We had another 4am wake up call for another try at riding a hot air balloon. The kids were nervous, but also really excited.
Unfortunately, as soon as they blew up the hot air balloons a storm popped up and we were not able to go. We were so disappointed. It really messed up our plans too, since we were all really exhausted but still had to drive to Colorado.
While Michael and I got everything together, Peyton and Caitie took one last dip in the hot tub.
We made a stop at Cheyenne in Wyoming at Accomplice Beer Company. They had games for the kids and really good food. We finally arrived at our cabin at the Estes Park Resort around 5:30pm. Michael and I had been up since 4am, so we took a quick little nap and then headed to dinner at the hotel resort.
The view was really pretty overlooking the water at the resort.
We woke up early and were ready to explore Rocky Mountain National Park. We made it to the entrance around 8am, but still had to wait in a pretty long line. We had the bear lake corridor passes and were really excited to go on some pretty hikes. We parked the car and boarded the shuttle to the top. We saw a huge bull elk on the way up the mountain and it was a great intro to our day! We decided to hike the Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake hike. The hike is about 3.5 miles, and has some gorgeous stops on the way.
The first stop is Nymph Lake. The lily pads in the water are so pretty.
Next up is Dream Lake. It was pretty crowded and I didn't get a good picture. The views everywhere are just gorgeous!
And Emerald Lake. We sat and enjoyed the view for a while. The weather was perfect and the setting couldn't have been prettier.
This is an out and back trail, so we got to enjoy the other two lakes on the way down again.
We hung out at Bear Lake for a little bit. Then we talked to one of the volunteer park rangers. We wanted to avoid taking the shuttle back down the mountain and decided to hike instead. We knew there was a storm coming in, but we thought we could beat it. The volunteer ranger did not give us great information and it ended up being a lot longer than we had planned. We thought the hike was downhill, but the first portion of the hike was a steep elevation. The kids were already pretty worn out, so it was a little difficult for them.
We glanced at Bierstadt Lake and then quickly kept moving. As you can see in the background of this picture, it was starting to lightning and was making us all a little nervous!
The last couple miles were all down this extremely rocky terrain. It was really really difficult to go fast. It started pouring on us towards the end and wasn't the most pleasant hike! The kids ended up hiking 9.7 miles. I was so proud of all of them!
We were all pretty drenched but also really hungry, so we made a stop at Estes Park Brewery for some lunch.
After lunch we headed through the downtown area and stopped at Munchin House for some ice cream. After almost 10 miles of hiking we decided the kids deserved a treat!
We hung out in the hot tub and the kids played at the playground while Michael had a few work calls. The kids were all really tired and didn't want to go to dinner. Patrick agreed to babysit, so Michael and I decided to pick them up fast food and have a date night at the hotel restaurant. We could see our cabin from the hotel restaurant, so it worked out really nicely. It was a fun first day in Rocky Mountain National Park.
No comments:
Post a Comment