July 6, 2021
Vanlog, Boulder CO
So I slept in a little today, not leaving my campsite until 8 AM. It was a nice campground with showers, WiFi, dump station, water, all for $10 in the shadow of Scott's Bluff NM. I drove the 10 min to the visitor's center, where they had a film, museum, and watercolors of Western paintings that I liked. The park itself is a gem. I stopped by basically for something to do on the drive from the Black Hills to Boulder CO, my next destination. The park has amazing views from the summit of Scott's Bluff in all directions, remnants of the Oregon Trail, and a nearby grave marker on an iron wagon wheel of Rebecca Winters, a pioneer Mormon settler who died of cholera on the Oregon Trail.
Now let me compare that experience with the one later in the day at the more popular Rocky Mountain NP. Much more urban gateway town of Estes Park, full of touristy crap and people. The park is so popular this summer that reservations are required for entry from 9-3 daily. I didn't have one so I arrived at 3:10 and still had a 15-min wait to get in. Then all the trailheads are full and there is no place to park so all I could do was drive the mountainous and white knuckle drive of Trail Ridge Road to Rainbow Curve, where I could turn around and drive back down in third gear to save my brakes. Hardly any opportunity to stop and get out for photos. Not that it isn't beautiful and I have been here before, just a bit too crowded if you ask me.
I then drove on to Boulder CO to visit my former student Charlie.
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