Rocky Mountain National Park
One of my favorite movies is The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Hold onto that Jack Nicholson thought. An item on my bucket list has always been to see the Rocky Mountains up close and personal. In the movie one of Morgan Freeman’s character’s items is to see this giant mountain in Tibet. For a variety of reasons, in the past 56 years, I have never seen the Rockies. Our annual RLI conference was held in Denver this week. Lisa and I stayed an extra day to see the area and I wanted to visit Rocky Mountains National Park. We did!
I have been through the Smoky Mountains very many times and they are beautiful. To get to Estes Park you take Highway 36 west out of Denver. The drive from Boulder over to Estes Park gets increasingly more beautiful along the way. As the highway winds up the mountains the sheer size and scale of the mountain is no comparison to the hills back east in Tennessee. We were lucky and the day was bright and sunny following an overnight snowfall of around 2 inches. The added snow in the sunshine only brightened the day that much more.
By the time we got to Estes Park and followed the signs to the park, the winds were becoming much stronger. After Jose gave us much needed assistance at the National Parks Visitor Center at the Falls River gate on how to see the park, we drove in and I was overcome with emotion looking at God’s handiwork. There is something inside of a human being that is indescribable even to a scientist regarding how your brain processes emotions like these. Surely the scientific community gives us the reasons why, but describing that emotion when you see your child being born, the love of your life looking at you down the aisle, and the first time you see Niagara Falls or the Rocky Mountains is the stuff of the poet, artist, or Country Music songwriter. Go see these up close if you never have. Pure beauty. The wind blowing the new snow at the top of the mountains down through the valleys created an appearance of clouds surrounding the mountains after a few minutes. Outside hiking along the trails in those winds was a first hand demonstration of just how rugged those mountains are and just how much respect I have for the men and women who settled those areas when our country was younger.
So back to Estes Park, we had booked a tour of the Stanley Hotel. Room 217 in this hotel according to Stephen King was where his inspiration for his novel “The Shining” happened. The historical tour was absolutely worth it. The hotel was built at the beginning of the 20 th century and is grandiose. I’ll be posting some photos in our gallery on the website also. Jack Nicholson, as most know, played the father in the movie from 1980 directed by Stanley Kubrick. The movie was not filmed however at the hotel. Scenes from the movie Dumb and Dumber were filmed at this great old venue. That movie is also one of my favorites to watch once about every three years. If you want a great historical tour and are close to Denver I recommend going to Estes Park and visiting.
We had lunch at the Cascades Whiskey Bar in the hotel and wouldn’t you know it, two of the bartenders had a Tennessee connection. One has Grandparents that live in Oak Hill/Brentwood and one is from Murfreesboro. These two guys kept us entertained while waiting for the tour and it was truly a joy to meet them.
We both have some items left on our bucket list. We are so grateful that we live in the greatest country ever known to mankind. We are truly grateful as well for the blessings of our creator God and the gift of his son Jesus who sacrificed all for our eternal salvation. Our hope is that you will find peace and rest in Him. And just maybe you may be able to cross off items from your list this year.
