Estes Park - Fun

Up until now I haven't really talked much about the ultimate destination of our trips, that would be Estes Park, Colorado. This is a small town nestled in the mountains and the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. It's a breathtakingly beautiful location and the town itself, while mostly crowded with tourists has really hardly changed over the past 40 years I have been going there. The town survives on the tourist trade and the attraction from the national park, which means the economy is dominated by motels, gift shops and activities that have no practical value other than to serve the town itself. While many of the chintzy gift shops and specialty stores catering to wannabe cowboys and mountain climbing enthusiasts have come and gone over the years, there are a few that have always been there and probably will always be there forever, "Indian Village", a mainstay and supplier of all the needed accoutrement's required for an Estes Park visit providing everything from postcards, Indian artifacts, toy guns or bows and arrows, or the ever-popular rabbit fur pelts that I insisted on getting one (or two) every year.

One of the more perplexing yet successful businesses in the town of Estes is the Christmas stores, or Christmas Shoppes as they're so often called. I've never understood the attraction to these shops, especially during the Summer when we were there, but there always seemed to be at least 3 of these stores in town, and they were always hopping with customers. Most of the customers for these stores appeared to be old ladies or Midwest housewives who compulsively shop early for Christmas, my Aunt and Grandmother (who are not from the Midwest) fits this description perfectly, spending what seemed like hours in these stores carefully buying useless and tacky decorations to be displayed 6 months from now. More to my dismay was the fact that my Dad seemed to be attracted to these shops, possibly the thought of Christmas (the greatest holiday of the year) and the "big bye bye" (the greatest vacation of the year) were magically combined and enjoyed for that brief time that we frequented these stores. I was always dragged into these shops and made to wait patiently while all the grownups browsed the endless array of crap. To make things doubly miserable most of the items in these stores were extremely delicate and fragile, which meant I needed to be on my best "don't touch" behavior, and to make matters worse the people working these stores were impatient with kids and obviously disliked anyone under 30. I'm glad to say that my Aunt usually recognized our boredom and arranged for us to do something else with the bigger kids like get ice cream or go down the "Big Dipper" slide for an hour or two.

It was these attractions like the "Big Dipper" slide that made the endless shopping endurable for us kids, while this was considered a treat and not done on a daily basis, we had a vast amount of activities at our disposal. The "Big Dipper" was a large 4 or 5 storey tall fiberglass slide with different colored sections to choose from, and depending on the condition of the color, your size or weight, or the preference of the guy working the top of the slide each section was either fast or slow, coming down on your blanket to reduce friction and increase static electricity shock risk. The actual sliding part had dips in the decline which gave a roller coaster-like experience and the more use a section got the less friction and faster performance resulted, the goal being to slide all the way to the end, or further. The "Big Dipper" slide was only one of a few activities available at that location, the best being the big inflatable bubble called "The Moon Walker" and we got to jump around in for 10 minutes (for a nominal price). We arrived in Estes one year to find that the Moon Walker was gone, thoroughly disappointed we inquired about what happened and found out that the Moon Walker had been vandalized by "kids with knives". Devastated by this injustice we complained about our loss for years to come. Then the trampolines, which was reserved mostly for the bigger kids was a lot of fun but didn't last long probably because of an injury or lawsuit. Then the bumper cars were always fun as was the small gauge scale train to take the smaller kids on a round trip around the area. And then there was always miniature golf, which Estes Park boasted 3 separate courses at one time. Miniature golf was usually a separate event reserved for the evening when it was cooler and we could afford wasting a couple of hours. I realize now miniature golf was probably more fun for us kids than the adults, which tended to get frustrating and prolonged especially at the difficult holes. My Dad and Uncle Bob would often resort to cheating when sinking a ball became impossible for one of us kids, hurrying the process along so we could get out before midnight. The other huge attraction for us kids was the Go-Carts, possibly the most fun any kid my age could have. This was a specially planned occasion since it tended to be pricey, but all us kids looked forward to this event and the thrill of driving these go-carts lingered for days. I was somewhat young for the carts and started out riding on the lap of Dad or Uncle Bob, but I eventually grew to size and my confidence grew as well allowing me to drive solo. Once I lost control and spun out on the tires on the far side of the track, one of the workers had to come and rescue me and he was very angry and berated me for driving recklessly. I was a bit shaken from that time on and avoided driving a go-cart solo for the rest of that visit, however on our last day in Estes we made a final go-cart event and I courageously drove the cart by myself, being extremely careful and keeping within the go-cart speed limit and rules of the road. To my surprise I received a smile and nod of approval from the mean guy who yelled at me, my confidence in go-cart driving restored.

Estes Park in many ways was better than Disneyland or Knotts Berry Farm, a unique place where I could be free to have fun.