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      08-14-2020, 02:16 PM   #1
cdwalls
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Road trip to 13,000ft in my RWD 435i

Hey all, I figured I'd share my most recent trip with you. (sorry for the large pics) We decided to take a last minute trip from Chicago, IL to hike Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. I've always wanted to do a road trip in the 435i, so I figured this was a great time. It just passed 60,000 and it's no longer "showroom quality" if you know what I mean. (I plan to get the front end resprayed and small dings taken out, then no more road trips.) I was a little hesitant not knowing how steep the road grades would be and how the RWD with Pilot Sport AS3+'s would do so I had to tell my girlfriend that there may be places we simply cannot go because of the car and thats the risk we're taking by driving it, she was cool with it . To prep for the trip, I picked up a spare tire with a cheap jack from harbor freight in case of a blowout in the middle of nowhere aka Nebraska. My original plan was to take my road bike on my new SeaSucker rack and do some riding out there, but I'll be honest, I didn't end up taking the bike because I didn't trust the "rack" on such a long/windy drive. I'll keep it for local riding.



We first started our 14.5 hour journey last Thursday at 4:00am, had a few stops but we were determined to go the entire way. Had a big cooler, snacks, and some pillows in the back seats. My Escort ix radar detector paid for itself within the first 4 hours...

While I was driving, I found out holding the trip button brings up a few new menus in the 6WB. I checked on the temps often and they were all good the entire trip. I think my AC froze up after about 6 hours so I let it rest for a bit and it was back to blowing normal.







We arrived at the Wildwood Inn @9,000ft! We planned and booked this trip 3 days in advance so we were blown away at how great this place was. A few miles down the mountain in Estes Park there were tons of people with the same idea, so lots of no vacancy signs. No problems whatsoever with the drive. The car did a phenomenal job. Lots of trucks and debris to watch out for though.




(side note, on the last night we saw 3 bears, 2 of which walked between that retaining wall and my car...)

Day 1: We adventured down to Estes Park to hike around the lake and check out the town. Amazing little town with mediocre food. We did find a good breakfast place farther UP the mountain called Trailhead Cafe, its about .5 miles from thee RMNP entrance. After hanging around the town, we entered RMNP @2:00pm per our previously purchased reservations for that day. We entered the park at Beaver Meadows (not the mountain entrance near us) and parked at the Park & Ride. We took the trolly up to Bear lake and did Bear Lake, Nymph lake, Dream Lake, Emerald Lake. Absolutely gorgeous and pretty easy. Some young families and older people as well.




Day 2: Entered the park @10:00am and drove up to 13,000ft. and pulled off at the Rainbow Road & Forest Canyon Overlook. This was WILD. car did pretty good but sluggish and the engine light came on because of the altitude. Grabbed some quick pics and headed down to hike Dear Mountain.





Day 3: Entered the park @2:00pm. We kayaked Estes Lake in the morning and hit Alberta Falls and Loch Lake in the afternoon. Grabbed a drink at the Stanley Hotel in the evening.

Day 4: We extended our stay at the Wildwood 1 more night. We went back to 13,000ft. and hiked Ute Meadow Trail. Absolutely insane hike. We did about 3.5 miles at the altitude. When we came back down we were dead. Did Bierstadt Lake and Bear Lake in the afternoon as a cool down.





Day 5: We drove to Boulder for the night and enjoyed Pearl St. Before we did anything, I stopped at Gebhart BMW in Boulder to get my oil and washer fluid topped off. They did it in 5 min. in the service bay for free and could not have been nicer. Thank you guys! After, we had lunch at Half Fast subs and dinner at SALT. super tasty 10/10. Just what we needed after the not so great Estes Park food.

The next day we drove all the way home with no problems, snagged a rock chip in the windshield and some chips to the bumper (AND BUGS), but I was expecting it

PHOTO DUMP:










Last edited by cdwalls; 08-14-2020 at 03:18 PM..
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      08-14-2020, 02:50 PM   #2
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Man, I should leave the house more often. I haven't seen one of those racks before; pretty neat, but probably wouldn't trust it on a long drive either. I remember when my old Blur LT fell off on the highway...was a bummer.
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      08-14-2020, 03:00 PM   #3
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Looks like a blast! Making the drive to Denver from Ohio in a few months and these pictures got me even more excited 🍻
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      08-16-2020, 11:13 PM   #4
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Looks like a blast! Making the drive to Denver from Ohio in a few months and these pictures got me even more excited 🍻
It'll be awesome
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      08-17-2020, 04:09 AM   #5
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Fantastic!
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      09-01-2020, 03:50 PM   #6
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fantastic! i just took my f30 from KC to estes last june. man you can really feel that altitude zap power up there!
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      09-03-2020, 11:44 AM   #7
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What a great trip report! Thinking of visiting CO myself.
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      06-09-2022, 02:51 PM   #8
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Wow, what a beautiful trip. You shared some wonderful pictures. But I realize how complicated it is to travel by car. When I was a child, traveling by car seemed very cool to me because you can see many beautiful places in different countries from the car, but as I grew older, I realized that you are traveling on the highway and you don't see any beautiful places, haha. But I'm glad your trip was beautiful, and you enjoyed it. I wouldn't say I like long trips. That's why when I travel inland, I travel by train from dbfahrplan.com, and when it comes to traveling abroad, I travel by plane. It is fast, comfortable, and tireless.

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      06-09-2022, 04:11 PM   #9
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Nice road trip, got to be careful about those CO highways. Road debris and cracked windshields are a religion here (LOL) ask me how I know.
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      10-24-2022, 01:39 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cdwalls View Post
Hey all, I figured I'd share my most recent trip with you. (sorry for the large pics) We decided to take a last minute trip from Chicago, IL to hike Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. I've always wanted to do a road trip in the 435i, so I figured this was a great time. It just passed 60,000 and it's no longer "showroom quality" if you know what I mean. (I plan to get the front end resprayed and small dings taken out, then no more road trips.) I was a little hesitant not knowing how steep the road grades would be and how the RWD with Pilot Sport AS3+'s would do so I had to tell my girlfriend that there may be places we simply cannot go because of the car and thats the risk we're taking by driving it, she was cool with it . To prep for the trip, I picked up a spare tire with a cheap jack from harbor freight in case of a blowout in the middle of nowhere aka Nebraska. My original plan was to take my road bike on my new SeaSucker rack and do some riding out there, but I'll be honest, I didn't end up taking the bike because I didn't trust the "rack" on such a long/windy drive. I'll keep it for local riding.



We first started our 14.5 hour journey last Thursday at 4:00am, had a few stops but we were determined to go the entire way. Had a big cooler, snacks, and some pillows in the back seats. My Escort ix radar detector paid for itself within the first 4 hours...

While I was driving, I found out holding the trip button brings up a few new menus in the 6WB. I checked on the temps often and they were all good the entire trip. I think my AC froze up after about 6 hours so I let it rest for a bit and it was back to blowing normal.







We arrived at the Wildwood Inn @9,000ft! We planned and booked this trip 3 days in advance so we were blown away at how great this place was. A few miles down the mountain in Estes Park there were tons of people with the same idea, so lots of no vacancy signs. No problems whatsoever with the drive. The car did a phenomenal job. Lots of trucks and debris to watch out for though.




(side note, on the last night we saw 3 bears, 2 of which walked between that retaining wall and my car...)

Day 1: We adventured down to Estes Park to hike around the lake and check out the town. Amazing little town with mediocre food. We did find a good breakfast place farther UP the mountain called Trailhead Cafe, its about .5 miles from thee RMNP entrance. After hanging around the town, we entered RMNP @2:00pm per our previously purchased reservations for that day. We entered the park at Beaver Meadows (not the mountain entrance near us) and parked at the Park & Ride. We took the trolly up to Bear lake and did Bear Lake, Nymph lake, Dream Lake, Emerald Lake. Absolutely gorgeous and pretty easy. Some young families and older people as well.




Day 2: Entered the park @10:00am and drove up to 13,000ft. and pulled off at the Rainbow Road & Forest Canyon Overlook. This was WILD. car did pretty good but sluggish and the engine light came on because of the altitude. Grabbed some quick pics and headed down to hike Dear Mountain.





Day 3: Entered the park @2:00pm. We kayaked Estes Lake in the morning and hit Alberta Falls and Loch Lake in the afternoon. Grabbed a drink at the Stanley Hotel in the evening.

Day 4: We extended our stay at the Wildwood 1 more night. We went back to 13,000ft. and hiked Ute Meadow Trail. Absolutely insane hike. We did about 3.5 miles at the altitude. When we came back down we were dead. Did Bierstadt Lake and Bear Lake in the afternoon as a cool down.





Day 5: We drove to Boulder for the night and enjoyed Pearl St. Before we did anything, I stopped at Gebhart BMW in Boulder to get my oil and washer fluid topped off. They did it in 5 min. in the service bay for free and could not have been nicer. Thank you guys! After, we had lunch at Half Fast subs and dinner at SALT. super tasty 10/10. Just what we needed after the not so great Estes Park food.

The next day we drove all the way home with no problems, snagged a rock chip in the windshield and some chips to the bumper (AND BUGS), but I was expecting it

PHOTO DUMP:















what tire and rim profile does it have?

good article ,of those its cool see
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