Where is the last month gone? I left Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park on October 4th, and forgot to write my last blog post. So here's September and October:
- saw elusive bighorn sheep along Trail Ridge Road,
- snow closed the road and Trail Ridge Store & Cafe early on September 6th,
- watched a Chinook helicopter suck water out of an alpine lake, and spray it on our Forest Canyon Fire,
- visited Fort Collins, took in CSU's Floral Gardens, and toured several breweries; on the way home saw several rams in the Big Thompson Canyon,
- attended the Long's Peak Scottish Irish Highland Festival in Estes Park with friends; saw jousting as well as several traditional "hulk" throwing competitions, had teacakes and heard many bagpipe and drum corps, and drank some great beer from Ireland,
- conducted store inventory with my colleagues and witnessed a fire-inspired sunset,
- witnessed a high elevation sunrise, visited Arapaho Wildlife Refuge near Walden, toured a yurt in one of Colorado's state parks, then on to an autumnal trip to the northwest corner of the park to Long Draw Reservoir, hiking the Grand Ditch, Lulu City (an abandoned mining "town"), up the Little Yellowstone Canyon, and closed it out with spotting two moose - a cow with its calf. On the way home, I drove through the fall-adorned Poudre Canyon, stopping at Poudre Falls. Traveling some back roads, I saw another moose - a bull moose this time!
- celebrated with Estes Park's Autumn Gold Festival - Beer, Brats & Bands (and some chocolate),
- was surprise visited by friends, Austin & Kyla,
- taught some colleagues how to play Bananagrams and cribbage,
- had our last employee appreciation dinner where we gave a wedding present to two of our colleagues who will marry in November; also received an UNbirthday chocolate bar,
- had a chance to be a barista and food and beverage worker several times,
- watched the elk wander through Estes Park as if they came on cue for the "Elk Fest,"
- located Isaak Heartstone, a troll made of recycled wood by a Danish artist that was placed along a trail outside of Breckenridge,
- drove along Boreas Pass, a gravel, extremely rocky and treacherous road to catch the fall colors, but we missed it by about a week,
- then tried Guanella Pass along Duck Creek, that was PAVED and had more fall colors,
- of course, saw A LOT of wildlife! The elk rut was going on, so there was elk ACTION everywhere!
- said goodbye to some locals and colleagues, cried as I left RMNP and the Rockies, and
- left RMNP on October 4th and arrived back in Amery on the 5th.
- The day after I left, Trail Ridge Road to 12,000 feet closed, and it wasn't reopened to officially close the store until two weeks later. All of the employees had left, so the closing was difficult. Such is life at high elevations!
Upon returning to Wisconsin, I always go through a transitional phase. But family and friends helped me through this, and now I'm back @ Target. Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for!
Amy
