Summer Vacation 2013 - Day 7

For our final day, we hiked up to Alberta Falls in the morning. The boys grumbled the whole way up and back, but I think they actually might have enjoyed it.

The boys had lunch on their minds. We ate at the historic Stanley Hotel. It's where S. King stayed and was inspired to write The Shining. CP is a big King fan, and he was on top of the world there. In the gift shop, CP picked up a copy of The Shining and had it half finished by the end of the day. He completed it when we got home and had more than a little trouble going to bed that night.

Earlier in the week, we bought a book of Stanley Hotel ghost stories. CP was super excited when we found the music room - one of the most haunted rooms and a central part of lots of ghost stories.

Who could pass up a Redrum Ale? Mmmmm.

Summer Vacation 2013 - Day 6

By Day 6, we were sort of worn out, so we diceded to go for a car ride. We took Trail Ridge Road up and over the mountain to Grand Lake on the other side.

The road goes above 12,000 feet. We spent quite a while above treeline. It gave us a taste of what Scotland will be like: 40°, windy, and spitting rain.

During our drive, we saw elk, bighorn sheep, marmots, and even a couple moose.

The road down to Grand Lake had a few curves and switchbacks.

We were surprised to see all the roofs in Grand Lake were white with snow. It's summertime, right?

Summer Vacation 2013 - Day 5

Our feet hurt from our long hike. Our butts hurt from riding. We needed a nice low-impact activity for Day 5: Whitewater Rafting!
 

We floated down the Cache de la Poudre river, 80 minutes northeast of Estes Park.

The boys got to sit up front and power us thru the rapids. They had a blast. (JP & I did, too).

The weather was cold and rainy, which didn't matter, because the river was cold and wet, too. Clouds filled the canyon and added to the experience. We stopped for a break at a place where we could jump in and swim. 42° water is cold! I think I made a noise when I jumped in.

Summer Vacation 2013 - Day 4

GP discovered biscuits and gravy on the first day. He's hooked!

Our feet were sore from our Day 3 10-mile hike, so we punished other body parts for Day 4. We took a horse trail ride thru the forest.

We lucked out and had our own guide. The earlier ride had 40 people. We had 4.

JP and I rode sister horses. They were huge Belgian work horses that wanted to go faster than the boys' horses. JP's horse learned early who was in charge and tried to eat every green weed and/or shrubbery along the trail. Every time I looked back, JP was standing in the stirrups, pulling as hard as she could and polietly telling her horse to stop eating.

After our ride, we hit the BBQ place next door and chowed down on some fantastic grub.

Summer Vacation 2013 - Day 3

From our first hike, we learned that the boys needed more than sneakers, so we contributed to the local economy of Estes Park and bought each some new hiking shoes. (I'm hoping that they give up wearing them so that I can inherit them)

We all seemed to be doing well with the altitude, and the boys did great on our first trial hike, we upped the ante for our next hike: Lake Helene. We left the Bear Lake trailhead and climbed up, up, up to the lake. It was absolutely breathtaking!

Instead of going back the way we came, we headed down the mountain on a different trail. The park service has shuttle busses that go from trailhead to trailhead, so you don't have to end up at your stating point. From Lake Helene, we hiked down, down, down a steep and rocky horse trail.



We spent half of our time on the trail right at treeline. At Lake Helene (10,700 ft elev) the boys played in the snow. No one went swimming, though.

GP did not like the exposed parts at all. It was a long way down to the bottom of the canyon. I'm glad he wasn't sitting six feet higher on a stumbling horse.

On our descent, we passed Lake Odessa, Fern Lake, and a pretty waterfall. Each lake had its own feel. This is Fern Lake.

Summer Vacation 2013 Day 2

On our second day, we figured we needed to take it easy and get acclimated to the elevation. Estes Park is at 7200 feet, and the trailhead is at 9400 feet. We hiked an easy 1.8 mile trail up to three lakes: Nypmh, Dream, and Emerald.

The boys had no problem walking the trails.

The views along the way and at each lake were incredible.

Emerald Lake is fed by the Tyndall Glacier, which sits another 1000 feet above the lake.

The big cliff face leads to Hallet Peak, 12,700'. It is visible from the condo and it called out to us the entire week.

 

Summer Vacation 2013 Day 1

For our official summer vacation of 2013, we ventured west to the charming town of Estes Park. Gramma & Grampa gave us a week at their timeshare there. It took 8 hours of road time to get there. It's so much nicer now traveling with the boys and their headphones.

The first day, we explored the town. One of the first stores we found was "Big RED of the Rockies". A Nebraska gear store that sells nothing but Husker stuff.

The view from the condo was fantastic. It backed up against Big Thompson River. The same river that cut the twisting and winding canyon that leads from the plains up to Estes Park. I kicked myself the entire time for pulling my fly rod out of the car at the last minute. We were packed to the gills, and I figured there would not be any opportunities to fish. I was wrong.
 

Every afternoon, we had rain showers. We came prepared with full rain/cold weather jackets, so it didn't bother us. We were thankful that we had a dryer in the condo and weren't camping the entire time.

On the night we arrived, a bear wandered into one of the saloons downtown. It was on the front page of the local paper, and since then has made it all the way to the UK. When we told our friends about it, they said they had seen it on the news here in Nebraska. Check it out: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/bear-wanders-into-bar-bar-hopping-bruin-toast-of-lonigans-saloon-in-estes-park