As we headed north out of Denver on the I25, we got a taste of what we’d let ourselves in for by deciding to drive across Nebraska and Iowa. It is easy to think of Colorado as a mountain state, covered in the snowy peaks of the Rocky Mountains, but the 150 mile strip of land, east of the Front Range, is almost devoid of any topographic features. It came as something of a shock after driving thousands of mile through the canyons and mountains of Utah and Colorado, to see nothing but snooker table flat expanses of farmland as far as you can see. The area that we stopped in for the night, between Erie and Dacono, is similarly devoid of any interesting features; thankfully we had not visited for the scenery, but were there to visit Earthroamer, a company specializing in offroad motorhomes.
After a disturbed night, having been moved from a nearby park by an officious local policeman, we woke outside the Earthroamer shop, and paid an early morning visit to the company. The friendly receptionist gave a decent tour of their facilities and their vehicles, despite it being clear that we already had a perfectly good truck and didn’t have the $390,000 necessary to buy the second hand unit on their parking lot.
Their workshop is immaculate, and it was a joy to see an engineering shop that was so clean and well organised. I developed a great respect for their product during the visit, and whether you are a fan of the big Ford truck chassis that they use, or not, the quality of their work is difficult to argue with. They use many materials and technologies that I would loved to have used on Jim, alas many are too expensive and too difficult for someone with the limited finances and facilities that I had. In particular I liked the way that they construct their box bodies out of a single moulding of fibreglass and foam composite. The bodies are attractive and strong, and being made in one single piece, have no joints where stresses can accumulate or leaks can form. It was also great to see the level of comfort in the driving cab. Jim, having been derived from an armoured truck, was always going to be more spartan and utilitarian than most motorhomes, but the Ford cab is more like a luxury car than any European heavy truck I’ve been in. Leather seats, climate control and thick carpet, and not things normally seen in the cabs of heavy trucks made by Mercedes, Man or Volvo.
Unfortunately without the necessary fortune to keep the secretary at Earthroamer engaged, our visit was fairly swift, and we were soon back on the road. The drive down to boulder was fairly uninspiring, but as soon as we left the town, heading east on the 119, we entered the mountains again. We have done a lot of driving the mountains recently, but the drive up to Nederland was one of the nicest we have driven; the road winds steeply upwards, through a deep and narrow Boulder Canyon, and after a few miles it is hard to believe that the endless plains are just a short distance behind you. At Nederland we headed north on the Peak to Peak Scenic Highway (Highway 72), in the direction of Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park.
As with most national parks, the board of governors at Rocky Mountain National Park is mostly comprised of cats, and consequently, dogs are banned from all trails in the park. To give Boris a chance to enjoy the beautiful scenery in the area, we turned off of the 72 after a few miles, and headed for the campsites and trailheads that provide access to the Indian Peaks Wilderness area, south of the National Park. The proximity to the National Park and Denver, mean that that the area of Roosevelt National Forrest providing access to the wilderness, is extremely popular. To prevent the area degenerating uncontrollably, the National Forest service charge a modest entry fee to the area ($10 for three days) and allow camping only in paid for campsites. I resented having to pay for camping in the three days that we spent in the area, but the number of visitors we saw during our stay, would clearly have made dispersed camping impossible to regulate, and the number and quality of hiking trails justify the cost.
We walked a number of the trails during our stay at Brainard Lake, adjacent to the wilderness, but I particularly enjoyed the 8-mile round trip hike to the peak of Mount Audubon. Most of the hike was above tree line, and the novelty of walking past snow in August has still not expired. We also saw a huge number of marmots and pikas scurrying around, making squeaking noises.
I was also hugely grateful to see a group of moose, grazing near Brainard Lake, particularly as our imminent journey east meant that this was our last chance to see these huge animals in the wild.
For reasons that are not completely clear to me, our Webasto water heater coked up again, just four weeks after I cleaned it out at Grand Mesa National Forest. At 10,500 foot in the Indian Peaks Wilderness campsite, the heater started smoking badly and failed to run properly. It may have been caused by our almost continuous existence at high altitude over the last month, or perhaps that I failed to clean it out sufficiently during the previous dissassembly, but it may be indicative of another problem, perhaps fuel related. I didn’t have the inclination to dismantle the heater again whilst enjoying our stay in the wilderness, and so for three days we heated our water by running the electric immersion heater off of the inverter. At 1,200 watt, the electric heater puts a strain on the inverter, and rapidly discharges the batteries, which of course needed recharging. The limited solar charge available in the shady forest, and the insufficient charge from the alternator driving the short distances to the trailheads, meant that on one occasion we had to resort to using the mains battery charger, running off the generator, to keep the batteries in a healthy state.
After three days hiking in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, we descended to Highway 72 again, and drove north to Estes Park. I have enjoyed spending time in most of the mountain towns that we have visited in Colorado; the combination of the historic mining aesthetic, the abundance of hiking shops, and a good collection of pubs and bars, make them pleasant places to spend time. Unfortunately Estes Park does not fit into this category. The town is bisected by a busy highway ferrying visitors to the Rocky Mountain National Park, and both sides of the road are packed with tourists visiting the astonishing number of tat shops, selling novelty tee-shirts, mass produced ice creams, and salt-water taffy. We stocked up on food, and were pleased to leave the town and head into the national park.
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