Sagar Manohar
Colorado Autumn Trip
Travel · · 5 min read.In the autumn of 2022, me and my wife visited the state of Colorado (CO) and it was breathtaking to say the least. The thing that kept coming up during the planning was the altitude. Knowing that Denver is perched at a cool 5,279ft wowed me given I have spent more than 90% of my life at sea-level. The fact that the average elevation of CO is highest among continental USA was a revelation too. Enough with the geology lessons already!
On Day 1, we landed in Denver and headed to pick our rental car. We were assigned a sedan only to find out that it was full of suffocating cigarette smoke inside it. We kindly asked for an alternate option and were presented with a nifty SUV (always go for an SUV for trips!). Go anywhere outside tri-state area and the roads are so much more spacious. We had lunch at Root Down, explored a bit of Downtown Denver and headed to Estes Park. As a tea enthusiast, checking out Ku Cha was a fun stop.
Days 2 & 3 were dedicated to the Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) and Estes Park is THE town to set your base in. It has everything from a lake, a river, shops / food options aplenty, surrounded by mountains all around and Elks walking past you. Our stay was at a local lodge which sat on the bank of Fall River. When we planned this trip, catching the Aspen yellow was one of the main goals and things were starting to get golden as we arrived.
As like many busy National Parks, RMNP had implemented a limited access pass to a busy area named Bear Lake Corridor to control the traffic. We didn’t have it for the first day which is why we made our way to the Trail Ridge Road. As we were gaining elevation, things were getting yellower till a certain point before the bald mountains in the Tundra region show up. The drive lead us to the Alpine Visitor center at 11,796ft which is like a remote island in the sky. No utility or phone lines connect it to the outside world. Each year in winter, it goes through a 7-month hibernation.
Day 3 was Lakes Legs Day where we hiked for about 9 miles / 1200ft covering four scenic lakes one after the other nestled in the Rockies. The most notable of them was Lake Haiyaha. The usual color of this lake is an ordinary dark green but we were greeted with a turquoise lake thanks to the rock slide a few months back.
Next stop was Vail and the drive from Estes Park to Vail was nothing short of spectacular. Yellow patches of aspens was a standard fixture throughout on the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway. I expected the beauty to dial down upon joining I-70 but it didn’t. The drive between Denver and Vail on I-70 has to be one of the most scenic interstate drives in US. Frisco was a nice little town on the way where we stopped by for a meal.
Vail is a world-famous ski town, so summer is usually their down-time. Stepping into Vail village takes you to a quaint little European town featuring upscale restaurants and shopping outlets. Our room was overlooking a steep mountain lit up yellow.
Next day was a hike to Hanging Lake. The surrounding area had suffered a major wildfire in 2020 and the hike was closed for a long period. They had since opened it with a reservation system. The hike was a ~1000ft steep rocky climb in the heart of Glenwood canyon. It’s hard to imagine the beauty at the end given the rugged terrain you start in. But at the top, you’re rewarded with a rare phenomena of the lake literally hanging on the edge of a cliff.
Post the taxing hike, we visited one of the many Hot Springs locations in Glenwood Springs to relax. One thing that stood out to me is the amount of Nepali restaurants present throughout Colorado without ever coming across an Indian eatery. The historical reason for this is not that hard-to-guess. The one thing that is common across CO population and Sherpa population native to Nepal is Mountaineering. Plenty of CO natives who must have visited Nepal on hiking expeditions would have invited local Sherpa to come visit them in CO. A subset of them must have found the CO vibe close to home and decided to settle here. Relevant WaPo article.
The last-but-not-the-least attraction to visit was the most photographed mountain in North America: Maroon Bells. The 15-minute shuttle takes you from the town of Aspen right up in the valley. There is no hiking involved and the pay off is immediate. As soon as you walk a few steps from the shuttle, you’re greeted with what truly feels like an unreal painting hung on a giant wall.
On our way back, we drove through Independence Pass which sits on the Continental Divide at 12,095ft. The tundra region makes you feel you’re on a different planet. We wrapped our week by checking out Boulder which had a pleasant vibe.