Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.

Beautiful mountain lakes, grassy meadows, and spectacular mountain panoramas. There is plenty of variety in this park not too far from Denver and just outside of Estes Park, Colorado. Like many U.S. National Parks, during the summer, reservations are required for entry at a specific time, so planning your arrival is essential. This park can get crowded, but it wasn’t bad when we selected to arrive last September on our annual fall trip.

There are two entrances from the east near the city of Estes Park, Highway 34 and Highway 36, but a short distance inside the park, highway 36 ends as it intersects with 34. From there, that single road meanders through valleys and peaks eventually exiting at Kawuneeche Visitor Center on the west side of the park. Of course, there are many viewpoints, campgrounds, and trailheads along the way. The image above features a view of the highway as it winds through the lowlands. We were stopped at a viewpoint higher up along the road.

At first, I was going to reject this image of the high plains meadows as the dark areas on the mountains made it look like I shot through a closed car window. Then I realized that the dark areas are just shadows of the clouds on the ground.

In the summer, the beauty of the high mountains is on full display for all who visit. There is magic in the winter as well, but it requires extra planning and awareness of the fact that winter weather can make the road snow-packed and icy. Road closures outside the park could also affect your arrival time in the park. On the bright side, winter reservations are not necessary.

Except for taking a short feeder road to Sprague Lake, we stayed along the main highway and captured the images in this gallery along the way. Weekend trips are challenging in the summer only because of the large crowds. The Bear Lake Road area has a separate reservation and on the day we reserved, and even though we arrived on a Tuesday, we couldn’t get a permit to enter the Bear Lake corridor. Reserve early and expect to arrive in your reservation window.

Hikers are best advised to hike early or late in the day. The trailhead parking areas fill up fast in the mornings, and as hikers finish their day hikes, leave the parking area open for other visitors. The lots, however, are mostly full through the mid-day hours. Only if you are lucky enough to arrive just as someone is leaving, you will be able to secure a place to park.

We spent some time at Sprague Lake as we did a few years ago, back then, we visited on a November day when snow and ice were plentiful. I wanted to capture some summer views of the lake.

Sprague Lake has a nice trail that is short and is simply a path around the lake. It affords many views of the mountains around this high-altitude lake.

This is probably my favorite summer photo of the lake. I was struck by how the ripples in the water made the clouds look like an artist’s brush strokes.

I end this post with a view of the higher Rockies that ring the park. For more information on making a trip to this beautiful park, you’ll find the park’s website here. This photo gallery was processed in Lightroom and Luminar Neo in 2K HD. You can click on any image to view it full size, or you can click here to see the entire gallery on my Flickr site.

Rocky Mountain National Park, however, begs to be photographed in panoramic vistas like the one in the opening photo of this post. Next week I will present an entire post featuring only panoramic images created on that beautiful autumn day in the park. I will also include a winter panorama of Sprague Lake to give you an opportunity to see the lake in November from a few years ago.

John Steiner

Estes Park, Colorado.

In mid-November, we headed south for our annual trip to Arizona. On the way through Denver, we visited our photographer friend, Fred, and his wife, Ellen. Of course, we included some sites to feature here on Journeys. Last week, I shared our visit to Estes Park and the Stanley Hotel. Just outside of town is the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. The photo above features a view of Sprague Lake. Still not yet winter in the park, only the higher elevations were white with snow, and then only small amounts in shaded areas. The lakes were not quite yet frozen over, though they were getting there.

The park was relatively quiet with visitors, though it clearly wasn’t empty of anything but the large animals. Fred commented that the last time he was in the park, the meadows were filled with elk. This year, not so much. We spotted a lone elk in the park and another on the outskirts. Human presence in the park was more active with people who were out and about with their cameras taking in the beautiful scenery.

In the shade of a large tree, a bull elk stood for a few minutes. Shortly thereafter, he trotted into the sunlight and I got several photos of him crossing the meadow. Unfortunately for me, something hung up on the auto-focus on my D500 and the only properly focused shot turned out to be the one in the image above. Not sure what happened with the focus, but I’m sure it was operator error. I haven’t seen it happen before or since I captured that sequence.

It was January 26, 1915 when Woodrow Wilson signed the Rocky Mountain National Park Act and the park was born. Today at a little over 415 square miles (1076 sq km), the park’s original 358 square miles (927 sq km) were managed with a meager budget. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps, (CCC), constructed roads, trails and buildings as well as managing the landscape. One notable difference with this park compared to other western parks like Yellowstone, Glacier, and Grand Canyon, there was no railroad service. This park was built and served for automobile visits.

During our drive around the park, we stopped at several viewpoints, but at Sprague lake, we decided to take a short walk on one of the park’s many trails. That walk was short-lived as the first parts of the trail were in the shade and it was covered with a thick layer of polished ice. We elected to walk over to the other side of the lake and a walking trail around the lake was much more navigable. Most of the images in the gallery below feature shots captured on that walk around the lake.

After leaving the park, we passed a beautiful church and we stopped to capture some images. My favorite is featured above. A Catholic Church, Saint Catherine of Siena Chapel, is located near the park in Allenspark, Colorado. The more well-known name of this church is “Chapel on the Rock”, completed in 1936. The Biblical phrase, “upon this rock I will build my church” was the inspiration for its construction. The large rock formation at its base became the foundation of the church envisioned by Monsignor Joseph Bosetti. You can read more about the church here.

Background material for this post came from the Rocky Mountain National Park website here. I submit for your review a gallery of images captured in and around the park. In most browsers, you can click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

John Steiner

Everything about the Stanley Hotel is big. From the size of the hotel, to the views of the Rocky Mountains, to the dreams of its builder, Freelan Oscar Stanley. When F. O. Stanley came to Estes Park for his health in 1903, he and his wife decided to build a grand hotel and by 1909, his grand resort was already helping to grow the small town of Estes Park.

Our goal for the day wasn’t to visit the hotel, but to explore Rocky Mountain National Park, only a few minutes from the city. All the same, a visit to the grounds and lobby of this grand hotel is worth the extra time. If you plan to stay in the area for at least an overnight, a stay at this famous hotel will cost you a minimum of $200 USD a night in the off-season. After all, it is a luxury hotel with full resort amenities and a great history.

F. O. Stanley appreciated the view from the front of his grand hotel. Even the statue that depicts the inventor focuses not on the man, but on the view. Yes, you can walk around to the front of the statue to gaze upon his countenance, but the sculptor wanted you to focus on the view Stanley saw once he built his dream resort.  The inscription on the pillar reads in part, “The legacy of F. O. Stanley in Estes Park is far larger and more enduring than any of the historic structures that bear his name…” – James H. Pickering, Estes Park Historian Laureate.

If the name Stanley sounds familiar, it should. In the lobby of the hotel during our visit, a Stanley Steamer stands as a testament to his and his twin brother, Francis, for their ingenuity and creativity. Several automobile models were designed and produced by the Stanley Motor Carriage Company between 1902 and 1924.

The hotel became the inspiration for another creative genius. Author and master of horror, Stephen King and his wife spent a night in room 217 back in 1974. Out of that stay came the horror masterpiece, The Shining. Though the movie that was borne from the novel was filmed on a sound stage and exterior hotel shots were from a different hotel, it was the Stanley Hotel that inspired the story. In the mid-1990s, a TV Mini-Series was filmed with Stephen King having a much more active role in its creation than in the original movie. According to the Trivia postings on IMDB’s website here, King was not happy with Kubrick’s creation and that was the impetus to create the mini-series.

King’s stay at the Stanley Hotel was late in the season and with few guests around, the inspiration for Jack Torrance and his developing madness was born. During our visit, which we admit was not an overnight stay, in early November showed the hotel just beginning holiday festivities. You’ll note the holiday tree displays in some of the images in the gallery.

The lobby elevator is a historic artifact in itself. Installed at construction in 1909, the hydraulic elevator was replaced in 1935 by an electric unit yet the hotel’s new owner, Roe Emery, kept the look of the original elevator hardware that is there to this day. The hotel has enjoyed good times and suffered hard times, changing owners often over the years. After a bankruptcy sale in 1995, the Grand Heritage Hotel Group bought the property and undertook extensive renovations that, along with the association to Stephen King’s horror masterpiece restored the Stanley Hotel to the grand resort that attracts visitors to Estes Park year round. The gallery of images below features both interior and exterior views of the hotel. On most browsers, you can click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the collection.

A history of the hotel published here provided source material for this article.

John Steiner