One of the highlights of State Highway 7 is St. Malo's Church. Once named St. Catherine of Siena's Chapel, it history includes a visit by Pope John Paul II in 1993. The chapel is not opened today except for weddings due to a fire that burned a Youth Retreat Center in November 2011 which the scenic national landlmark is a part of.

In Allenspark is a natural spring where water jugs can be filled. The Crystal Spring sign says, "Let those who thirst be our guest." A donation box is present.

A charming little restaurant in Allenspark served us a breakfast so good that we went back the next day. for more. They serve breakfast and lunch on a daily basis in their funky retro room that holds four tables. The front porch holds two or three more.. It's frequented by the locals and tourists alike.

Meeker Park Lodge was our home for six nights. We loved its charm and the old twisted pine used to build it. Meeker Park is the only lodge in the area where the original descendants are still running it. It has about six rooms upstairs and a cozy living room, a dining room and gift store on the ground floor. Several cabins are also available for rent by the Dever family. It's located on Route 7 about 8 miles or so south of Estes Park and a couple miles north of Allenspark.

Throughout the lodge is furniture made by one of the Dever family members. The living room holds tables and seating, books, games, a piano and a ready-to-light fireplace.

Most of Rocky Mountain National Park is entered through Estes Park, but the Wild Basin area is located off Route 7 nears Allenspark. There are hiking trails there including Copeland Falls (below).

the surrounding photos are of Lily Lake which can be seen from Highway 7 across the street from the Baldpate Inn. An easy trail goes around the lake, and there is a more elevated yet easy one that heads about half-way up the mountain that's next to the lake. Both trails are less than a mile long.

Taken along the Lily Lake Trail that skirts the side of the mountain .

The Baldpate Inn has a wonderful story behind it, and I''m copying its words from their Web site. My own pictures of The Key Room are below. Ethel and Gordon Mace bought the land on which the inn sits back in 1911. Originally, they built just a cabin for themselves, but gradually, to supplement their income, built guest cabins. From there, it became the inn that we see today. But here's the story behind the keys:

The Inn was named after the mystery novel, SEVEN KEYS TO BALDPATE by Earl Derr Biggers, who upon visiting the property stated that the inn was so similar to the heretofore “imaginary” Baldpate Inn, that the Mace’s hotel would become the “real” Baldpate Inn. In the novel, each of seven visitors traveled to the closed-in-wintertime hotel, and thinks that he or she has the only key to the Inn. In keeping with the story line of the novel, the Mace family gave each visitor to the Inn their very own key.

This tradition continued until the outbreak of World War I, when the price of metal became so expensive that the Owners were no longer able to give keys away. The loyal guests who returned yearly were so disappointed that they began their own tradition of bringing a key back to the inn with them each year. It is said that the competition between guests became so fierce to bring the best and most exotic each year that the Maces decided to begin a display of all the keys.

This was the beginning of the world’s largest key collection. The collection boasts over 20,000 keys including examples from the Pentagon, Westminster Abby, Mozart’s wine cellar, and even Frankenstein’s castle to name a few.

The view from the porch of The Baldpate. Below, hummingbird feeders (and dozens of hummingbirds) line the windows of the dining room.

Overlooking Estes Park from the bottom of Route 7

Longs Peak, at 14,259 feet, is not only one of Colorado's 53 "fourteeners," but it's also the patriarch of the Rocky Mountain NP since it's the only fourteener in the park. Longs Peak can be seen unobstructed from Route 7 and also from most of Estes Park ands RMNP.