1.5 hours later we arrived at the campground we had camped the previous 3 times this year...only to find out it had CLOSED the weekend before. :( The other campgrounds near that area are all by reservation only and were of course full, so we had to drive about 20 minutes south to another first-come-first-serve campground. And it was beautiful.
As we were setting up camp we noticed a lot of Rangers around, unusual given that this campground was only about 25 spots and there was no Ranger Station. Soon a Ranger approached us and informed us the first bear attack in Rocky Mountain National Park of the year occurred about 4:30am...2 tents away from us! Apparently those campers left food outside and even IN there tent (breaking the FIRST rule when camping in bear country!) A smart bear got a full tummy and in the mean time destroyed the tent (thankfully no one was injured.) The Ranger assured us the bear would be back the next morning given that he had got an easy meal from a tent less than 30 yards away, so it was up to us if we wanted to stay.We did.
Our goal was to see some pretty fall colors on our hikes, but low and behold the trail we chose to hike on was in a pine forest.
The one little grouping of deciduous trees with their yellow leaves.
We still had a good time though. The kids both fell asleep for the majority of the hike, which wasn't all that exciting as it was a steep climb for our out-of-shape legs and because of the tall thick pines we didn't have much of a view. It was also too far to anything attracting like waterfalls, etc, so we ended up eating lunch at an old mine, which wasn't too exciting. Little did we know that at that same time (much) farther up the trail to Long's Peak (the only 14k+ foot summit hike in the Park) a man fell 300+ feet to his death. Bears and tragic deaths are definitely new to our camping adventures.
On the way down Thayden learned a new word to describe the trail we were on: treacherous - with lots of rocks and tree roots sticking out (not to mention the steep incline he had slept through).
It ended up reaching 90 in Estes Park (that's pretty crazy for the mountains at the end of September! Another little grouping of deciduous trees near the trailhead. 
Well, sorry to disappoint you readers but the bear never came back. And no one had a very good night. Sierra was not herself at all because she was constipated. Thayden is a freeze-body and I had to steal Troy's covers to give to him so then Troy was cold. Sierra was up several times and at 4am was demanding to be fed...the only way we have to warm up her breastmilk is with a fire which Troy was obviously not going to be thrilled with making at that hour. Her and I moved to the truck where she fussed with some cold milk while I pumped some fresh (see, the downside to doing all pumping and bottle feeding for the last 5 months is the child doesn't know how to breastfeed which is sometimes much more convenient!) In any case, I'll take credit for all the ruckus and the truck engine between 4:30-5 keeping the bear at bay. That morning we were moving pretty slow and it took us until almost noon to have breakfast, clean and pack up. When we did we found a better place to hike with great views AND a waterfall only 0.3 miles in. And of course some rocks for T to climb too.
We will come back to do that trail again - only a mile more to beautiful cascades but we just weren't up for it that day. We headed back and stopped in Boulder for lunch at Wahoo's Fish Tacos. It was a huge hit for everyone. Thayden ate almost all of his quesadilla platter, Sierra ate an entire side dish of guacamole - even with the onions chunks and cilantro! No one else got more than 2 bites because she loved it so much! This is where I wish I had a picture (or a video!) but both our iphones were left in the truck so we didn't have a camera. Troy and I had margaritas and pretty darn good fish/shrimp tacos. We will return after that successful lunch!Looking forward to camping season next year!
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