My “Rocky” summer has begun: End of the first day in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Sunday, June 7th
My flight landed at 7:30pm last night. I was riding toward Estes Park from Denver just in time to see the vast jagged mountains silhouetted by the setting sun. Even in the dim light, I could see that these titans are beautiful; their size stands out even more prominently against the flat open plains. Unfortunately, by the time I reach Estes Park, the sun has sunk below behind the peaks and I cannot see the scenery Jim Dougan (one of my supervisors) describes to me. Oh well, I have the whole summer to catch the view.
My new home…is actually not that bad. Not at all the rustic, man packed, B.O smelling place I was half expecting. It’s a small little house with one floor, 2 bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, full bathroom, and porch. And I have a roommate, Carmen, who is from Paw Paw, Michigan. She’s working for the Park's law enforcement. She’s really nice with a personality I may I aspire to be like one day. She’s worked for several parks including one up in Alaska. She went to this special law enforcement school this past winter in CA to work for National Parks. It was a 10-week intensive program that has sparked my interest. Already I am getting the impression I’ll be getting that education I want on my year off and I will be able to return to school with a better idea of where I want to go with my life.
Today, I was left to fend for myself in the morning. I woke to find my roommate had left for church early and not knowing the area at all, I walked around, found a couple of maps of the trails, and went for a run. FYI: my new home has quite the scenic views of the mountains with snow-capped peaks-it’s pretty cool…no wait, gorgeous.
When my roommate got back, she drove me into town about 2-3 miles away to do some food shopping. In the afternoon she brought me to the visitor center nearby so I could find out about the shuttle schedule. Here I talked with this one nice ranger, Alyssa ,who loves to hike all the time and has offered me to join her and her friends in bluegrass. I do love how the park rangers are such a welcoming community.
Ok, I know this is getting boring and long winded for a day that didn’t have much happen. One last story for now. I was walking back from the coffee shop that is 1.5 miles away and the closest place with wifi when I got caught in a brief rainstorm and these 3 young adults in a car driving by, offered me a ride back to my place. There was one couple from Michigan and the driver, Logan, is from Kentucky and it turns out they were just coming from climbing. We exchanged numbers so we could hopefully meet up for climbing sometime. I am so excited to be meeting such adventurous people who are so open to meeting new folks and going hiking/climbing with them. I can't wait to meet my coordinator-Tara, because she apparently is into everything I am into or hope to be into-hiking, climbing, biking, surfing, you name it. And from what Jim says, is one of the best climbers in the park. I hope to have the chance to climb with her so that I may not only improve my climbing skills and try whole new routes, but also to learn more about climbing (like practice trad leading).
Well that’s about all that’s happened to far, other than the short hike I went on that had some fantastic views. Sorry it's not so eventful or exciting to read. I’ll work on my writing skills. Unfortunately I am a bit rusty. Tomorrow though, training begins and once that starts and I start being apart of rescue missions, I’m sure my journal entries will become a lot less mundane.