Valhalla Resort, USA

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Beauty and inspiration go hand-in-hand when artists come to the Colorado Rockies to paint the parks this summer on location from Aug. 7 through Oct. 3, 2010.

Plein Air Rockies 2010 is a festival of outdoor painting celebrating the inspiration from subjects like Rocky Mountain National Park, forests, river canyons, scenic highways, and/or people and places in Estes Park or cityscapes found in the various Front range communities.

The event is staged in three parts, starting with the annual "Prelude Show" in the Cultural Arts Council Fine Art Gallery from Aug. 7 to Aug. 26 when patrons can enjoy a preview of works by the Plein Air Rockies participating artists created while they are in the field. Once the painting period ends Friday, Aug. 27, the exhibition and sale of the new works is held Aug. 28 through Oct. 3, at the Cultural Arts Council of Estes Park Fine Art Gallery. In addition, the 2010 festival will include many other events including, a children’s paint out on Aug. 19, nocturne paint out from 8 to 10 p.m. on Aug. 23, a Paint the Town day when artists "Paint Out" in downtown Estes Park and a Quick Draw and Auction on August 28.

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Heritage Festival

August 20-21, 2011

Heritage FestivalTake a step back into time and explore the history of Estes Park at the Heritage Festival. It's a perfect opportunity for the entire family to learn about the strong pioneer mountain men and women who had the vision and determination to create a retreat for future generations.

Experience a ranch wagon ride from the area's historic MacGregor Ranch or a Stanley Steamer ride. Children will have fun donning leather gloves before experiencing how log homes were built generations ago and all will enjoy watching live demonstrations of quilting and wood carving. Plan on checking out the military encampment, antique dolls on display and information about ancestry and lineage.

Now in its fifth year, Estes Park's Heritage Festival is a community-wide effort designed to re-create the founding history of the town with a two-day event in Bond Park in the center of downtown. The park itself is filled with history as it was home to the original log building that housed the Estes Park Library until the early 1990s.

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One of my favorite national parks. We visited here in early September - it was still warm during the daytime althouhg higher altitudes were almost freezing cold. The views were magnificient. The waters are clear and sparkle in the sun, mountains are majestetic, and elks and deer graze peacefully on the meadows.
The park has many cleary marked trails. It's best to reserve plenty of time here. My absolute favorite is the Chapin Trail up to the Mount Chapin.

Bear Lake is only 100 meters or so from the parking place and thus packed with people. It is, however, an excellent starting point, from which many trails begin. The lake itself is nice: the surroundings are handsome and the waters are clear. We continued from Bear Lake to the glacier lakes upper in the mountains... Another good option could have been to go to the Flattop Mountain - maybe next time...

If you're wanting a hike that isn't QUITE as busy, head to Wild Basin, in the southeast part of the park. The hike to Ouzel Falls is one of my favorites. Along the way you'll come to Calypso Cascade, which is worth the price of admission to the park.

This small tourist town is a gateway to the Rocky Mountain National Park. The town center is small and filled with shops selling outdoors equipment. We didn't spend much time in the town though - the RMNP is so close that we went there for the daylight hours. ... p.s. the local micro brewery's beer is ok ;-)

The Stanley Hotel is old and charming. It's known as being "The Shining" hotel - the hotel supposedly inspired Steven King's book and later the film. The hotel building is magnificient wooden structure painted white. We got a room facing south and thus had a great view to the Rocky Mountains. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

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A clean motel just outside the Rocky Mountain National Park. Our room was nice and spacious. Altogether the motel seemed to be equipped for the national park visitors, i.e. hikers and trekkers: location was good, rooms had refridgerators, a big map of the trails was on the room wall, ... Our room was on the upper row and the view to the mountain was - again - magnificient.

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The town seems to live on a distinctive rhythm along with its adventurous visitors. People wake up early to get to the Rocky Mountain National Park in time and most of the shops close already at 5pm and at 9pm the town is very quiet. This rhythm makes sense though because the best hiking hours in RMNP are in the morning: the probability of thunder storms is high in the afternoon and especially in the higher altitudes the weather can change rapidly (as we experienced today when the hail storm set in in the middle of a sunny day...)

The Mount Chapin trail was my favorite hike in the RMNP. The trail begins below the treeline but quite soon rises above the trees. The grand view over the mountain range makes you feel very small as you see the forests and valleys and mountains continuing in front of you for miles and miles. We saw only very few other people on the trail, but the more deer and elks and even our first pica's! :-) The other easy-to-reach-by-car trails were definitely more crowded.
Also this trail is clearly marked and quite easy to walk. It'll get windy and quite cold above the treeline and it's said that the afternoon thunderstorms are common.

We took the Deer Mountain trail on the last hiking day at the Rockies. The trail is one of the easier ones and not too long (or interesting, for that matter), but it's very conveniently located by the road going through the Rocky Mountain National Park . The path is easy to tread and there are many good spots to sit down for a while and enjoy the views over the valley and watch the Stellar Jay's fly.

The Nymph Lake was the second glacier lake on our hike starting uphill from the Bear Lake. The lake is actually more like a pond: shallow and small and in many places covered with water-lilyes (or similar).
I took the photo after a long hike from the lake just to show that That's where we came from! The lake in the photo is Nymph Lake from which our trail continued upwards to left towards the Dream Lake.

Lake Shore, a beautiful lodge in Estes Park, also has an exceptional Estes Park conference center.

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Lake Shore, a beautiful lodge in Estes Park is well appointed for Estes Park weddings, reunions, retreats, corporate meetings and business conferences.

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Enjoy the panoramic views of the Rockies set against the stunning crystal clear waters of Lake Estes while dining at The Shores Restaurant .

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Affordable and comfortable lodging in Estes Park

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Estes Park accommodations at Sunnyside Knoll Resort gift certificates are available for a family or friend. Gift certificates are great for holidays, birthdays or just weekend getaways and are good throughout the entire year.

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For more information about this accommodation, visit Fawn Valley Inn website.

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Pet friendly units available.

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Timber Creek Chalets is located two miles from Rocky Mountain National Park.

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It can accommodate four to ten people, and are perfect for romantic getaways or family reunions.

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All cabins have kitchens or kitchenettes, bathrooms, cable TV, DVD players and gas grills.

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