Estes Park

A few weekends ago I went up to Estes Park with my uncle. It's most famous for being home to the Stanly Hotel, a haunted building that inspired Steven King's the Shining, but the best part of it for me was the trip there and back through winding mountain roads.

Last week I went back to Estes for a NaNo write in. I am sorely behind, so I figured going an hour and a half out of my way to sit and write was a good way to force my butt into action. It worked rather well. I got something like 10k out of that one day.

I opted to drive back that night instead of staying over and risk driving while exhausted. Turns out being the only car driving down dark, winding, steep roads with the music blasting is a ton of fun. I also ended up having to wait for a herd of caribou  Elk to cross the street right as I was leaving town, which was awesome. Caribou Elk are huge, and I was very glad that they were only interested in crossing the street and not in inspecting and/or starting a fight with the bright metal things in their way. Needless to say, I was very careful for the rest of the drive. Running into one of those things would not be pleasant at all.