Good day, and welcome to my annual trip back home to Colorado. On this trip, I had hoped to get back to a couple of spots that I visited during my college days, before I had a digital camera. But before that, I had hoped to go to Rocky Mountain National Park on Day One. However, due to ever-increasing crowds, you now must have a Timed Entry Pass to get into this park, and I had forgotten to obtain one. So, Day One became my Brainard Lake day, Brainard Lake being one of the above-mentioned couple of spots I’ve not visited since my college days. Thus, after an early lunch, I went on a leisurely mountain drive to Brainard Lake, stopping for pictures at several points along the way. Check ’em out:

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I arrived at the fee station for Brainard Lake only to find that, despite being a National Forest (not even in the same Federal department with National Parks), they also are requiring advance purchase of a Timed Entry Pass. So, with tears in my eyes and a bun in my oven, I made the decision to drive north on the Peak-to-Peak Scenic Byway. About 12 years ago, I attempted to “fully” explore this highway, but only covered about half of it. This time, I didn’t explore all the historic remnants along the way, as I hoped stopping for only the few most scenic spots would lead to completing the other half of the Peak-to-Peak Scenic Byway. Here are some of those scenes:

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At this point, I was approaching the Wild Basin Area of Rocky Mountain National Park. The park’s website was very explicit in spelling out which entrances and areas of the park were using the Timed Entry Passes, but it didn’t mention Wild Basin at all. I took a chance; I made the left turn into Wild Basin. Well, come to find out, Wild Basin requires the passes, too. But, only from 10 AM to 2 PM. And when I pulled up to the fee station, it was 2:05. So, I got in and went for a short hike. Many waterfalls and alpine lakes can be reached via the trails in this area. But given the time of day and the fact I hadn’t brought sufficient water for a long hike, I just hiked up to the nearest set of named falls (Copeland Falls). Due to lighting conditions and my failure to bring a suitable tripod, none of my waterfall pics turned out decent. But there was good scenery on the walk to/from the falls. See for yourself:

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When my hike was finished, the sun was plummeting from the sky, so I didn’t have much time to complete the Peak-to-Peak Scenic Byway. But complete it I did, and still managed to get some more photos along the way:

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As the sun set, I drove to the City of Fort Collins to play awhile at Pinball Jones. This place was excellent! A good collection of old, new, and middle-aged machines, including most of my old favorites (Twilight Zone, The Addams Family, Simpsons Pinball Party, even Earthshaker). All the machines are very well-maintained, and there are a few good ciders available at the bar.

As a side note, I didn’t sleep well either of the previous two nights. I was thinking that this might be because I went to bed too early, when I wasn’t yet tired enough for sleep. So, I decided to stay up late tonight to see how well I would sleep if I waited until exhaustion set in before allowing myself to go to bed. How did that work out? Stay tuned…