eBratt
Regular Member
Decided that we needed to get out of town and enjoy some nature. So, the wife and piled the kids in the minivan and headed up to Estes and into the Rocky Mountain National Park. I was dressed in jeans/tshirt with my S&W 642 in a SERPA holster carried cross-draw.
We stopped at one of the scenic viewpoints to look around and take a couple of pictures. Had a couple of long looks but not a word was said. I just smiled the whole time and did my best to be friendly and disarming (so to say). I did notice an asian family (guessing Japanese) taking a family-1 picture so I stopped, smiled, and to offered to take the picture of the whole family. They noticed I was carrying after they handed me the camera but didn't react much until after the picture was done. Even then, all they did was to stare for an extra few moments and chat quickly amongst each other.
We drove up to the Alpine Visitor Center and had lunch in the parking lot. Lots of people walking by, a couple of nods but mostly absolutely not noticed. The kids wanted to go in the visitor's center to do the junior ranger program (which they do at every park we visit), so I locked the gun in the car and entered the visitor center wearing an empty holster. Very prominently posted as are all the visitor centers. I did check out the bathrooms and noticed something of interest. The bathrooms are accessible from both inside the visitor center and from outside as well. They are NOT posted from the outside and there are not postings going from the bathroom into the visitor center. Seems someone could possibly use the bathroom and inadvertently wander into the visitor center without ever seeing a posted sign. All the other restrooms (more latrines than restrooms) along the road are not posted as far as I could tell.
We finished up in the visitor center and walked over to the Trail Ridge Store which is a privately owned gift shop and food vendor there. I ran back over to the car before loading up and going in. This building is not posted at all and there were no rangers in the building. Carried there with no problems.
The rest of the day was spent hiking one of the trails, climbing some big rocks with the kids. We did stumble upon a huge herd of elk along the side of the road and parked to get out and take some pictures. Again, I did my best to be friendly and outgoing and it was a non-issue with no comments and just a few second looks. Saw a lot more elk and then on the way out, we came upon a line of cars that were stopped. We pulled off and noticed that there was a bear up on the hill a few hundred yards from the road. We watched and snapped a few pictures. I chatted up a few other people who were watching the bear and then we left.
All in all a great day with carrying being the non-issue it should be.
We stopped at one of the scenic viewpoints to look around and take a couple of pictures. Had a couple of long looks but not a word was said. I just smiled the whole time and did my best to be friendly and disarming (so to say). I did notice an asian family (guessing Japanese) taking a family-1 picture so I stopped, smiled, and to offered to take the picture of the whole family. They noticed I was carrying after they handed me the camera but didn't react much until after the picture was done. Even then, all they did was to stare for an extra few moments and chat quickly amongst each other.
We drove up to the Alpine Visitor Center and had lunch in the parking lot. Lots of people walking by, a couple of nods but mostly absolutely not noticed. The kids wanted to go in the visitor's center to do the junior ranger program (which they do at every park we visit), so I locked the gun in the car and entered the visitor center wearing an empty holster. Very prominently posted as are all the visitor centers. I did check out the bathrooms and noticed something of interest. The bathrooms are accessible from both inside the visitor center and from outside as well. They are NOT posted from the outside and there are not postings going from the bathroom into the visitor center. Seems someone could possibly use the bathroom and inadvertently wander into the visitor center without ever seeing a posted sign. All the other restrooms (more latrines than restrooms) along the road are not posted as far as I could tell.
We finished up in the visitor center and walked over to the Trail Ridge Store which is a privately owned gift shop and food vendor there. I ran back over to the car before loading up and going in. This building is not posted at all and there were no rangers in the building. Carried there with no problems.
The rest of the day was spent hiking one of the trails, climbing some big rocks with the kids. We did stumble upon a huge herd of elk along the side of the road and parked to get out and take some pictures. Again, I did my best to be friendly and outgoing and it was a non-issue with no comments and just a few second looks. Saw a lot more elk and then on the way out, we came upon a line of cars that were stopped. We pulled off and noticed that there was a bear up on the hill a few hundred yards from the road. We watched and snapped a few pictures. I chatted up a few other people who were watching the bear and then we left.
All in all a great day with carrying being the non-issue it should be.