Theres Bear in them hills

Bonnie got here Tuesday night around 5:45 pm. I had worked till 4 and then drove the 55 miles from Loveland to the Denver airport in rush hour traffic to get there Just 5 minutes before she got off the plane. We headed back to the hotel so we could unload her gear and then went out for diner. We had a couple of locally brewed beers and some decent food and retired for the evening. On Wednesday I had to work until 6 then we went shopping until the stores closed. We had to get to bed, as we were headed for Estes Park in the Morning.

My new shoes

We got up early and headed up to Estes park at 8 AM. The drive up is very pretty and picturesque. We got into Estes Park by 9am and went straight to one of our favorite restaurant called Molly B's for breakfast.

Breakfast joint

After breakfast break

After eating our fill it was off to shop. The town has a very quaint shopping area, and we needed some tourist shirts.

doing what she does best

Quaint downtown Estes Park

We spent the day shopping and just wandering around town looking at all the beauty the area had to offer. Around 5 we figured we better find a place to stay so we headed over to the Lazy R cottages to see if they had any available. 

Lazy R and my car...hey..that rhymes

sitting on the deck

They did have one open and rented it to us for 100 bucks. It is usually 170 bucks but because we had stayed there several times before they gave us the good customer price. It was a 2 bedroom cabin, decorated in a rustic motif, it was really cute. (Bonnie's words) 

Well?? Is it cute?

We went for diner at the Estes Park Brewery. Started it off with a couple of beers and ended it with a large pepperoni pizza. We left stuffed as we tried to eat the entire large pizza in one sitting.

We went to the cabin and sat on the deck enjoying the view then went to bed. We had to get up early to head into Rocky Mountain National park to see the wildlife.

The next morning we got up and got dressed and headed the couple of miles to the park entrance.  Just before you get to the entrance you pass a visitors center. as we were approaching the visitors center I noticed a couple of park rangers in the woods. I pulled in to see if they were rounding up a moose or something. I parked the car and we walked towards the area where the rangers were standing. You had to walk past a restroom station before you got to the woods. Bonnie stopped at the concrete pad where the restrooms were, and I proceeded into the woods toward one of the rangers. All of a sudden I heard Bonnie yelling at me, what did she say? Bear? I looked up and there was a large black bear walking right toward me. I started backing up, trying to snap a couple of pictures as I retreated. It is a weird feeling having a bear 40 feet from you and no cage in between. As I backed up to the relative safety of the concrete pad I was formulating a plan to barricade ourselves in the restroom until the bear was gone. I think I actually had the door locked when Bonnie started knocking....oops, panic is not a good thing. She said the bear had turned back toward the woods. I came out to watch the bear a little more until he disappeared back into the wild. What a cool experience that was. At least it was once it was over.

What is that black thing?

Hey..wait a minute..I think it is a bear!

Run away...run away!!

To the relative safety of the concrete

I took this one right before I locked myself in the restroom

He is still looking for me

He jumped off this wall and headed for the woods

After we told the other tourist that showed up to see the bear, and showed them our pictures about the experience, we headed to the park. We headed up to the Trail Ridge road route. It is the highest continuous paved road in the US. It was a beautiful drive to the summit of several mountains.

That is Estes Park down below

Me climbing a mountain

ending at, what I can only describe as a walmart looking parking lot in the most unusual of places. We came around the corner of this 12,250 ft summit to see a parking lot full of cars. I started to laugh because it looked like a walmart parking lot. It was actually a gift shop/restaurant/visitor center/restrooms/etc.
We pulled in and decided to eat. It had big windows beside the table with very nice views right outside. As a matter of fact there was a heard of elk right down below us. 

View out the window

The little walmart

What a view!!!

seriously!

As we left to head back down, we stopped into the visitor center and I saw the temp was 34 degrees up there.

We headed back down and on the way saw a large elk standing beside the road in a meadow.

Elk in the meadow

As we were almost out of the mountains we stopped to check out this river and saw a mountain goat up on the ridge.

Goat in the hills

Then it was home to our hotel in Loveland because Bonnie was flying out early Saturday Morning. It was hard to take her to the airport. The hardest part about doing these assignments is not to have her with me. I have to dry my eyes and go to work.....Later