Estes Park is a small resort community that is totally dependant on its location adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park. Small is the operative word here. A strip of buildings that popped up along “the road” to a national park; it was that in 1917 and it is just that in 2006. One block off of “the road” there is no business, Town Hall is on “the road”, the waste transfer station is on “the road”, and all of the industry is on “the road”.
When there is no traffic on “the road” to RMNP there in no business.
Remember all those road side attractions on route 66; the biggest ball of twine, teepee motel rooms, world’s largest concrete ground hog, they are all history. Why? Because the interstate highway system by passed them and people began speeding by at 75 mph, to get from point to point.
People come here not to come HERE, but to go to RMNP. Estes Park has not been foresighted enough to become a stand alone destination onto itself. This is becoming a big problem to the future of Estes Park. With the advent of the internet people are speeding by Estes Park, staying a day or two in a motel on their way to some where else, over Trail Ridge to Steamboat, Winter Park, or Breckenridge. There is less and less reason to linger longer in our town. Festivals are a bore, tee shirts-got one, tram ride- mundane in the world of triple loop 100 mph thrill seekers. In the winter well the road to some where else is a dead end. Estes Park is Route 66 and ever so slowly as businesses go somewhere else your best days are behind you. A strip of condo summer second homes is not an attraction or an industry. Leadership with vision for the Town of Estes Park not RMNP, we need you now.
