More Sights around Estes Park, CO (April 17, 18 & 19)

On Thursday, April 17th, we decided to take a break from hiking due to some soreness in my right foot, which I had rehabbed during the 6 months prior to this trip. Instead, we took to the road again to drive through scenic canyons. We took the road to Devil's Gulch, eventually intersecting with the Big Thompson Canyon Road again to return to Estes Park. Many beautiful sights to see.

Once our sightseeing was concluded, Leon made a provisioning trip to the Safeway. The forecast called for snow beginning in the evening and continuing the entire next day - and for once, the forecast was completely correct! Since we were going to be snowed in and the highs were expected to be in the 20's the next day, we decided to make Creamy White Chicken Chili, hat tip to my good friend Kathy!

As the weather turned to snow later in the afternoon, I prepped the poblanos and jalapenos to make the chili the next day. Leon caught up on Premier League soccer and binged about half a season of a newish show, Grosse Pointe Garden Society. Not sure I love it, but it is entertaining. We ended our evening watching more Deadwood.

Friday morning started with overcast, snowy conditions that persisted the entire day. We probably got about 8 inches in Estes.

Picture taken in the morning from the front door - about 3 inches on the ground.

I made chili in the morning to have for lunch. I was pretty snuggled up and it looked windy and cold outside, but Leon had other ideas. He finally succeeded in cajoling me to walk to The Stanley Hotel, which was the hotel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining and the site of many historic visits. It sits about 1/4 mile from where we were staying and would have been a pleasant walk on a nice day. This, however, was not a nice day. I agreed to venture out on 2 conditions:

1. If I decided it was too unpleasant to walk back home, he would walk back to get the car and pick me up; and 

2. I would get some sort of treat while we were out.

We donned our layers and headed out. At first, it didn't seem that bad. This picture was taken as we left our temporary home.

 Unfortunately, the wind was in our faces and it was snowing steadily. Also, the hotel had put up large fences blocking the most direct route to their entrance, so we had more walking to do that anticipated (the fences were to keep the elk and deer out of their landscaping we suspected). When we finally arrived at our destination, I was grumpy and cold, as demonstrated in the next photo.

However, my mood improved as I warmed up inside and we decided to get a snack in The Cascades Lounge. It was a lovely setting and the brussels we got were delicious! I also had a wonderful passionfruit soda made by the bartender and Leon had some weird (but good to him) root beer whiskey.

My mood was turned around once I thawed out and got my treat!

Passionfruit soda - delicious and refreshing.

Brussels were flash fried, dressed with balsamic glaze and sprinkled with goat cheese and pepitas - I will be attempting this at home!

Kind of hard to see b/c of the glare, but I was seated right under the picture of Stanley Kubrik, legendary director who made The Shining. The film was actually shot elsewhere.

The ambiance was great - the ceiling was really gorgeous. The tabletops were hammered copper. Having our snack here made it worth the walk.

This is a Stanley steam car that is on display in the lobby. F. O. Stanley, who founded this hotel, made his fortune first in photography inventions and then on these steam-powered automobiles. 

Entranced to The Stanley Hotel lobby

Check-in desk; note the detail on the wood.

One of 2 cozy fireplaces in the lobby.

The lobby, taken from one end. The front door is to the right.

After our excellent repast, we did a little self-guided tour around the hotel's bottom floors, before heading back to the house. Given that the wind would be at our backs and the snow had slowed, I decided I would make the walk, rather than have Leon fetch the car.

We spent the rest of the evening reviewing our plans for the next segment of our trip. In contrast to the past 2 weeks, we will be on the move almost every day. Sunday, we depart for Dinosaur National Monument on the Utah side (it straddles the CO/UT border), then move westward into Utah to begin our tour of the Mighty 5 and the Grand Canyon.

It is now Saturday, and we are doing laundry, repacking our bags and getting the car organized again. We woke to sunny skies, as shown below. We shouldn't have any issue with traveling tomorrow.