Rocky Mountain National Park

Today we visited Rocky Mountain National Park.  Instead of taking the scenic drive we opted to take a hike and visit four lakes and a water fall.  We have spent so much time in the Rockies the last few days, we figured the scenery along the scenic drive would be much the same as what we have already seen.

Our first lake was Bear Lake, which was right at the trailhead.

We continued from there to Nymph Lake.

From Nymph Lake we hiked further to Dream Lake.  Along the way we had to trek through a little snow and ice, but it wasn't too bad.

Here I am standing along the snow covered and icy banks of Dream Lake.

Our final lake was Emerald Lake.  To get to Emerald Lake we had to hike through considerably more snow and ice that we are accustomed to seeing in mid June.  It was a little slippery, but lots of fun, especially when we skated across the ice more than we walked through it.


There were some very narrow stretches of trail that were solid snow and ice with some steep climbs, but we managed to make it to Emerald Lake and back without either of us falling!

Emerald Lake still had a thin sheet of ice across much of its surface.

Upon our return to the trailhead we followed another trail nearby to Alberta Falls.  By the time we were ready to leave the falls we were pretty beat.  Between the terrain, altitude and inclines we felt we had gotten our exercise for the day.  We opted to take the lazy way back to our van via the shuttle bus.

Denver, CO

We left Colorado Springs and spent the night just north of Denver in Brighton, CO. There is a large Vietnamese community in Denver, and that means there is a lot of Pho is Denver. Pho 96 was very highly rated on Yelp, so we decided to try it.

The next morning we woke up, ran a few errands then went to lunch at Pho 96. Being a vegetarian, I am forever on the lookout for a vegetarian Pho comparable to Pho Hot in Annandale, VA. Pho Hot uses a combination of soy protein in various forms and seitan in their vegetarian Pho. It is spectacular.

Unfortunately, Pho 96 did not even come close with their rendition of vegetarian Pho. Sadly, they just fried some tofu, threw some broccoli, celery, carrots, and onions into a vegetarian broth with some rice noodles and called it Vegetarian Pho. I suppose I may have to simply accept the fact that no one will ever come close to my beloved Pho Hot.

George, however, was delighted with his nearly 2-gallon (so it seemed) bowl of soup.  He got a custom-mix of veggie broth, well-done brisket and flank, and added the special sliced meatballs.  Topped with some sprouts, basil, and plum sauce, it was ranked as "among the best ever."

We also got grilled shrimp spring rolls, and those were delicious.

The peanut sauce that came with our spring rolls was delicious.

My Taro bubble tea tasted a little chalky and watered down, but George's Peach bubble tea was very flavorful. Strangely, they topped our bubble teas with whipped cream. Maybe it is a Colorado thing. In Vegas and back east there was never whipped cream on top of my bubble teas.

The one really great thing about Pho 96 was the value of the Pho. A large is $7.25, and it truly is LARGE!

Overall for me it was ok, for George it was great, but still not as good as Pho Hot.

After we finished our lunch we went to pick up groceries.  I was so excited to find that they have an H Mart.  It was like being back home!  For under $17 we stocked up on tons of produce.  I love the Korean Markets!

We left the Denver area and spent the night at Meeker Park Campground about 11 miles south of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Pikes Peak, CO

We left Wheeler Flats heading for Pikes Peak.  Along the way we drove through Breckenridge, the renown ski town.

We crossed the Continental Divide once again, this time via Hoosier Pass.

We made it to the Pike's Peak toll booth and we opted to drive up to the summit instead of taking the Pikes Peak Cog Railway.  It was $12 per person to drive and $36 per person to ride the train.  Additionally, I found a $2 of coupon so our grand total was $22.

We were considering taking the bike off and riding it up to the top.  After speaking with some people who had just come down on their bikes, we learned that it was extremely windy on the way up and at the summit.  We decided to drive the van up.

We made it halfway to the top along the scenic drive-- to the treeline at 11,000 ft MSL-- before our transmission began to disapprove.  It started smelling funny (the sweet warm smell of red Mercon hydraulic fluid,) you could tell it was working hard, and it was making all kinds of noises in protest. [Edit: The transmission was not making any unusual noises.  After shutting off the van, at 11,000 ft MSL, the pressure from the engine's cooling system was released at the much lower ambient air pressure, and lower boiling point at this elevation. No coolant boiled over and none leaked. The noises Sueshan heard was the cooling system releasing its pressure]


George had researched this issue on the Ford E4OD transmission after the first instance of transmission fluid dripping at Alta Lakes, and found it is not entirely uncommon for this model tranny to drip some fluid out of its front seal when it is working hard and becomes very hot.  The reduced air pressure at high elevation didn't help to keep everything in and sealed, either.  This issue is not desirable, but it's not the end of the world either.  We simply monitor the fluid level, add when necessary, and after cooling down overnight and at lower elevation the transmission has thus far sealed itself back up and is leaking no more.

We pulled into one of the stops along the way and dismounted the motorbike.  It was a cold and windy trek to the top, complete with hairpin turns and steep drop offs, but we finally made it to the summit.

 

The summit of Pikes Peak is at 14,110 feet, and is very dramatic as there are no other nearby mountains nearby close to this elevation, so Pikes Peak is very prominent and seems VERY high above the surrounding plateau.

These are the Cog Train rails.

Our little motorbike steadily climbed to over 14,000 feet MSL with no issue.

The descent was a little easier since we knew what to expect.  Some of the videos we shot on the way down are included below.








We made it safely back to our van halfway down the mountain.


Now all we had to do was mount the bike and continue down the second half of the mountain in our van.  It was a slow trek down, but we made it with no issue and continued to the Costco in Colorado Springs to celebrate our brave ascent and descent with some Costco Pizza, Churros and frozen yogurt.