Keith's Travel Blog

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We arrived in Boulder from the west early in the afternoon without specific plans other than to get to our hotel in Westminster later in the day. Dad thought he remembered a driving trail to the Flatirons, a set of flat, steep rock features on the mountainside; but it was actually paid parking for hiking trails that we didn’t feel like taking. We were right by Flagstaff Road, though, and figured we’d take at least a short drive through Boulder Mountain Park.

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The Panorama Point lookout had a nice view of Boulder, though a bit hazy.

And more opportunities to test my camera’s macro capabilities and autofocus.

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Yesterday we left Estes Park for Boulder, heading out of town on scenic Highway 7 toward Nederland.

The route paid off quickly, with the road climbing above Estes and cutting through rocks it couldn’t as easily go around.

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Soon the road leveled to give us this view of the Long’s Peak range to the west.

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Rounding another bend brought us to St. Catherine of Siena’s Chapel, which I’d only previously approached from the southern direction. Pro tip: If you want to stitch photographs together into a panorama, make sure you have overlapping coverage.

St. Catherine’s Chapel is part of what used to be the St. Malo Retreat Center. Last winter, the retreat tragically burned in an uncontrollable fire and is closed, probably permanently. The chapel was untouched by the fire and remains.

Whistler’s Cafe, Nederland, Colorado

In Nederland, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant I remembered from three years ago. Whistler’s Cafe has a quaint appearance,

like my parents,

though it’s chock-full of signs for different brews and bands (unlike my parents).

But the real draw is the W.C. burger: Beef (medium = cool grey center?), crisp bacon, cheddar, and green chiles on a toasted bagel with cream cheese.

Boulder Falls

Almost immediately after leaving Nederland, we reached Boulder Falls, a very accessible waterfall.

It’s a short walk up the trail to the lowest falls. It used to be a much longer hike to higher falls, but that area is now closed for safety.

Okay, I did these on the laptop because I’m stupid. And Hugin is amazing for aligning and stitching panoramic photos. Definitely use the Autopano-sift-C plugin for autodetecting control points.

Stitching together so many photos in a row, Hugin ends up with some curvature to the series. Had I used a tripod and were I assured that all the photos were taken in a straight pan, I could enforce a straight stitching; but as it is, the stitched lines have to be a bit bendy ’cause my consecutive pictures were bendy, and I’ve straightened them as well as I can. Keep in mind that the Oval really does slope.

These are huge. The thumbnail images show you what you’re going to get; the links are to different sizes of the panoramic photos. I suggest you download and save them to your computer if there’s any chance you’ll want to view them more than once.

Colorado State University Oval from the North, 150°

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Colorado State University Oval from the West, 180°

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Colorado State University Annual Flower Trial Garden from the South, 150°

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Colorado State University Annual Flower Trial Garden from the Center, 360°

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Today we entered Rocky Mountain National Park from the east, drove counterclockwise to the Grand Lake exit, had lunch, and drove back. The light in early morning and late afternoon didn’t give me good pictures in the eastern half of the park, so everything here is from the western region.

Looking northwest from Trail Ridge Road just west of Medicine Bow Curve, probably at Specimen Mountain. I love having a vantage point to see the shadows of clouds on the ground.

That section had the most roadside wildflowers.

Are flies pollinators?

When your ancient digital camera’s autofocus is being uncooperative even though the camera is in macro mode, point down to the cluster of leaves so the whole field of view is at the same depth and the camera can resolve what you want, then point back up at the petals.

Best friends.

Looking down into the Poudre Lake valley from the northeast.

Late afternoon on the way back out, we saw this fire west of the Upper Beaver Meadows area, complete with aerial and ground surveillance. The visitor center staff confirmed that it’s very small (it doesn’t take many green or recently-green conifers to make a lot of smoke) and it appears to be under control.

From the balconette of our Estes Park hotel room:

A most peculiar tree, wouldn’t you agree?

Ah, mystery solved.

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From Ft. Collins to Estes Park, we took the scenic route yesterday on Colorado Road 43 through Roosevelt National Park.

I’m particularly fond of mountain driving, with winding roads and the smells of pines and water.

We stopped to walk a bit at the Upper North Fork picnic ground

and appreciate the stream that’s constantly beside the road.

That route brought us into Estes Park from the north — probably no more nor less scenic than any other approach, but quite lovely. The bicyclist who had just crested this ridge and started his descent whooped for a long time on his way down.

Rocky Mountain National Park Bear Lake Hiking Area

After checking into our hotel in Estes Park, we took the Moraine Avenue entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park and headed south toward Bear Lake.

We’d been adequately warned of road construction and delays — in fact, the Bear Lake road is closed to private traffic from 09:00 to 16:00 each day — and we got to watch workers clearing out for the day and view the new boulder retaining walls.

We also saw many teepee-shaped piles of coniferous logs. It looks as though forestry crews have been clear-cutting trees lost to disease nearest the road, though it’s possible this is part of the construction project.

Reaching Bear Lake, I realized I was going to be racing the setting sun all the way around if I wanted to take any pictures. It was still late afternoon, but the high peaks to the west make for an early sunset.

The eastern peaks still had bright sunlight even as the lake itself fell into shade.

I felt somewhat like I was doing a military patrol biathlon, walking briskly at an unfamiliar 9475 ft elevation, then stopping to slow my pulse and breathing long enough to handhold the camera in the dimming light.

It’s a pleasant, flat, short 1/2-mile trail … so I walked it again after rushing around to get pictures.

Nymph Lake

The Bear Lake ranger center is also the trailhead to other lakes, and we walked up to Nymph Lake (a 225′ elevation gain). Upon arriving, I didn’t see a way to capture the view of the whole lake, but managed to get close enough for this view of lily pads.

Dream Lake

The path around Nymph Lake continues to Dream Lake (another 200′ elevation gain), so I kept on walkin’.

In spite of appearances, the trail felt very secure and not at all precarious.

Over the river and through the woods,

Uh, over the river again and through the meadow,

to Dream Lake I go.

The eastern end of the lake is incredibly still and clear.

To the west, you can see — and hear, even at that distance — what looks like a mere rivulet but must be quite a waterfall crashing down the rocks and feeding the lake.

Lake Full of Sky

The trip back down gave a lovely view of Nymph Lake.

And I like bristlecones. I was too slow, though, to get a picture of the charcoal-grey bunny rabbit who was hopping away as I approached.

Just east of College Avenue across from the south end of the main Colorado State University campus is the Annual Flower Trial Garden.

Under the supervision of two horticulture faculty, students and volunteers plant and tend thousands of flowers to evaluate their suitability for Rocky Mountain growing conditions, with most of the seeds and plants submitted by plant companies interested in the university’s high-quality research program.

I took a set of pictures from the center of the garden to stitch together into a panorama when I’m back home and have more CPU power and a larger screen, so for now I’ll let a few snapshots speak for themselves.

Sometime as a child, I spent a great deal of time in the proximity of a poster of giant trees (probably oaks) lined in rows through a grassy expanse, their lowest limbs perhaps thirty feet from the ground, and people strolling on the grass. This may have been in my room at home or it may have been in a classroom.

I would dearly like to know where this was photographed, that I might visit it. When I meet people who’ve traveled to likely candidates — West Virginia, upstate New York, the deep south — I ask whether they have any ideas where such a thing might be. Recently a friend, sharing my curiosity, did a fantastic Google image search and came up with many gorgeous tree-lined paths, none of which were “it” but all of which were beautiful.

Today I visited one.

Most of the pictures of Colorado State University’s Oval show the view down the tree-lined sidewalk in the center. Although this view looks very like rows of trees through which one may walk (though mine had no paved path), it belies the true nature of the Oval — which I’d already determined from Google Maps, and which I shall attempt to show photographically by touring enough of the perimeter to convey its overall appearance.

Approaching from the north on S. Howes Street, you look directly south down the central tree-lined walk.

Turning the corner to the east, you begin to see the grassy expanse east of the central walk.

Crossing Oval Drive, you can see how vast the grassy area is,

but it takes a few steps further east to get a sense of how vast the elm trees are.

Moving back to the west gives the much-photographed view down the walkway and shows young elms planted to replace original elms that have died.

Continuing counterclockwise takes you around to the western grassy expanse, more shaded in the morning, with groups of children learning to play Frisbee football.

Further counterclockwise and looking back to the southeast again gives a sense of the age and size of the elms and the sheer vastness of the Oval.

The south end of the walk looks across the street to the Administration Building,

which is quite grand itself.

The Administration Building yields an enviable view of the Oval,

and the Administration Building steps a yet more enviable view of the path.

The entire Oval is surrounded by historic buildings, as seen looking north across the eastern grassy area.

A few students were on the east edge in the shade — a large group for many other gathering areas and completely dwarfed by the Oval.

Every institution that serves the public should have a space large enough that it stretches the eye, and thereby the imagination.