After hiking down the big hill from Grand Lake Lodge, my friend Gina and I walked through the quaint town of Grand Lake, Colorado.
It reminded me somewhat of the town of Silverton, Colorado. Lots of colorful shops and restaurants with the western look!
Grand Lake Lodge in Grand Lake, Colorado has an absolutely stunning view of the lake. After checking in on Thursday, my girlfriend Gina and I decided to take a hike down the hillside to the town to check it out. Here’s the beginning of the trail and that’s Gina up ahead…
We were delighted it wasn’t raining having left the flooding in Estes Park earlier that morning! The path forks off to the left but is not well-marked.
If you’ve been following my trip in Colorado, then you’ll remember my friend Gina and I narrowly escaped the flooding in Estes Park by driving over Trail Ridge Road in the Rocky Mountain National Park to Grand Lake, Colorado. Originally we had reservations through Airbnb at a home in Boulder following two nights in Estes Park. I contacted the owner and requested a refund. He wanted to wait and see if the weather improved before issuing the refund. Anyway, we stopped a few times to take photographs and arrived in Grand Lake a couple of hours later. We didn’t have a firm plan of where we would end up for the night, but fortunately the weather was much better at Grand Lake. I saw a sign that said Grand Lake Lodge, historic landmark, so we stopped to check it out. After some haggling with the General Manager over price, we rented a small cabin that was quite rustic. The view from our cabin was unbelievable!
Looking to the left…
And to the right…
When I awoke Thursday morning at 3:30am, I got out of bed, rather than lie there trying to get back to sleep and looked through photographs I had taken the previous day. At day break, I looked out the window at the Thompson River raging next to the resort we stayed at. As you can see from a photo I took minutes before we escaped, the river had taken over the pool and hot tub. After calling the front desk a couple of times with my concerns with the rising water, they called our room and said we were in pre-evacuation mode…be ready. My friend Gina and I made the decision to “get the heck out of there”, rather than wait until it was too late to leave! So we packed the car in the rain and drove to the road/bridge pictured in the photo below. By this point there was a yellow “do not cross” tape blocking the way and I asked the resort manager (who was sitting in a golf cart by the bridge) if we could cross at our own risk. He said “no” and told us where the only other road out of the resort was located. I drove over there and headed to Trail Ridge Road into the Rocky Mountain National Park. One section of a road had a couple of inches of water running across a 12 foot wide section. I made the decision to drive across it.
Trail Ridge Road was beautiful! It took less than an hour and one-half to get to Grand Lake, where we stayed for the evening. We stopped a few times for photo opportunities. The wind blew our umbrella into the upside down position, which made for a cute photo. And the rainbow just added that bit of magic!
After checking the weather forecast for Denver and Estes Park, Colorado a couple of days ago, I mentally prepared myself for the near constant rain that we would encounter the first few days of our trip to Colorado. I brought my workout clothes and researched other activities in the Rocky Mountain National Park area to replace hiking. We arrived yesterday and I had a few hours to kill at the Denver Airport waiting for my girlfriend Gina’s flight to arrive. Here are some photos from the Airport…
I love to prepare travel itineraries and I spent at least 20 hours over the past week perfecting an itinerary for a one week trip to Colorado I’m going on next month with a girlfriend.
This is a photo from two years ago of a trip to Durango and Silverton, Colorado. This time I’ll be exploring Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Boulder, Denver, Golden, Evergreen, and Idaho Springs. I booked lodging through Airbnb for two of the locations and used Vacation Rental By Owner for the third location. I’ve packed quite a bit in for the week…but with good planning utilizing a variety of online travel sites to include Trip Advisor, Yelp, and google maps, I’m confident we’ll be able to see it all without feeling rushed. I’m flexible, so if we want to switch something up once we’re there, we can. If you’ve been to any of these places or have any other recommendations, please share! I have prices listed to give people an idea of how much things cost in the event someone wants to use any of the itinerary. By choosing rentals that have a kitchen, we can cut down on the cost of food.
I can’t wait to hike and take some photographs!
Riding the Main Street Trolley is a fun and inexpensive way to view some of the historical, interesting and pretty sites in Memphis, Tennessee. You need exact change and it’s only $1.00.
Road trips are fun! My recent trip to Memphis took about eight hours from Cincinnati and I was equipped with my I-Pod filled with lots of new music, my camera, my sense of adventure, and my imagination.
A setting on my new camera called Color Sketch is fun. This is me…
Did you know Memphis, Tennessee has a pyramid (the 6th largest in the world) and that it’s being converted into a Bass pro Shop? I didn’t either! It was originally built as a sports arena to hold over 20,000 people. It’s quite impressive…
While in Memphis, Tennessee recently, I enjoyed playing with the Selective Color function on my new Nikon D5100 camera. I had only used the function once before and didn’t have the manual with me while my friend Cindy and I were walking around. After 15 minutes of determined concentration, I figured it out.
These beautiful pink flowers in combination with our colorful dresses were the inspiration…
Cindy and I both liked this photo of my hair swinging…
If you ever visit Memphis, you should stop in B.B. Kings Restaurant and Blues Club for some great Blues music! The other evening I had so much fun dancing to the music of the B.B. King Allstars band. Of course, I took some photos in between…
Beale Street in Memphis is a pedestrian only street with bars, restaurants and shops that runs about two blocks. Monday evening, Cindy and I stopped to talk to this street artist. We were asking his opinion on the best places to eat and he tried to persuade us to have our “reality” caricature done by him in about ten minutes. I explained that I’m not into buying more “things” for my house because I prefer to collect experiences rather than things.
Anyway, it was fun to watch him in action. He is quite talented…
Most photographers love the time of day before sunset or sunrise because the lighting is so pretty. This was a courtyard along Beale Street…
When I first took this photo of a small section of a fountain, I wasn’t sure how it would turn out because of the dim lighting, but I loved the outcome. I am always fascinated with the concept that art is all around us…if we open our eyes!
My first full day in Memphis started with a walk towards Beale Street. These balls outside of the FedExForum are a fun photography prop…
We’re here in Memphis! Having arrived around 3pm their time, my friend Cindy and I checked into our room and then went “Walkin’ in Memphis”. Come along to see what we saw…
My three-day exploration of New York City ended with a trip to the “Top of the Rock” aka 30 Rockefeller Plaza. If you remember Molly, she accompanied me and we waited in line to buy our $27 ticket to the top. I wanted to see the views before dusk and at sunset, so we timed it just right and were at the top for about 30 minutes.
This is my final shot before taking the elevator down 70 floors to the bottom. You can see the Empire State Building…
Sherry Lachelle Travels 