Camping New Years Eve

New Years in Estes Park, Colorado

Date of Trip:	12/31/2017 to 1/2/2018
Duration:	2 Nights
Round Trip Mileage:	141 miles
Rock Odometer:	446 miles
Weather:	Low 14°F - High 30°F, Mostly Sunny
Campground:	Manor RV Park In Estes Park, CO.

2017 has come to an end...

We've had a blessed year and the last month has been crazy. Both girls celebrated birthdays, holiday parties at work and a wonderful Christmas get together at our place. It's time to take a couple days to unwind and ring in the new year.

Better have a plan!

After talking with Marc Leach of Keep Your Day Dream it sparked my curiosity about snowshoeing in the Rockies. We found that nearly all the campgrounds and RV parks in Estes are closed for the season and either do not answer the phone or their websites explicitly state they're closed until spring. The only place we found that would really talk to us was Manor RV Park but they quickly stated they were closed too. They did, however, offer "dry camping" which to me means they are offering a piece of land. Well to them they were offering a spot, with power, cable, and sewer. They also have water onsite at select frost-free hydrants but not at the sites. 

Load up and head out.

It's cold! Really cold, I'm talking 10°F cold. We picked up the Rock from storage and brought it to the house to load up. The entire time I was loading stuff (and freezing) I was telling myself what a bad idea this was. I had a space heater running but the entire rig was so cold that it just consumed every drop of warmth that came out of the little box. Finally, we're ready, 3 kids, 2 dogs, and enough snow gear to pack nearly every crevasse of the Rock.

Up we go.

It's a quick drive, about two hours. The scenery is beautiful once you get out of the city and into the canyon on Highway 36. Grades are steep from time to time and turns get tighter but nothing too challenging. The recently installed airbags on the truck have greatly improved the ride and the control of the load.

We're Here!

Estes Park is undergoing some major street repairs since this is their offseason, which meant getting through town was a little difficult. We finally arrived just before the office closed and the lady at the desk was extremely nice. She explained that she was leaving for the holiday and we were some of the only people in the campground. She showed us where our spot was and where we could get water. We quickly pulled to the frost-free hydrant to fill the fresh water tank but ran into a couple of snags. First, our inline filter was frozen. So we ditched it. We hooked up direct, turned on the water and it filled the hose. Then it stopped! Apparently, there was just a little water somewhere in the fill line that didn't get pushed out when I winterized. Long story short, there will be no water in our rig this weekend.

We pulled into our spot, got leveled and started running some heat. The onboard propane heater kicks out some major heat. It was 70F in the Rock within about 15 minutes. From there we decided we better figure out what we are doing for water for the next couple of days. So we headed into town and grabbed some 2.5-gallon water jugs. 10 gallons should do.

While driving around in town we also noticed that the city center was still lit with lights from Christmas. It was beautiful. We walked around for a little while taking in the sights but it was soooo cold. We lasted about 20 minutes before heading back to the Rock. But not until we made a trip past the old Stanley Hotel which was also well lit and jumping for NYE.

That night we tried our hardest to get the ball drop on TV but the only channel we would get was airing 2 and a half men. They have cable hook-ups here but we do not have a cable. That'll get added to the list.

We pseudo watched it on YouTube and had our own unique celebration. 

Snowshoeing here we come.

We woke to a beautiful morning. Rocky Mountain National Park out the window and the sun shining. As we looked around we realized there really wasn't much snow. Rather than go rent gear we decided to head to the park and see for ourselves. As we suspected there really wasn't much but we were told that they had snow at Hidden Valley. This is an old ski area that has since been shut down and is now open to the public to sled on. We just so happen to have our sleds so we pulled over and went sledding. The area was great, it has a warming hut and restrooms. There were plenty of people but its a rather large area so the kids had no problem finding a spot to head down the hill.

After a good couple hours of sledding, we decided to continue on into the park and look for a decent hike. We came across a waterfall on the map and it looked like a decent shorter hike so we went looking for it. The name of the falls is Alberta Falls and you can get to it by starting at the Glacier Gorge Trailhead. The hike is 1.7 miles round trip and is fairly easy going. The trail was covered in snow but it was hard packed as easy to hike on. Once we reached the falls we were in awe. It was obviously frozen but we were able to climb it and see the water flowing behind it. It was really magnificent.

An evening on the town

The kids were pooped and wanted to go back to the Rock and watch movies and nap. We stopped by Estes Park Pie Shop & Bakery on the way back and had a great meal. Hearty comfort food and obviously pie! We had to take a whole cherry-peach pie back to the Rock with us.

After dropping the kids off Nikki and I thought this was a great opportunity to go check out the town. We found a little distillery called Elkins Distilling Co. and wandered in for something to warm us up. We had a taster flight of their whiskeys and had a great time in this neat little place. My more detailed review can be found on Yelp. From there we stopped in Estes Park Brewing but found it to be a letdown. We didn't stay long but here are the details if you're interested.

Final Thoughts

The next morning we threw down a hearty breakfast on the Camp Chef and then packed up. We were back home by 3pm and had plenty of time to unload and re-winterize the Rock. We made sure we got every last bit of water pushed out with anti-freeze so hopefully this won't happen again. 

This was a great trip even if we didn't have water! We need to do a better job winterizing, obviously.

I need to get the truck/trailer adjusted to utilize both the weight distribution hitch and airbags effectively. It had improved but I think I can get it even better.

We need a coaxial cable onboard. We seldom watch TV, but it would be nice in times like this.

Photos from the trip can be found here.