Rocky Mountain National Park

We're still here.

Last weekend we left Gillette on Friday afternoon and went south to Estes Park, a town at the gate to the Rocky Mountain National Park, about an hour north of Denver. We were late getting away so didn't get there until about 10:00pm Friday night. The place where we stayed was called Aspen Winds; it's a self contained unit on the Fall River. Really nice with the mountains around and the river flowing passed the balcony.



Saturday was just a glorious day and we took off into the park for a look around. It's right up in the Rockys; I think the town of Estes Park is about 7500 ft above sea level and the highest point in the park is over 14,000 ft. Still lots of snow on the ground an lots of people snow showing on the hiking trails.
We managed to do a few of the trails more suited to our 'level of fitness'!!!

Lots of elk and other wild life about and the scenery was spectacular.

I've put a couple of photo's on this page but the rest are in the album below so make sure you have a look.




Estes Park is also the home of the Stanley Hotel where they filmed Steven King's "The Shining". It was a physco thriller with Jack Nicholson in it.



Quite a few people from work in Brisbane over here this week and it's been good to have a catch up. Also, as I write this mum and dad have left for San Francisco via Tokyo and will be here next Thursday. We have plenty planned to do while they are here.

Until next time.

Estes Park and RMNP

Spearfish and Minneapolis

On Sunday we decided it was time for some outdoor activity so we took off for Spearfish Canyon; unfortunately we had so much snow that we could not find the trail to the top of the canyon. We still managed to take some great good photos.





Last weekend we took off for Minneapolis; the only reason we went there was that it was my reponsibility to organise something and it was a direct flight from Rapid City. It has to be the coldest place on earth!!! Gae loved it ????

One of the attractions was a statue of Mary Tyler Moore. It was a cold day and Gae didn't have her brown coat!!



In the last couple of weeks after the storm we've tried to make sure we were out of the house. A couple of days snowed in makes you appeciate the outdoors; this time we went to Minneapolis !!


It was good to visit another city (state) and we did manage to go to 'Mall of America'. Evidently the largest shopping mall in USA (if not the world) and the most popular tourist destination in the USA. Makes you wonder, is Disneyland too expensive???





Of course we had to spend a bit but as far as shopping malls go it was like Chermside on steroids. We did go to 'Underwater World' but passed on the theme park.

Even though it was so cold I managed to take a few photos of the city. What was interesting was the difference between Minneapolis and St Paul. St Paul is the capitol and has tried to maintain it's history; Minneapolis tears everything down and builds somthing new.

We're really looking forward to summer, what ever day that is; mum and dad will be here in a couple of weeks and then Jack and Kerri not long after that and it will be great to see some family and friends.

To see some more photos click on thje picture below.

Spearfish and Minneapolis