Mother nature was not allowing us to pursue our goal of catching stomrs. The atmosphere was in the process of developing another system to eject out of the four corners region for this weekend.
So the group decided to take a day to go sight seeing. We stayed the night in Alliance, NE where a unique sight was located, that place was Carhenge. A bit redneck and pointless but nonetheless a must see. Our target for Saturday was situating us in east central Colorado, so we decided to go to the Rocky Mountain National Park. On the way to the national park, we drove through Estes Park, CO where the Stanley Hotel is located. Since most of the students and professors have seen the famous movie ‘The Shining’ starring Jack Nicholas in a thriller about a haunted hotel, we had to walk through and get a group photo.
Photo By: Dr. Joshua Durkee
Photo By: Dr. Joshua Durkee
Next, we continued on to the Rocky Mountain National Park where we saw an assortment of wildlife, Chipmunks to Elk, and beautiful scenery. The group got a picture situated 10,000 feet above sea level, with the beautiful snow capped Rockies in the background. Dr. Durkee also got extremely close pictures of a chipmunk that was not afraid of us!
Photo By: Dr. Joshua Durkee
Photo By: Dr. Joshua Durkee
Tomorrow the class looks to be heading back towards the plains and out of Colorado, but since models are not in agreement, we are unsure of our exact target. Anywhere along I-80 looks good tomorrow. However, tomorrow is just a setup for the day after which looks even better. After a day of relaxing and sight seeing, I know for sure all of us are more than excited to get back to chasing storms.
Written By: Lee Campbell