There was a demonstration this morning in Estes Park, Colo. to protest the closure of Rocky Mountain National Park. And as much as I wanted to be there, I couldn’t manage a second trip up there this week. The cloudy morning matched my mood.
Then, just before the demonstration/march was scheduled to begin, it struck me — I could watch on the controllable Tram Cam* webcam. It was a long, fuzzy, bird’s eye view, but it was in real time. What fun! (Apologies to Eric Caulkins for monopolizing his camera for almost an hour.)
The march was scheduled to begin at 10 am, and I was watching the area by 9:45. (I’m one of those people who’s so concerned about being on time that I always end up arriving early.) Normal people, of course, show up at the stated time or later. I was starting to think no one at all was going to show up, but right at 10 o’clock, people started arriving.
The main road in these screenshots is Moraine Avenue / Park Entrance Road. Running parallel to it on the right is High Drive. Mills Drive comes in from the top. The activities, whatever they are, are taking place right in the middle, behind those trees. I can’t tell if that’s the location of the entrance sign I photographed on Monday, but it was apparent no one was going beyond that point.
I kept panning back and forth, looking up and down the road toward and past the visitor center, hoping to see the marchers moving beyond the trees. But it never happened. I’m wondering if they were met by park officials or police and forbidden to proceed. Regardless, it mattered that they were there.
An hour later I heard on the news that some states that asked permission to reopen their national parks because of financial hardships have received permission to do so. I’m assuming that includes Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park. Our Congressional delegation — some of them, anyway — and Governor Hickenlooper have been working hard to get it done, and it sounds like they succeeded.
Congratulations, everyone! And thank you. Estes Park and the people of Colorado needed and deserved this.
Denver’s 9News reported on the demonstration during its 5 pm broadcast:
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*The Tram Cam requires a 64-bit browser and Java. It won’t work with Chrome.
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Congratulations indeed PT, and I hope that financial hardships permission comes through ASAP! 😀
Thanks. Me too. Re-opening can’t come soon enough.
What a great idea to use the webcams!
Little steps, but results look promising.
Supposed to be a big protest Sat in Smokey MTS Sat. and CA has multiple protest, too.
This isn’t about recreation and hiking – it’s about jobs that feed families – and that promise to help CO flood areas.
March on. Those are OUR parks – not the Federal Government’s or the NPS.
Great job governors!
Yes, it’s absolutely about jobs and economic well-being. In Colorado, especially, there are a jillion places for recreation, hiking, and tourism outside of national parks.
It’s especially bad because of all the promises made by someone people supported and voted for.
And the very least of their responsibilities is to keep the government running.
Yes, the protest culminated at the RMNP sign, about 1/2 mile before Beaver Meadows entrance to the park. Here is a link to a video that I filmed of the event:
http://youtu.be/npj2uE8Xj6U
Darrell, thanks so much for sharing this!! I was hoping someone who was there might find this blog and provide some more information, but I never expected a video. This is wonderful.