on Monday afternoon and spent the rest of the day shopping for provisions, figuring out where to store everything in the cabinets, and practicing driving the thing in the Kohl's parking lot nearby!   We think we're ready to roll!

Bonus feature:  we saw 2 great horned owls sitting on the roof of the neighbor's house! 

Day 1: Broomfield, CO to Lander, WY via Rocky Mountain National Park

Still on eastern daylight time, we were all awake before the 6am alarm went off.  On the road by 7:15am, we headed for Estes Park, CO.  Once there we went to Kind Coffee for breakfast, met a few friendly dogs and their people, and then walked around town a bit.  Margo saw these wonderful lamps made from fallen aspen tree trunks and we ended up buying one and having it shipped home.  A few more souvenirs later and it was time to head into the park - we had a timed pass to enter between 11am and 1pm, a pilot program started last year to try to manage the number of visitors within the park.  It seemed to us that it worked pretty well because it didn't seem crowded at all, despite all the news stories about the national parks being jammed this summer.  (More on that later...)  We drove up Fall River Road to Trail Ridge Road and kept climbing until we reached the Alpine Visitor's Center at 11,796 ft altitude, stopping once to look over the valley below Many Parks Curve.  After taking in the view from there, we made lunch in the RV before descending Trail Ridge Road on the west side of the mountains.  Trail Ridge Road is closed most of the year because of deep snow and is passable only in the summer months - it was closed as recently as May because of last spring snow.  There are multiple switchback turns on the way down but the RV handled well and we had no problem getting down the other side.  As we approached Grand Lake, CO we could see the devastation from last year's wild fires - acres and acres of burned tree trunks and scarred land.  Oh, and we also stopped to watch a bull elk with gorgeous antlers cross the road in front of us, and later saw a female moose browsing off the side of the road!  Once we reached Granby, CO, it was a long haul to Lander, WY and the Sleeping Bear RV Park and Campground.  We hooked up the electricity and filled the water tank and made our first dinner in the motorhome.  Time to rest up for the drive to Grand Teton National Park in the morning!