Chapel on the Rock

Today, we ventured into the Rocky Mountain National Park. The woman running the motel we stayed at gave us a ticket she'd found that saved us the $20 entry fee. Nice.

Before we did so, we popped to see the Chapel on the Rock, today's blip. Its proper title is St Catherine of Siena and it was blessed by Pope John Paul II back in 1993. Afterwards, he went for a little wander in the woods.

We quickly checked out Lily Lake where Mrs SP almost lost her fancy sunglasses, before heading into the park itself.

Unable to get to Bear Lake due to slow moving shuttle buses, we decided to follow a trail that led up and up. The views were great but nothing that we haven't seen already. There was also something about following the road round, stopping where you stop for the photograph that was a little dull. Maybe dull isn't the word. Prescriptive, perhaps.

We opted instead to drive out of the park and onto US 34 towards Loveland. The reason for this was because the Big Thompson river followed by the side of the road; we were determined to have a little picnic by the water. A perfect spot was found and we ate ham, olives and beef jerky while paddling our feet in the river. Success!

Tonight, we're staying in The Stanley Hotel, the inspiration for Stephen King's The Shining. They show the full, uncut version of Kubrick's film on continuous loop in every room. As we arrived, we turned to Channel 42 and it was at the part where Dick Hallorann is showing Wendy and Danny around the walk-in larders. As it was so close to the start it felt rude to not watch to the end.

Now, we're sat on the veranda outside the front of the hotel, our bellies full from a three course feed, thinking about the drive to Wyoming in the morning. We're also halfway through the trip.