East Portal Reservoir, Estes Park CO (26-28 August 2011)

Lat/Long:  40.32778, -105.57722

Location:  East Portal Reservoir, Estes Park

Electric Hook Up:  Yes

Water Hook Up: Yes, but not at all sites

Bathroom: 100 yard walk

WiFi:  Nope, not even a cell signal

Shower:  FREE!!!  Beware, the website says there are NO showers…

Reserve on web at: https://www.larimercamping.com/

Site:  A01

Here we are again….our weekend escape.  We got an early start on Friday, arrived around 2:30 Friday afternoon.  We’ve become “regulars” I suppose…she handed me a receipt, pointed toward the wood pile and told me to have a great weekend.  No more checking in….they know exactly who we are.  Was able to set up, shower and kick our feet up to watch the “masses” check in.  Ironically, there really aren’t as many people as in past weeks.  Think it has a lot to do with school being back in session.  Campground was already pretty quiet prior to this weekend, however, it’s REALLY quiet now.  I would estimate that half the campground is occupied…if that.  The tent sites above us are almost empty minus a handful of people.

The bear has been back – Friday he stole himself a cooler in the middle of the night.  I was talking to someone closer to the scene of the crime, he said some lady let out a blood-curdling scream that sounded as if she was being attacked by Freddy or Jason.  There was a sighting of him Friday evening, I went up with camera in hand hoping to get a shot of him.  The campground host greeted me with a .45 and bear mace warning me to be careful.  Told him the same thing, especially if he got near my campsite in the middle of the night – I’d be greeting him with a  .357.  Two weeks ago he got a watermelon, I’m afraid when the ranger or the camp host gets near him he’s going to get himself killed.  He’s spent the whole summer here gathering pic-a-nic baskets and coolers…little to domesticated I’m afraid. 

Karon and I did some cleaning up of the T@b.  (this was by far our most productive part of the weekend.)  Thanks to Brian and Cole our trip to the Grand Canyon is on an all green GO GO GO status!  Both of them have done a lot of maintenance that we are just too ignorant to do ourselves.  The only thing we really have to do within the next two weeks is fill the tank with propane and check the tire pressure.  I think I have our route all planned out.  We plan to travel thru south Colorado vice going I-70 West thru the mountain pass.  This will give us a night in Gunnison or Alamosa.  I’ve never seen this part of the state, hear it’s beautiful!  On the way home we will more then likely travel I-70 with a sliver of a chance of stopping in Moab, UT.  We are very excited for the trip though, we have a 4 night reservation at the North Rim Campground and 4 nights at a state park outside of Bryce Canyon, UT.  I’m looking forward to getting pictures.  My hope is to fill and refill my memory cards many times over. 

 As far as weekend activity – there was none.  It was pretty magnificent!  We read a lot, played banana-grams, Sequence (board game), snacked, did a little organizing and that’s it!  Totally relaxing to just put our feet up and chill out.  It’s nice to be able to enjoy the days here.  Most of the masses go into town for a $12 burger, ice cream and a small trinket that probably says, “My Mom went to Estes Park, CO and all I got was this stupid plastic bear.”  So, it’s great to be able to shower whenever, take a short walk or just sit outside and listen to nothing.  Next few weeks will be busy with some photo shoots, shifts at work and regular weekly activities. 

See you next time FROM THE GRAND CANYON!  ;)