Subalpine Hiking in Rocky Mountain National park

Since we're staying on the West side of Rocky Mountain National Park in Grand Lake, CO most of the hikes available to us (under 10 miles in length) without driving a huge distance are subalpine...within forests and meadows, not breaking above the treeline. And boy, there are some pretty forests and meadows around here!

The day we hiked the Lulu City trail it had rained heavily the night before, giving everything a fresh, glistening, drippy, rain forest feel in the morning light and the animals were out in force.

Just minutes into the trail we encountered a deer, setting our expectations high!

In the morning a good place to find grazing moose is right along the edge of a meadow.
The bonus here was the baby moose behind the tree!

Close up of the cute baby moose!

This was the first time we had seen a young marmot, along with an adult.

There is very, very little left of the mining town of Lulu City,
but it sat along the banks of this branch of the Colorado River.

One of many meadows among these foothills of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Adult marmot...

Young marmot.

Another day we hiked the Onahu Creek and Green Mountain trails. This 8 mile loop took us gently up and over the hillside through open lodgepole pine forest, along Onahu Creek, and alongside Big Meadow. Though we heard of moose sightings from other hikers along the trail, we never saw any ourselves on this day.

Lovely Onahu Creek.

Fungus among us.

Big Meadow.

At one time the occupants of this cabin had a spectacular view.

Moose Encounters and Making New Friends in Grand Lake, CO

So we've moved on up to Grand Lake, CO for a couple of weeks. It's a lovely little mountain paradise that sits on the shores of the largest natural lake in Colorado and is right outside the West entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.

The town of Grand Lake on the shores of Grand Lake
as seen from the Grand Lake Lodge.

Getting mooned by a moose our first evening in camp!

We're staying at Elk Creek Campground and RV Resort and have seen moose in the RV park two of the four days we've been here! This park looks more like a state park campground than an RV park, with lots of trees and bushes separating the sites. The first morning we woke up to a very nervous Rosie, acting really weird and just not herself. Turns out there was a moose right across the road munching on the willows next to our neighbors rig!

Good morning Mr. Moose!

We've gone on a couple of nearby hikes since we've arrived. Both of these hikes start right in Grand Lake so they are quite popular in the middle of summer. Even on weekdays we saw several people on the trails.

First we hiked the 9.6 mile RT Shadow Mountain Lookout trail. This was a very gradual 1,500 foot ascent to just over 10,000 ft elevation. We were able to climb the historic fire lookout tower to enjoy the 360 degree views for many miles around.

Historic Shadow Mountain Fire Lookout

View to the South West includes Shadow Mountain Lake and Lake Granby in the distance.

We've also hiked to Cascade Falls from the North Inlet trail head. This 7 mile RT hike had minimal elevation gain and traveled in and out of forest, along interesting rock walls and led to a gorgeous cascading waterfall. The trail continues on for many miles and we saw several people heading out for multi-day backpacking trips.

North Inlet is one of several branches around here that make up the Colorado River.

Some of the interesting rock along the trail.

Cascade Falls at the top...

Cascade Falls under foot...

Cascade Falls in its full glory!

The wild strawberries are starting to ripen!

One more shot of the horse pasture because it's just so pretty!

The icing on the cake here in Grand Lake is that we finally got to meet Amanda and Tim of the blog Watsons Wander! After months of hitting the same areas just a few weeks apart, last night we met for dinner at the RV. Looks like our paths will cross again in a few months, maybe next time we'll get out for a hike together. We so enjoy meeting other full time RVers and sharing stories of the road!

Campground Review: Mt Princeton RV Park, Buena Vista, CO

Mt Princeton RV Park sits at the North edge of Buena Vista, CO; very close to, but not on, the Arkansas River. Nice views of the mountains that surround the valley. The railroad tracks just outside the park's fence are no longer in use. The park is a block off busy highway 24, which quiets down every night.

67 full hook up RV sites, 3 cabins for rent. Roads and sites are gravel; each site has a picnic table and BBQ. We had a pull through site (#C6) with a nice patch of grass, young tree, and fence separating us from the neighbors. Sections A, B and C seemed to be the newest and had more separation between sites than sections D and E (which had larger shade trees).

Amenities include laundry, restrooms/showers, playground and 3G wifi. Less than two miles to any services you need in town. Both our Verizon wifi and the parks wifi were pretty slow during much of our stay.

The park was full every weekend during our stay and had a handful of sites available during the week days. This is a well run park and we would be happy to stay here again.

Site #C6

To the West are the Collegiate Peaks.

One morning a couple of bucks walked through the RV park, he's in front of a rental cabin.

So Long Buena Vista, It's Been a Fun Two Weeks

This evening we relax listening to the patter of rain on our roof and the rumble of thunder in the distance. We've enjoyed staying in Buena Vista, CO at the beginning of monsoon season. We've had a few good downpours and many small showers during our stay; cooling the day down and keeping things fresh and green.

We find we really like this long valley bounded by two very different mountain ranges. We'd definitely stay here again, perhaps just a bit North or South so we'd have a different base to branch out from (though we have enjoyed staying at Mt Princeton RV Park...review will be posted tomorrow).

Here's a last few bits and pieces from our forays into the surrounding area...

Great venue for an outdoor concert...the Arkansas River is just out of sight below the band.
It's called The Beach, in Buena Vista's South Main neighborhood.
The band was Potcheen, a fun Celtic Rock band...and it poured on us during the show!

Agnes Vaille Falls

On a day trip to St Elmo we enjoyed walking around a well preserved ghost town.

Seemed like an odd place to dump a couple of neat old stoves.

A short but steep hike near town got us to Harvard Lakes:

Upper Harvard Lake

Lower Harvard Lake

Today we took a day trip to Salida, about 20 miles South of Buena Vista. It's a lovely historic town with the wonderful old buildings of downtown just a block from the river. There was lots of action on the river on this summer Sunday which made us wish we had brought our swim suits!

Love the detail on these old buildings.

The river was crazy busy with a steady flow of rafts, kayaks, stand up paddlers, tubers,
people floating in life vests, swimmers, jumpers and dogs all in the water!

Check out the feet sticking up from the inner tube as the water wins!

Tomorrow night we'll be settled on the Western edge of Rocky Mountain National Park for two whole weeks.

A Cheesey Good Time

About one mile North of our RV park (Mt Princeton RV Park) in Buena Vista, CO is a goat dairy farm where they make and sell cheese. Lots of really, really tasty cheese! Jumpin' Good Goat Dairy is a family owned and operated farm, cheese making factory, cheese shop AND they give tours a couple of days a week. The farm is committed to sustainable agriculture and humane treatment of their livestock.

Run by a mother and her two daughters, with only a handful of other part time help, the farm has 100 milking goats, three bucks and numerous baby goats. There is also a cow whose milk will be used to create new types of cheese as a comparison with the goat cheese, a pig who will end up being tasty product sold in the onsite store, a few horses who are ridden in local rodeos by the daughters, and even three llamas who protect the goats from marauding coyotes!

There is a small fee for the farm tour which is led by one of the daughters. We toured the milking and cheese making facilities, the cheese aging cave, and met the goats. Our tour guide had obviously spent her entire life in the family business and knew everything about the process from goat husbandry to getting the cheese on the shelf. It was fascinating!

This photo was taken as we left the farm, rain was heading our way!

13 goats can be milked at once at this milking station.
That's Dawn Jump, owner and cheese maker extraordinaire!

Viewed through a window we can see the cheese making facility and a couple of wheels of freshly made cheese.

The Cheese Cave

There were two of these rooms full of cheese wheels up to five years old.

Our tour guide describing the aging process.
She grew up in the business and was very knowledgeable.

The milking goats.

We got up close and personal with the baby goats.

After the tour we got to taste the many types of cheese at the on site store. Everything was delicious and we left with a feta, a parmesan, a fiesta chevre, some spicy cheese curds and some local spicy pickles.

We really enjoyed this experience and we learned a lot. Highly recommended!