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THE "GRANDEST" OF TIMES AT "THE LAKE"
By Greg Berman
View photos at:
http://www.destinationlyons.com/newalbum
Anne and I departed for Grand Lake on Tuesday afternoon at 4:30pm (July 27) and arrived at 7:00PM. We would
have made it earlier except that a mamma moose derailed us for about 30 minutes. We were about 10 miles from
Grand Lake. We have lived in Colorado for over 20 years but never saw a moose in the wild until that moment.
Although she was rather elusive and never really came completely out of the thicket
(see photo album pictures 1 through 6), it was still a HUGE treat to witness such a marvelous creature.
I could only wish the pictures had shown more of her and that she would have crept closer, but I took what
I could get.
Once I exhausted my picture taking of Miss Moose, we made our way to the town of Grand Lake. Before we
could enter the town though, a massive male with a king-size rack was settled down in a field too close
to the thicket for me to get a good view. I had to raise the camera up as high as I could and hope. As
you can see by pic 7 in the album I didnšt fair too well. This was the best I could do. It's obvious
though this moose was quite massive.
Finally after this last foray with a moose, we made it into town. This was our first ever visit to
this gorgeous hamlet. It's hard to believe we had never ventured into this area. The town is as cute
as advertised with never ending waters surrounding it. Between Shadow Mountain Lake and Grand Lake,
it seems the water never ends. Again, what a glorious sight!
We chose to stay at the Sprit Lake Lodge (picture 8). We were pleased with the customer service.
Our room was nice and only 99 dollars a night ... not too bad! The great thing about the Lodge was the location ... right
on the edge of the main strip and not far from the Lake. The one place we ate at was Sprit Pizza. I must say,
it was some of the best pizza we have ever eaten. We made a 16" pizza go two days, and we were sorry to see it go.
From the eateries to hiking (nice combo?) we ferreted out a couple of great hikes and hard road walks in
town. The two hikes we did were Shadow Mountain Trail (goes to the fire lookout) and rises over 1,500 feet
in around 3 miles one way. The second hike we did was Timber Lake Trail, which starts at 9,000 feet and
tops out at around 10,500 to 11,000 feet. That particular hike is not in town ... it's about 10 miles up the
road as you are headed back to Estes. The other two walks we did were on a road in town that goes straight
up. It was quite the lung buster. It busted our lungs so much we did it 4 times one day. and the next day
we did it twice as an add on to the Shadow Mountain Trail. One might call it self-mutilation. As my wife,
Anne, would say, it's what we do.
I might add that I did not take the camera with me on the two hikes because the workout would have been
skewed with every stop. Oh, how I wish I would have had the camera though on the Shadow Mountain Trail.
A baby Osprey was calling out to Mom, and sure enough here comes Mom with a fish and drops it into the nest.
I sure would have loved the shots from that scene ... oh well!
The other slot of time was spent inspecting the Grand Lake Lodge ... and how grand it is. I got a good shot
of the Lodge (picture 9) with the three old-time mascot cars out front. I dropped down a bit below the Lodge
and took some pictures of Shadow Mountain Lake and Grand Lake (pictures 10 through 15). What a great view
from the Lodge! The pictures give you a good idea of what you can view while eating some grub and sipping
on a beverage while eating at the Lodge. We didn't eat at the Lodge this time, but next time we surely will.
This was our last outing before heading back over Trail Ridge Road. The goal was to do some hiking
at the top and take some more pictures and shoot video. Mother Nature had other ideas. The storms
rolled in and blew up the rest of our plans. Heavy rains at times and lightning kept us in the car
and headed down to Estes. We decided that we had to do just one more "little" workout before heading
back to Lyons so we made a stop at Gem Lake (always a crowd pleaser). This was after doing an hour of
the Timber Lake Trail just a couple of hours earlier. As mentioned earlier, it's what we do ... why I
don't know, but after doing this together for 3 decades, who is to question it?
We arrived back in Lyons on Thursday evening very satisfied with our first ever trip to Grand Lake.
I can tell you this emphatically, it won't be our last trip. It is surely worth the visit again and
again and again. It truly was the grandest of times.
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