Okay, we totally bribed the kids with Johnson’s corner famous cinnamon rolls to get them into the mountains. Mwa-ha-ha, once you are in the car, it’s unlikely you will walk back home! Johnson’s corner opened up in 1951, it was (oh, I guess is) halfway between Denver and Cheyenne, only when it opened it was the only thing around there except for farms. Using the old ‘if you build it they will come’ philosophy, Mr. Johnson built his truck stop/restaurant on the frontage road and soon I-25 blazed a trail right in front of his restaurant. Their claim to fame is the cinnamon rolls, not as big as the one’s at Lulu’s in San Antonio, but then Loveland, CO is no where near San Antonio, TX.

Lulu’s 3 lb cinnamon roll (we all shared.)

Johnson’s cinnamon roll.

Hannah ate about half of her roll, which considering it was as big as her head, that was a great feat. I have to say, they were okay, but the biscuits and gravy were the bomb. From Johnson’s we took the scenic route to Estes park, the scenery changes on the way.

We stopped by the major tourist site, the Dam store, mainly to use the bathrooms; although the view from the tower was quite nice.

Here’s a t-shirt from inside, funny.

The creek by the road looked so nice, shallow and cold, but considering the temperature was in the 70′s we passed right by.

We wanted to walk around Estes Park, but we couldn’t find a parking spot, no matter, our real goal was a short drive away. Here is a view of Long’s peak from the ranger station.

We drove on Trail ridge road, a road that follows an old Native American trail. It’s the highest continuous road in the US (I know, you think you caught me, Mt. Evans is the highest paved road, it’s not continuous and Pike’s peak road is also the highest road in the US but it’s not continuous and not paved all the way.) Trail ridge road goes up over 12,000 feet and is 48 miles long, so it beats both of the others. We stopped and did a quick hike.

Of course we had to climb around too.

We got back in the car and drove to another spot, we weren’t looking to hike the park on this trip, just enjoy the drive.

The creek here was so pretty Hannah just had to get closer, of course she fell in. We spotted this little bird hopping around and then saw her sitting in her nest.

Chipmunks were running all over the place, this one posed for us.

We were up to almost the top and saw this Model T car, no, I have no idea how that thing made it all the way up here!

The chipmunks were all over the place up here, you only had to pretend to have food and they’d come right over.

I think they look way to cute to have bubonic plague, but the ranger said that’s why we shouldn’t feed them (hey, we weren’t feeding them, just teasing them.) Looking back down towards Estes Park.

Pictures to scare Grandma.

Heading towards the Lava cliffs.

Looking towards Long’s peak.

A herd of elk were just sitting around here, this caused a major traffic jam as people swerved to stop and take pictures.

Lava mountain, kind of like Devil’s tower.

Snowfields, we were really close to the Continental divide here. Soon the river was flowing in the other direction.

Almost to the top, trail ridge cafe, we stopped for a bite to eat.

Never Summer mountains, this is the view coming down the other side towards Grand Lake, CO.

This is a nuthatch, nicely sitting in the tree that the ranger told us he’d be in.

A moose, we passed this up and I made James turn around because all I saw was something black, I thought it was a bear.

Nope, just a moose. No more pics of the trip, it started raining as we passed Granby lake and rained all the way to I-70. We had a fast trip down the interstate until they decided to close it and force everyone to go another way, so we got off and went through Golden and made it home in time for pizza.