WEDNESDAY, 8/1

WEDNESDAY, 8/1:

     Drove the RV in to Granby 1^st thing.  The owner surprised us by saying that he actually thought it would be ready by noon, not late afternoon.  Randy, the owner, is a salt-of-the-earth type guy, who’s run his body shop business for over 30 years.  Says he wants to get out of it now – between insurance companies & gov’t regulations, he says he can’t make any money any more.  But he’s a little eccentric himself – he wouldn’t take a credit card, saying, “I don’t trust them people,” but would accept an out-of-state check.  Go figure!

     Anyway, we drove back to Grand Lake and took the short trail up to Adam’s Falls.  Lovely, like all waterfalls.  Spent some time chatting with the volunteer park visitors’ guides, or whatever they’re called.  Again, very nice & informative & helpful.  We’re always so impressed with the caliber of people who work at our National Parks.  We’ve never had anything but very positive experiences with them.  It’s a privilege to pay taxes to have these gorgeous places preserved, and to hire folks who care deeply about both the places and the people who visit them.

      Then drove back to Granby, went grocery shopping, and picked up the RV.  Drove it back, unhitched it, got it set up (again!)  We’ve done this enough now here in this spot – let’s let it stay put for the next 7 days! 

      Prepared the salmon we bought earlier on the grill.  Finished in time to join a ranger-led walk & talk “Walk into Twilight.”  On the drive up to the trailhead where we’d meet the Ranger, we saw at least half-a-dozen elk grazing in the meadow alongside the road.   Weren’t the least bit concerned about our presence as we stopped to take pictures.  A couple of minutes later, we saw 2 mamas walking their young ones across the road.  When we arrived at the trailhead, there were about 9 or 10 of us.  Was another wonderful interaction with a Park employee.  Her talk was so interesting & informative, but also strongly philosophical . . . how our feelings about nighttime are usually different from those about daytime, what causes those feelings, etc.   Then she contrasted our human feelings & perceptions in the nighttime, or twilight hours, to those of different animals.  She gave anatomical reasons for the differences, in a way that was totally understandable.  She’s a science teacher (including anatomy) during the year in an inner city high school, but has been a summer Ranger at RMNP for 35 years!  We did have to call the walk short by a little because of rain & wind, but we feel we got so much out of it anyway.