Colorado 2017 - Arrival adventures and BIRDS! : Day 1 - Dec. 25th, 2017

     Exciting news! I have finally been able to get out of the state of Texas and experience a new place, and new birds! This holiday season my partner and I decided that rather than exchanging presents, we would take an adventurous trip together and split the cost. Memories last a lot longer than things.
We settled on a trip to Colorado because we found cheap non-stop flights to Denver on the days we could travel, he had never experienced real snow, and I was longing for some snowy, mountainous landscapes.
     Arriving at the airport at 5am on Christmas morning proved to be the best time to fly because we were the only ones at security. For once, TSA had to wait for us to be ready for them! Although, this was the first time I have had the TSA agent ask to feel under my ponytail. What did she think I was hiding under there?!?!?! The flight went off without a hitch, and two hours later, we found ourselves in Denver trying to choose a vehicle in the rental lot. 

Goodbye Texas

Hello Colorado!

     I am an Emerald Club member through National, so I get to go straight to the lot and choose any vehicle in the Emerald aisle. This usually works out pretty well because there are often premium vehicles in the aisle including trucks and SUVs, which I get to rent for a mid-sized rate. However, this Christmas morning all that were left were a handful of sporty cars such as Mustangs and Challengers, two small sedans (I can't drive most sedans because of a knee problem and the angle of the pedals in relation to the seat), and two Kia Souls. It had been decided before booking the trip that I would do all of the driving because of my extensive experience with driving on snow and ice from living in the mountainous part of Pennsylvania for 13 years. Now I was faced with the challenge of choosing the best of the worst for whatever winter road conditions lay ahead of me. The sporty vehicles were out due to rear-wheel drive and pedal angle, as were the small sedans. The Kia Soul it was! This is when I noticed that National had failed to completely clean off the vehicles from the previous day's snow, and the side-view mirrors were frozen, rendering them impossible to move. Oh well, without a blow torch there was little I could do about that. After doing a few quick tests in the rental car lot to see how the vehicle and tires handled in snow, off we went! 
   
The commercials aren't a joke...I really did feel like a hamster in one of these.

     Our first stop was at Barr Lake State Park just minutes from the airport ($7/car fee). This wonderful oasis was full of birds, including many Bald Eagles which was a top target bird for my partner. It was fun to see multiple subspecies of Dark-eyed Junco foraging together with White-crowned Sparrows, Song Sparrows, and American Tree Sparrows. This was also our first sighting of Black-billed Mapgies, Black-capped Chickadees, Canada Goose, and many other avian species we do not get in south-central Texas. In addition, we saw our first Black-tailed Prairie Dogs, which became an immediate favorite mammal of the trip! After spending about 2 hours at the park, and seeing 29 species, we were ready to dig into our snack bags and start heading to Estes Park before it started snowing.

Our first birding stop - Barr Lake SP

Song Sparrow

Western Meadowlarks keeping warm on a composting haybale

Western Meadowlark at max fluff

White-crowned Sparrow

American Tree Sparrow (foreground), White-crowned Sparrow (background)

Adorable Black-tailed Prairie Dog!!!


Some scenery from Barr Lake SP

     Our beautiful drive to Estes Park took a little under 2 hours with only a few snow flurries here and there. About halfway there the ice behind my side-view mirror finally melted so I didn't have to continue stretching in a weird way to use it. Once we got into town, our first stop was at the grocery store to get a few perishables/liquids before it closed for the day. Then we got settled into our lodging and grabbed the binoculars to go explore Estes Lake which is adjacent to the Visitor's Center in the downtown district. The wind was quite strong, and the flurries persisted, so the birds were staying pretty low and hidden, but stretching our legs after the flight and car ride felt great! 

View from our lodge

Estes Lake with snow flurries in the background

Downtown Estes Park

     As the sun went down we realized how hungry we were, but decided to make a slight detour on the way back to the car to find a micro geocache that was hanging in a thick Blue Spruce. Might as well get the Colorado badge on Geocaching.com while we are here! Little did we know, the next hour or so would be spent calling many restaurants in the area trying to find a place to have dinner on Christmas day. Of about 20 places called, 1 was serving a Christmas buffet for $36.99 per person (NOPE!) and all other places were closed or had just closed. The only place that seemed to be open in the whole town was the movie theater. We finally ended up driving around town, parked where we saw the most human activity, and walked around until we found the ONE restaurant open that night. It was a Nepalese place, and although the cuisines from this region of the world are my least favorite, at least we had nourishment.

Next up...our first full day exploring Rocky Mountain National Park!



     

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