EPIC COLORADO ROAD TRIP

DAY 1

What do you do when you’ve had 4 hours of sleep and then 12 hours in transit to reach the first stage of your Rocky Mountain solo road trip, to find yourself in the middle of a summer hail storm? Hole up in your home on wheels with a bottle of wine and your Kindle, and then sleep for 12 hours, that’s what!

I’m now well rested, acclimated to my little truck camper that will be my home for the next 10 days, and preparing to hike a bit in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) before driving over the alpine ridge that the brochure calls “Nature’s Knife's Edge.” The Trail Ridge Road is only open 4 months out of the year, and will take me across the “Continental Divide,” where the snow melt that chooses to flow east will eventually make its way to the Atlantic and that flowing west will reach the Pacific.

TINY HOUSE STORAGE

I have always thought that RVs and campers are renown for their clever storage nooks. This little camper has a shocking dearth of storage. And I have already broken 5 nails trying to pry or twist open the few storage compartments there are (#firstworldproblems). And the biggest storage fail of Day 1 was the little refrigerator. I had provisioned myself at Safeway before hitting the road and stored a few items in the little fridge. When I arrived at RMNP a couple hours later and opened the camper, I found strawberries, blackberries, and cantaloupe pieces splattered all over the interior of the camper. Not. Joking. The fridge had flown open, and although nearly everything had fallen out, only the little fruit bowl I’d purchased had popped open, flinging fruit everywhere. Luckily, I had also purchased handiwipes and paper towels. So while the hail pounded the roof of my little home, I was on hands and knees cleaning mushed blueberries. I am still finding them 2 days later.

I will blockade the fridge door much better today.

Home away from home

DAY 2: TAKING THE HIGH ROAD

Literally. The Trail Ridge Road through RMNP reaches 12,183 ft. This makes it the highest continuous paved road in the United States. It was a truly spectacular drive. I stopped at the many vista points and took about 50 photos. Here are a few:

12,000 ft, just off Trail Ridge Road. Just the morning before I had been at sea level back home.

Elk, right off the road

Alpine tundra. Apparently the rock formations here are a specific pattern found in the tundra, created by... the freezing and thawing of the soil? Or was it by snowdrift patterns? Or something.... I'm not sure I see it.