We had a pretty good night’s sleep alongside the trailhead on the outskirts of Boulder, only awoken early in the morning as what sounded like enthusiastic joggers went past our RV. Heading into Boulder, our first priority was stocking up on some groceries, only to quickly learn that the residents of Boulder absolutely love Trader Joe’s–there’s only one in the city, and we were shocked to find the parking lot crammed with cars, and the store jammed with shoppers on a Monday morning! Perhaps folks ran out of time to shop over the weekend, and they skipped the start of the workweek?
Dushanbe Teahouse
We spent some time in Boulder doing boring-but-important errands, including calling around to see if there were any mechanics who could check our brakes (unfortunately none could do for an RV), do some banking (which required going to 2 different branches), and catching up on work stuff. In the afternoon, we headed to Dushanbe Teahouse, a beautiful building in the design of what you’d expect of teahouses in Tajikistan. Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, is the sister city of Boulder, so this tea house was built by more than 40 artisans across Tajikistan, with beautifully ornate ceilings, columns, and interiors in mosaics, ceramics, and other gorgeous patterns to celebrate the relationship. We were incredibly lucky to find a parking spot that fit our RV perfectly right in front of the teahouse (kudos to Michael for the precise parking skills), and went in to enjoy a cup of tea (chai for Michael, with free refills, black honey tea for Lisette), and share dessert (cardamom rice pudding with grapes and spices).
The Dushanbe Tea House is a 5-minute walk to Pearl Street Mall in the downtown Boulder area, which is about 4 blocks filled with shops and restaurants. Because Boulder is a picturesque town where people are often out and about hiking, biking, and getting outdoors, Lisette splurged on a merino wool base layer from Norwegian brand Norrøna. She rationalized that during our trip we’ve been doing a lot of walking and hiking, and merino wool is not only moisture wicking and odor resistant, but it’s something that will last a long time and will replace her current, unnatural fiber, long-sleeved tops that show sweat and are starting to fray after years of use… right?
Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Camp-Resort
We were eager to get to the Rocky Mountains, so we continued on to Estes Park, a town that’s known as a base for the Rocky Mountain National Park, where we could stay the night ahead of exploring the Rockies the following day. As it turned out, there weren’t many places for us to park our RV for the night, and the only RV park open for the season in the area was Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts, a chain of family-friendly campgrounds across the US. Because we were so early in the season (many of the other campgrounds don’t open until May), we had the place pretty much to ourselves. However, it also meant that there was no running water on our RV site (only one working tap to fill fresh water, which we did the next morning before checking out), and there were no public restrooms or working laundry facilities open yet.
We did get to enjoy some of the activities open at the campsite, though! Lisette grew up watching Yogi Bear and other Hanna-Barbera cartoons, so it was fun to take a selfie with Yogi Bear sitting on a park bench, play a round of mini golf, and jump around on some kind of outdoor trampoline. There was also a dog park that included some mazes and activities for dogs to run around in. We could imagine these campgrounds being a fun place for kids, especially over the summer.
Route Map
