The reason we went up to Estes Park was to visit Rocky Mountain National Park. We spent 2 days at the park enjoying hikes and scenic drives.
We took a somewhat advanced trail near the Bear Lake trailhead on the first day, I think some of the rangers were surprised that we were considering taking our young boys, but they did really well. Yep, we were going way up there!
The boys chatted with the ranger about trail safety and etiquette:
Timmy was being rather slow in the parking lot and a feeling of dread had come over me that it would be a LONG hike. But we designated him “leader” and suddenly he took off like a rocket!
There were so many pretty flowers on the trail, I think it’s worth another blog post by itself:
The trail we were taking consisted of traveling around 3 lakes, each about 0.6 miles from the previous one (the first one was 0.6 miles from the trailhead). So it was a 1.8 mile trail in each direction. Here’s the first of the lakes, Nymph Lake:
Assorted shots along the trail:
Pretty waterfall through some brush.
We had to step off the marked trail to see this, we could hear it and wanted to see where it was coming from:
Dream Lake, the 2nd of the 3 lakes:
Timmy really enjoys waterfalls:
At the 3rd lake, Emerald Lake, the trail ended, and there was an area of boulders where folks were hanging out. We staked out a good spot, but it took some fancy maneuvering around some boulders to get there:
The ground squirrels and birds here were FEARLESS! They’d come right up for the crumbs!
Time to head back down to the trailhead!
After lunch we drove over to the Continental Divide. At the scenic overlooks, these birds were so fearless!
You can see Jacob photographing the bird behind Dave, with my old iPhone (the phone is disabled).
They mark when you go above the treeline (about 11,500′) and the plants start getting squat. We were there in August, which was among the 8 weeks per year there it isn’t a wintry tundra.
Very little can grow up this high, we’re near 12,000′:
For my weather weenie friends, this is a mercury barometer showing that the station pressure is a mere 19.65″.
And here we are! The Continental Divide! The sign is self-explanatory:
Love the sky reflection!
A short tundra hike. Didn’t really look like what I picture was “tundra”, but this was the warmest time of the year, so perhaps I should come back in a couple months? The lichen was particularly intriguing to me, though.
The following day, the boys asked “Can we take a flatter hike?” so we went to an area of Rocky Mountain park called “Moraine Park” and found an easy trail that meandered between a moraine area and a treeline. At the Moraine Park visitor’s center, the boys made plaster castings of animal pawprints:
Then we hiked. This was approximately 3 miles, but we lost the trail towards the end and somehow had to make our way back to a bus stop to make our way back to the truck. Needless to say, at lower elevations and in sunnier spots, the boys got pretty hot and weren’t quite as happy on this hike.
We decided to spend the afternoon back at the Y and see what activities there were. Dave and Jacob enjoyed the pool while Timmy and I hit the arts and crafts center. Timmy and I tied dyed some clothing and did some mosaic art:
Timmy’s finished shirt:
And my finished skirt:
On the drive home we went through Big Thompson Canyon, where the winding roads really got to Jacob. The poor baby got sick while in the truck but was such a champ, NOTHING got on his clothes or the truck upholstery! Just before we drove off the Y property, we saw a pair of elk grazing:
And then suddenly, we were out of the rockiness and back into the plains!
And 8 hours later:
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