Day 6 (100 miles to nowhere)

Today the kids all became Jr. Rocky Mountain National Park Rangers.

All of the National Park’s have Jr. Ranger programs. At the Rocky Mountains you have to complete a booklet that includes identifying many different plants and animals. You also have to attend a ranger lead program.

At the ranger program we learned that a moraine (we are staying in the Moraine campground) is a debris field caused by a glacier. So the name of the campground makes a lot more sense now, because it is a valley surrounded by moraine’s. After the ranger program we asked the ranger what else we should do and he suggested taking the Trail Ridge Road to the west side of the park.

We really wanted to see Big Horn sheep and there is a look out spot at Horseshoe Park

Horseshoe Park got its name because they thought the river bends looked like horseshoe’s.

 

 

 

Well this is the only Big Horn sheep we saw.

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the rest of the day traveling on Trail Ridge Road. Trail Ridge Road is the highest major highway in North America and it tops out at 12,183 feet above sea level. 

 

We took a lot of pictures along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

A cool picture of a mountain at the same height as we were.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a Bull Elk we saw them everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

Colleen and Alyssa went part way up a trail. We think the trail went up 1000 feet.

 

 

 

 

We stopped for lunch at the Lava Cliffs and there was snow everywhere.

 

 

 

 

The Hohman’s by the snow.

 

 

 

 

 

At the Alpine Visitor center there is a trail that takes you up 200 feet to a elevation of 12,005 feet.

 

 

 

 

Here is Colleen next to the biggest snow drift we saw.

 

 

 

 

 

We kept driving, because Colleen really wanted to see a Moose. There were several cars on the side of the road and a couple of rangers who had spotted a mother moose and here calf.

 

 

So we drove 100 miles and we ended up back where we started. 100 miles to nowhere, but  we got to see a lot of great things on the way.

Trail Ridge Road Roller Coaster.  Who needs Six Flags.

Day 5

We started the day with a light breakfast of cereal, and then headed down to Estes Park to meet up with Colleen’s dad. There is no cell service in the campground and by the time we got a signal Pat (Colleen’s dad) was already down town shopping. We spent a couple of hours checking out the shops. We had lunch at “Chicago’s Best” hotdogs, cheese burgers, and pizza. Then we went up to Bear Lake. 

There is a shuttle bus that takes you from a parking lot by Glacier Basin Campground to Bear Lake (elevation 9,475 feet).

There is a 1 mile trail around the lake.

Here we all are on a rock that sticks into the lake.

 

 

 

Here we are again at another point on the lake.

 

 

 

 

 

After we hiked around the lake we went back to the campsite and had dinner. We fried up some potatoes, onion, and sausage. We also had salad and cantaloupe. After we ate it started to rain, so we took Pat back to his hotel.  We saw the coolest lightning storm on our way back to the campground. There were multiple lightning strikes in the clouds and it went on for hours. We got back to our campsite and got to bed by 11 PM.

Day 4 (8 miles 1185 feet)

Today we went hiking. Last year we started a couple of trails but did not finish them, so this year we were going to hike the whole trail.  We weren’t planning to hike them all at once, but that is what we ended up doing.

Here we are at the start of our day of hiking. There were two trails we wanted to hike: Cub Lake, and Fern Falls. We started at Fern Falls. The trail to Fern Falls is 2.5 miles and you climb 645 feet.

 

Here is a picture of the kids on the way to the falls.

 

 

 

 

 

Right after the picture above we ran into a white tailed ptarmigan hen and 5 chicks. They were so cute. Everything was cool until the hen decided we were too close and she raised here feathers and charged us. We got out of there and didn’t look back.

The trail follows the Big Thompson River.

 

 

 

 

 

Here we are at the Pool just before our climb to Fern Falls.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the kids on the way to the falls.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally at Fern Falls, but this is not the end of the hike it is just the beginning.  After we hiked down from the falls we had a choice of hiking back to the car 1.7 miles or we could go to Cub Lake. Colleen thought the 1.2 miles to Cub Lake would get us to the parking lot that was 1.1 miles from our car, but Cub Lake is 2.3 miles from the parking lot, so we had almost 5 more miles to go.  The trail to Cub Lake also included a 545 foot climb. As we were climbing we kept thinking we were at the top, but Alexis who was out front scouting kept pointing up. And we went up and up and up. Was it worth it. Take a look.

We thought the view was spectacular.

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the kids on their way down to the lake.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the view from the lake looking back at the mountains. Awesome!

 

 

 

 

We left at 10 in the morning and this picture was a 4 PM when we were walking the last mile back to the car.

 

 

 

We were all exhausted what a day! After our hike we met up with Colleen’s Dad (who drove up from Arizona to see us). He was staying in Estes Park, so we went out for pizza. We only packed snacks for our hike, and we were starving. The pizza was great.

 

What did we learn:

Make sure everyone understands that Cub Lake is not at the parking lot.

If you get a crew cut you head can get sunburned (Tim says ouch)

Ashley is heavy -  Colleen, Alyssa and I all took turns carrying her.

Coming soon:

Day 5 – Estes Park shopping and Bear Lake

Day 6 – Trail Ridge Road.

Day 3 (380 miles)

Today was a easy drive we were only on the road for 7 hours.  (You can click on the pictures for larger image.)

 

Here is a picture from the rest stop we ate lunch at in Nebraska.

 

Quote of the day:

Mom “Do you see the mountains?” Ashley “Oh my God those are BIG!”

 

 

 

Our view as we approached Estes Park Colorado. 

 

 

 

 

 

Colleen and Ashley down by the Big Thompson River.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made it to “Rocky Mountain National Park”

 

 

 

 

 

 

We setup the camper and went for a short hike -  we just couldn’t help it.

 

 

 

 

We saw this fella on our hike. It is a yellow bellied marmot.

 

 

 

 

Here is a Elk we saw on our way back to the campground.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the view from our campsite.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a picture of our campsite.

Day 2

Today we hung out at the campsite. It was cloudy and nobody felt like doing much.

Here is the frog that Ashley found.

Quote of the day as they were reaching for the frog that jumped into a hole. “That is not a frog…  it is a Snake!” Alexis.

 

 

 

 

When ever there is water our kids have to go in. August was the first one under water. Ashley only lasted 10 minutes before she turned blue and had to come out.

 

 

We wanted to get up early and hit the road, but it started raining just as we went to bed and everything was wet in the morning. We waited for the sun to dry things out and did not leave until 10 AM.