AJGUNNER
Hunter
I will be over to Denver in a couple of weeks and hope to have a free day. Can anyone tell me if the drive up is worth it to see some country and some big bulls. Wondering how long to expect the drive from Loveland over should take, and how long from Estes back down to Denver??? Both roads look pretty curvy----what about passes---how high can I expect to get??? Anything else I should not miss out on??? Good lunch place???
The trip wrap up.
My mom moved from Oregon To Denver last week and due to the expense, I volunteered to drive her car over, as long as she flew. There was no way I was going to spend 1200+ miles in the car with mom. :lol:
We got out of Portland about 5:30am on Saturday morning and headed East. I had checked out the fuel prices on this web site http://www.gasbuddy.com/GasPriceMap and strategically figured out where to fill up to avoid the places that are 20 to 50 cents higher. This also made for perfect stops to go potty along the way. We made it to Twin Falls early with no problems in about 9 hours. The cruise control was set at 73 in Oregon and 83 in Idaho. I showed my travel buddy the water falls (just a trickle this time of year), then we checked out Evil Knievel’s dirt ramp from when he attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon in 1976. They are just starting a new housing development nearby and there is talk of dozing it. So we got to see and walk on a piece of history that may soon be lost forever. We met up for a nice dinner with one of my former customers then hit the sack.
Sunday we were on the road at 7am. Saw a few elk and antelope along the way towards Wyoming. After fueling in Evanston we hit the longest most boring drive I will probably never see again. :lol: Literally not much to see for 350 miles between Evanston and Laramie. The only good part is that you sure can cover the miles at 83+mph.
For a Sunday we expected some traffic but were surprised at the huge amount of truck traffic---thousands of trucks on this major East-West piece of pavement. We decided to cut South at Laramie instead of Cheyenne just to see something besides the highway. Even though this is only 2 lane and posted 65mph, it was a nice break from the interstate. This also worked out for fuel with us squeaking into Fort Collins on fumes all the way from Evanston. Looking at the receipts, this stretch was the longest without a stop at 370 miles and right at 5 hours, making this about an 9 hour day once we hit the hotel.
Monday we headed from Fort Collins up to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw a few bighorn sheep on the way up and a nice big bull elk and a few cows in town. Just before we hit the park we spotted a huge urban bull and turned around for a few up close (20 feet) pictures. Once inside the park we spotted deer and elk all over, but no really big bulls or big herds like we were expecting. Most of the places (lodges and restrooms) had closed for the season on Sunday, so we decided to just hit a few of the loop drives. We topped out at over 12,000 feet with snow sticking and coming down hard. Glad we had passed on the 11 mile one way gravel route that would have taken us a bit higher. We missed seeing a really nice bull moose by about 2 minutes. We had pulled into a roadside stop to get a closer look at a cow and calf elk, and some people there taking pictures showed us on their camera what we had just missed. We tried hiking down the trail that he had left on, but we turned back after about 10 minutes figuring he had left the trail and ducked into the timber.
Back in the town of Estes Park we asked around trying to find all the elk. We were told to check both golf courses and the school. When we found the school we did a double take. :shock: Laying in the grass 10 feet off the pavement was a really nice 6x6 bull. About 50 yards up the road (school parking entrance) was a herd of about 35-45 cows and calves bedded down with a monster big bull laying right in the middle of them. We went up the road another 50 yards and found a couple more rag horn bulls and a couple of spikes also just bedding down for the day. As we rounded a corner almost to the parking lot, there was another 6x6 bull laying right in the middle of the road. I drove on by him and could have grabbed his antlers out the window as I went by. We turned around and drove back by so my buddy could get the close up view---we were so close he could not get the entire body and antlers in a picture.
There were no elk on the 9 hole golf course, so we headed for the 18 hole course. When we pulled in there were a group teeing off so we asked them where all the elk were. They said we were an hour or 2 early because they usually showed up around 3-4pm. As we pulled out of the golf course right across the street there was about 5 big bulls sparring about 75 yards out in a field. I was turning right but as I looked to the left there is a huge herd crossing the road about 50 yards from us. Traffic came to a standstill as a bunch of cows and calves crossed the road. When there was a break we decided to turn left and see if we could catch a better view of them. After turning left then making a u-turn elk just kept coming across until a big bull showed up and stood in the middle of the road. We were first in line to stop, and got to watch this big boy bugling back and forth with the other bulls with cows and calves wandering on both sides of the road. Needless to say we had found the town herds and also managed to get up close and personal. I shot a bunch of video and hopefully I can figure out how to post some once I get around to it.
We headed down the Boulder canyon that must have had an amazing huge run off this past spring because there was lots of property damage along the way. We made a quick stop at the Coors plant to sample a few beers and buy a t-shirt before heading into Denver traffic. We got to moms new place and unloaded all the stuff that could not go in the moving van. Tuesday we were up at 5:30 for an early flight home All in all a pretty quick trip with no problems and we got to see some awesome scenery (not including most of southern Wyoming) and wildlife.
The stats:
1550 miles
Average fuel price $2.22
Fuel cost $157
Total cost including fuel, 2 hotel nights, meals, and flights home---$683
The prices I was quoted for having the car shipped, ranged from $750 to $1125
The trip wrap up.
My mom moved from Oregon To Denver last week and due to the expense, I volunteered to drive her car over, as long as she flew. There was no way I was going to spend 1200+ miles in the car with mom. :lol:
We got out of Portland about 5:30am on Saturday morning and headed East. I had checked out the fuel prices on this web site http://www.gasbuddy.com/GasPriceMap and strategically figured out where to fill up to avoid the places that are 20 to 50 cents higher. This also made for perfect stops to go potty along the way. We made it to Twin Falls early with no problems in about 9 hours. The cruise control was set at 73 in Oregon and 83 in Idaho. I showed my travel buddy the water falls (just a trickle this time of year), then we checked out Evil Knievel’s dirt ramp from when he attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon in 1976. They are just starting a new housing development nearby and there is talk of dozing it. So we got to see and walk on a piece of history that may soon be lost forever. We met up for a nice dinner with one of my former customers then hit the sack.
Sunday we were on the road at 7am. Saw a few elk and antelope along the way towards Wyoming. After fueling in Evanston we hit the longest most boring drive I will probably never see again. :lol: Literally not much to see for 350 miles between Evanston and Laramie. The only good part is that you sure can cover the miles at 83+mph.
For a Sunday we expected some traffic but were surprised at the huge amount of truck traffic---thousands of trucks on this major East-West piece of pavement. We decided to cut South at Laramie instead of Cheyenne just to see something besides the highway. Even though this is only 2 lane and posted 65mph, it was a nice break from the interstate. This also worked out for fuel with us squeaking into Fort Collins on fumes all the way from Evanston. Looking at the receipts, this stretch was the longest without a stop at 370 miles and right at 5 hours, making this about an 9 hour day once we hit the hotel.Monday we headed from Fort Collins up to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw a few bighorn sheep on the way up and a nice big bull elk and a few cows in town. Just before we hit the park we spotted a huge urban bull and turned around for a few up close (20 feet) pictures. Once inside the park we spotted deer and elk all over, but no really big bulls or big herds like we were expecting. Most of the places (lodges and restrooms) had closed for the season on Sunday, so we decided to just hit a few of the loop drives. We topped out at over 12,000 feet with snow sticking and coming down hard. Glad we had passed on the 11 mile one way gravel route that would have taken us a bit higher. We missed seeing a really nice bull moose by about 2 minutes. We had pulled into a roadside stop to get a closer look at a cow and calf elk, and some people there taking pictures showed us on their camera what we had just missed. We tried hiking down the trail that he had left on, but we turned back after about 10 minutes figuring he had left the trail and ducked into the timber.
Back in the town of Estes Park we asked around trying to find all the elk. We were told to check both golf courses and the school. When we found the school we did a double take. :shock: Laying in the grass 10 feet off the pavement was a really nice 6x6 bull. About 50 yards up the road (school parking entrance) was a herd of about 35-45 cows and calves bedded down with a monster big bull laying right in the middle of them. We went up the road another 50 yards and found a couple more rag horn bulls and a couple of spikes also just bedding down for the day. As we rounded a corner almost to the parking lot, there was another 6x6 bull laying right in the middle of the road. I drove on by him and could have grabbed his antlers out the window as I went by. We turned around and drove back by so my buddy could get the close up view---we were so close he could not get the entire body and antlers in a picture.
There were no elk on the 9 hole golf course, so we headed for the 18 hole course. When we pulled in there were a group teeing off so we asked them where all the elk were. They said we were an hour or 2 early because they usually showed up around 3-4pm. As we pulled out of the golf course right across the street there was about 5 big bulls sparring about 75 yards out in a field. I was turning right but as I looked to the left there is a huge herd crossing the road about 50 yards from us. Traffic came to a standstill as a bunch of cows and calves crossed the road. When there was a break we decided to turn left and see if we could catch a better view of them. After turning left then making a u-turn elk just kept coming across until a big bull showed up and stood in the middle of the road. We were first in line to stop, and got to watch this big boy bugling back and forth with the other bulls with cows and calves wandering on both sides of the road. Needless to say we had found the town herds and also managed to get up close and personal. I shot a bunch of video and hopefully I can figure out how to post some once I get around to it.
We headed down the Boulder canyon that must have had an amazing huge run off this past spring because there was lots of property damage along the way. We made a quick stop at the Coors plant to sample a few beers and buy a t-shirt before heading into Denver traffic. We got to moms new place and unloaded all the stuff that could not go in the moving van. Tuesday we were up at 5:30 for an early flight home All in all a pretty quick trip with no problems and we got to see some awesome scenery (not including most of southern Wyoming) and wildlife.
The stats:
1550 miles
Average fuel price $2.22
Fuel cost $157
Total cost including fuel, 2 hotel nights, meals, and flights home---$683
The prices I was quoted for having the car shipped, ranged from $750 to $1125
