What the Bleep? A Memoir of the YMCA of the Rockies

Category 3: The YMCA Itself

The YMCA of the Rockies is exactly what its name entails. It is a YMCA that sits directly in the heart of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. It is a gorgeous location, and it takes one's breath away when they wake up in the morning to see the mountains standing tall against a beautiful blue sky. It's gorgeous, and one would think that it would be like heaven on earth. For some aspects, it is heaven on earth. For other aspects, it is not. It depends on how one chooses to see it. For the sake of the reader getting both sides, I have chosen to talk about both.

Let's start with the bad and end with the good. A good place to start would be with money. If one is working at the YMCA of the Rockies, they can expect to get around $13 an hour. If you times that by 40 hours a week, you have around $520 per week. You get paid bi-weekly, which means by the end of a two week period you have $1,040 in your bank account! By the end of the month, you'll have $2,080 in your bank account. If you work there for 11 weeks, you should have around $5,270 right? Wrong. At the end of each paycheck, $400 is removed to pay for the $800 price of living at the YMCA of the Rockies. Therefore, instead of coming away with over 5k, you end up with a measly 2k.

If you are not working at the YMCA of the Rockies and are merely visiting, food prices and lodge prices vary. While I was working at this place, people paid around $15 per person for breakfast, $18 per person for lunch, and around $21-25 per person for dinner. Kids who were 2 and under ate for free. Teens and adults were the same price, and under 10 was slightly cheaper. However, you may find cheaper food in the town of Estes Park and in a future category, I will explain why this is a strong suggestion. A fair warning to the reader, this is more of a resort than a YMCA. Perhaps this is why weddings are held here, though I can say don't get married here. Working with the wedding coordinators is a nightmare according to the myriad of online Google reviews. For many of us who have worked at the YMCA of the Rockies, there is a personal belief that this place is a money grabber. The cabins are not the cleanest and many complaints were issued while I was there. There are supposed to be quiet hours, however, many groups do not adhere to these hours, and therefore I would be trying to fall asleep at 1 AM in the morning for my job at 5:30 AM and was unable to because of a party happening in the lodge across the street.

However, it is not all that bad. Let's start with what's immediately available. There is a lovely library that has a myriad of books. While it does smell musty, it is charming and there were many times where I would curl up near the fireplace on the second floor or sit on the second floor balcony and engross myself in a good book. They have all selections from non-fiction to romance. In the main visitors center where they have check-in, there's a myriad of couches, chairs, and tables one can sit at to work on various different things, have meetings, or just hang out. There were several moments where I would sit and read, or write my stories in this lodge. There is also a swing on the porch, however, it is usually always taken. This visitors center also has a guest store, and employees are given discounts. I would often get snacks from there to supplement the absolute lack of nutritional value provided to me by the YMCA's lovely dining halls.

There is a post office, however I rarely used it. Many of my friends however would order Amazon packages or get letters from their families. There is the main field outside the visitors' center where they have volleyball courts, a gaga ball pit, two different fire pits, mini-golf, and a baseball pitch. It also has a decent running path and some exercise machines as well. This is a clear place to hang out with friends or play sports in the evenings if one isn't too tired from all the work. Mini-golf is free for employees, in case the reader was wondering. Moving over to the craft shop, one can paint, make jewelry, or construct some pottery. It is a lovely place and the atmosphere is very artsy. However, while an employee does get a discount, it's not worth it. I still spent around $20 on a bead necklace and a pair of earrings. Moving from the craft shop is horseback riding. I wanted to do this so much because I am a horse lover. However, I was unable to while I was there. From my understanding, employees do not get discounts. However, I did make friends with some of the horses.