At 9AM Mike left for Lakewood, just south of Denver. He was on his way to drop off the Tiger at the Foothills Triumph BMW. He called ahead and they said it was OK to drop it off early. And two blocks away from the dealer was Enterprise car rental. There was no other way to do this, Mike needed to rent a car while his bike was at the dealer. Even though we could ride two up on the 954RR, there was no way to bring all of our stuff.
A few hours later he came back to Fort Collins driving a blue PT Cruiser. He loaded all his stuff in to the car along with my tail bag and my GIVI top case. It didn’t look like so much stuff when on the bikes, but the back of the PT Cruiser was now full of stuff and the back seats were folded down.
Mike shooting pictures from the car on the way to Rocky Mountain National Park
38E and the Horsetooth Reservoir near Fort Collins
38E
After a quick lunch we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park but when we got there we found out all the campsites were already full and they would not let us in with our annual pass if one of us was in a car and the other one was on a bike. The pass was only good if we were both on one bike or separate bikes, or if we were both in one car.
34 heading toward Estes Park
Tight curves on 34
The PT Cruiser is no match for the 954RR
Bye bye PT Cruiser
Approching Estes Park
At the gate they gave us a map of campsites in Estes Park and we got lucky at the fist one, there was a cancellation at the National Park campground just as Mike walked in to the office. The camp site was $30 per night but it was an electric site and the bathrooms and showers were really nice. It was also just outsite of the Rocky Mountain National Park.
Everything was great except I could not ride my bike up to the our campsite. The road through the campground was a gravel road that had a bunch of switchbacks up the side of the mountain. Mike rode my bike up to our campsite, we set the tent up, parked the bike, got in to the PT Cruiser and headed back to the Rock Mountain National Park in the car together so we could use our annual pass to get in.
Twisty gravel road through National Park campground
Our campsite
After doing a short hike we drove up to the highest part of the road in the park to watch the sunset and check out the elk. We got back to the campsite at around 9PM and started a fire, but by 10PM we were ready for bed. Even though we were above 8,000 feet in elevation, it didn’t feel very cold tonight. The overnight temps were in the low 50’s.
34, also called the Trail Ridge Road, through Rocky Mountain National Park
I think this is the highest part of the Trail Ridge Road, it crests at 12,183 feet
This is where we turned around, the road was heading down from here
The sun set was amazing, these pictures don't do it justice
Elk hanging out on the road at the park, they are not scared of cars
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