RMNP, Estes, Bunce, Switz. trail - Sun 6-6-10

We've decided to visit the RMNP on Sunday and take advantage of the free park day. We wanted to leave early but didn't manage to get out of the house til almost 11am. The plan was to go up and spend the afternoon seeing what we can. It was a beautiful day, the clouds were a nice backdrop for the peaks, it was promising to be a nice afternoon.


We've made it to the park at about 12:30p, came in through the hwy 34 entrance. The elk was out in great numbers, saw them on several occasions throughout the park.


Next stop was at the Alluvial Fan boulder field and a waterfall (remnants of the big 1982 flood).


My inner billy-goat me kicked in and I couldn't resist climbing up to see the valley from the top. I've left the camera with Lisa and she got some good pictures of me.


We've had a small picnic there and then we decided to head back to Estes. We wanted to go up Old Falls River rd but it won't be open til July 4th (so people in their minivans can have a nice and smooth road to travel on). The weather was starting to move in so it was a wise decision to head down.


Before we exited the park on 36, we drove up to Upper Beaver Meadows just to check things out (it was a dirt road). Saw some more elk there, even had a few run across right in front of us while we were stopped.


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We then headed for some good ice cream in Estes Park (candy store owned by a Polish couple) and walked around a bit. Anna was enjoying it quite a bit, she had a shwabewy ice cream.


The clouds above Estes were spectacular and ever so threatening (we got hailed on in RMNP), so we decided to head out.


Quick pit stop at Lily Lake..


We got to Bunce School trailhead at 5pm and decided to give it a try (we ran it last year from Camp Dick, this time we tried it from the school).


The clouds were all forming out towards Estes, and we were in a clear. What a great time for pictures! We saw a few people on ATV's, 4x4's, and a few people shooting at the beginning. The Subie deserved to get dusty again, it was going through withdrawals over the winter.




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Plane Crash, FS 202 (I wish)


Forest Service fire truck on the trail (they were going slower than a snail, crawling in 4Lo, on Bunce!)


Flexing with independent suspension and low clearance doesn't look all that impressive...


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... until you stand right next to it, in a hole


Look what caught up to us


We saw them at the beginning of the trail shooting. We've pulled over and met some new friends.


I want air suspension now!! We've talked with Jonathan and Megan for a little bit, saying how cool wagons are. They've invited us to come try a portion of Switzerland trail with them (we got done with Bunce at about 7pm). I was a bit confused at first about which part of it but then Jonathan explained me about the "shortcut" from Sawmill rd to the actual trailhead of Swiss trail so we've followed.
We drove through Ward and onto Sawmill rd, which climbed steeply up above Lefthand canyon. We've turned onto FS 461 and immediately started questioning our sanity (or mine, since I was driving).


The beginning was pretty steep and full of loose good sized rocks and we were playing catchup to Jonathan (he raced up the hill to keep the momentum with his MT). We came to a small intersection and since it was not showing on our map we've kept with what we've though was the main trail (we were right).




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Jonathan was just flying through everything (it was getting late) but we were taking it slow. We were a bit lower than him and I did hit the bottom a few times trying to rush things (though not hard or bad) so I've slowed down a bit.


We were also taking in the scenery: the setting sun made for a really good picture opportunities.










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Jonathan going through a mud hole


Us posing in the mud hole (it's behind us)


Up above Lefthand Canyon. We've had to pull over to dislodge a rock stuck in the brake shields because it was making a terrible noise. We've lost Jonathan at that point (or he lost us) because we couldn't see him in front anymore (we did catch them at the end though).






And some more cool clouds, coming down from Gold Hill.


We came down through Boulder at about 9pm, tired and spent, but with a good afternoon behind us. We saw quite a bit in a relatively short amount of time. It was great. The last trail was a bit rougher at the beginning but it was manageable and we did with no damage (the 2-3 scrapes don't count). And running the two trails so late in the afternoon meant almost no traffic, on a Sunday!!
As always, full slideshow available on my webshots account: https://family.webshots.com/slideshow/577902513ZDDtlQ

Nice photo shoot Suba You guys have the best play ground. I love to read your post. :biggrin:

Keep it up



Nate

Top trip report SubaCool

That waterfall didn't look that big at first, until I had a closer look & saw you walking on the rocks, in the middle of the pic.

You must have been buggered by the time you got back down. :ebiggrin:
But judging by the pics the climb up & back was well worth the effort.

Regards
Mr Turbo

Glad to see you got the report over here too!

Nice!

mr turbo said:

That waterfall didn't look that big at first, until I had a closer look & saw you walking on the rocks, in the middle of the pic.

You must have been buggered by the time you got back down.
But judging by the pics the climb up & back was well worth the effort.

Click to expand...

Um, yeah. That was definitely worth the effort Although, I always forget that my inner billy goat me is a bit younger and stupider than the real me. The rocks right next to the water were off course wet and slippery as heck! I've almost fallen because my shoes were starting to slip and I was on smooth rock with no ledges! I've had to pause for about five minutes and dry off the bottoms of my shoes so I could try again. I've literally just took my chances and jumped up from where I was standing in that picture, hoping not to slip Yeah, I was sh**ing my pants big time. Needless to say I found an alternate (easier) route down.

It was a great experience though, climbing up right next to the rushing water and feeling the power was unforgettable! And then the view from the top... Yeah, it was worth it :biggrin: (although I've been up there before, it's worth it every time)




Btw, I'm not sure what I like doing more; the trip itself or the trip report. It's all so much fun and I am really happy to share my experience with my fellow Subie/nature lovers

Awesome!!! Love seeing the Audi all dirty, you really don't see that too much. The pic of your little girl with the painted finger nails reminded me of my 6yo, she loves to paint her nails, much of the time extending way beyond the nails, clean up time can be fun!!!:iconwink:

Those last two cloud shots in the slide show are sweet!!!

shweet report & GR8 pix

Estes Park is an awesome place! We stayed a few nights up there on our last trip before we headed south into the san juans. I remember that huge water fall you took pictures at. I didn't climb it like you did, but def. one helluva climb!
This was actually taken just as you're leaving estes park heading into RMNP. You go out of town around a sharp curve & this big guy was standing in our way! I would have strapped him to the top of the Pontiac g6 we rented if i couldve..

I believe this was as we were going into the park..

And this was a cool rock church we found heading south out of estes.


Pretty sure i've said it before, but you are one lucky s.o.b to live out there!!!
Haha, ready to see some more adventures from you!

Thanks for posting

Really enjoyed that. Looked a nice variable experience. Interested to see an Allroad actually off the road.