Tuesday, August 1, 2000 - Drive from Iowa to Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Despite really wanting to hit the road for Colorado, I could have used a few more hours of sleep.  It's a long way to Rocky Mountain National Park, but last-minute packing and general anxiety kept me up until the early hours of the morning.  Oh well, that's usually how these things go...  I'd soon be picking up my friend Joe Roney in Des Moines and then together we'd ride I-80 into and past the nothingness that most people call central Nebraska.  If I didn't get some sleep early, there'd be plenty of time later in the day.

I arrived at Joe's house shortly after 7 am.  Joe was pretty much ready, but his last-minute packing meant he had only gotten a fraction of the sleep I had received.  Oh, this could be interesting...  The sleep rotation probably wouldn't be ideal, but we figured we'd get there one way or another.  Nebraska, here we come.

We figured we could plan our itinerary on our way to Colorado.  We decided to keep it simple.  Get to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Climb Longs Peak.  Simple enough?  We thought so.  Some people would have wanted something more detailed and organized, but one advantage of having Joe Roney as your travel partner is that unorthodox is not only an option, it's often your most entertaining choice.

If there were highlights of the trip across Nebraska I sure don't remember any of them.  Eastern Colorado isn't much to gawk at, either, but the relief from being out of Nebraska seems to make it better than it really is.  Eventually we left the interstate and headed for Rocky Mountain National Park.  Our trip would take us through some nice towns like Loveland and Estes Park, but our blind ambition to make it to RMNP kept us from stopping.  Finally we pulled into the park a little after 8 pm.  We saw some animals, which was nice, but unfortunately we also saw a lot of "campground full" signs.  We must have checked out every campground on the east side of the park, but with no luck.  It was getting dark and we needed someplace to stay, so we headed back to the Estes Park KOA we had driven past a couple hours earlier.

The KOA was a bit expensive for our budget (more than $20 for a night of camping), but we had quickly run out of options.  The guy who helped us didn't seem very friendly, but all we were really looking for was a place to pitch a tent.  It was quite dark by this time, but Joe and I set up the tent, cooked dinner, and managed to get things set up despite some scattered rain showers.  The next day we figured on checking out Estes Park, getting a backcountry camping permit for RMNP, and starting our assault on Longs Peak.

Last Updated:  Friday, October 13, 2000