The first week in July

We arrived home from MT just in time to prepare for our next camping trip in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP).  This time we had my mom (Jody), Mike, and Ti to join in the fun!  It was great weather and beautiful scenery.  Sorry for those readers who have a slow internet connection - I am uploading more pictures now that I figured out how to do them all at one time!

On our way up to RMNP we stopped for a picnic and hike.    

We made it to our campsite with plenty of time to set up camp, eat dinner, and go on another short hike.  While setting up camp, an elk decided to walk through our campsite.  By the time I got my camera he was a little farther away, but still pretty close!

Then Thayden took over the camera to give you his perspective of our campsite. 

Starting off on a evening hike to the lake.

A deer ran right in front of me, then ran up in front of the rest of the group (look closely, you can see the deer on the trail ahead of them.)

The lake we hiked to nearing sunset.  Those "poles" in the water are all flyfisherman standing in the lake.  The water is only at their knees in the middle of the lake - much shallower than I thought!

The kids had to check out how cold it was (cold.)

The group.

The next day we set off "early" for another hike.  My intentions were to hike to Cub Lake, but the Cub Lake trailhead parking lot was full (930 am on 4th of July weekend is NOT early, apparently.)  So we kept on going down the road to the Fern Lake trailhead.  That too was full, but we found a spot up the road and biked to the trailhead.  I didn't have my guidebook of RMNP hikes along, but it looked like a good option with streams, waterfalls, and lakes.  The first couple of miles were beautiful and leisurely, and we took a lot of good pictures.

It has been quite a wet summer here and everything is very green and in bloom.

We got to part of the trail called the "Pool" - a nice area to eat our picnic lunch.

And do a little monkeying around.

It definitely took us longer to get to this point than we anticipated (1.7 miles in), but we decided to keep going to the waterfall.  After all, it was just another mile, right? 

 

Later I read in my book "...the trail becomes steeper..." but a mile later we made it to Fern Falls.  And it was pretty awesome.  (Pictures never capture the beauty of the falls.)

And we were pretty happy.  (Sierra showing us where her tummy is.) 

Troy taking a break after carrying the 40+ lbs pack.

The boys having a who-has-the-bigger-mouth contest.

Nana and Sierra playing.

Then, when I thought for sure we'd head back (that was a pretty steep climb for Mr. Thayden), Mike and Ti were adamant that we continue on to Fern Lake.  It was just over a mile further.  But let me assure you, that mile had far fewer smiles (along with far fewer pictures.) 

 We thought snow was a good sign we were nearing the top!

Troy was apparently tired of hiking as a group with a slow 4 year old, so he marched on ahead with Sierra on his back and got there at least 10-15 minutes before we did!

The beauty of the lake could not be enjoyed with the millions of mosquitoes that viciously attacked us.  Nearly as bad as Minnesota.

And that was the end of that.  We quickly hiked back down (as quickly as we can push Thayden's little legs) and it still took more than 1.5 hours to get to the bottom.  Downhill was better than uphill for most of us (Mike's arthritic knees felt otherwise, however) but we were all pretty relieved to make it to the trailhead.  Troy again went racing down ahead of us and made it down 20-30 minutes earlier, so he rode bike to get the truck and bring it to a closer parking lot.

In the end, the hike was just shy of 8 miles roundtrip.  My RMNP hiking book rated it "Difficult".  We never would have chose it if we knew that (and probably will never hike it again), but we'll be pretty impressed with ourselves for making it!  Especially the Minnesotans who aren't used to altitude, Ti who never got carried once, and Thayden who probably got carried less than a mile out of the whole hike!  Way to go!   

My campfire pictures didn't turn out, but take my word for it, we camped 2 nights in a row.  :)  Then we took a scenic (aka long winding mountain road) alternate route home so we could stop in the Idaho Springs hot springs.  The kids loved it.

And we went home and slept in beds.  The next day was the 4th of July, and Stapleton had a pool party with a DJ a couple blocks from our house so we had some water fun in the 90 degree sun.

You can see it was a pretty popular place.

That night we went to Aurora to watch some fireworks.  We went really early to get good seats, then had to entertain the kids for hours.

Glow in the dark toys were sold - that helped for a bit.

The fireworks were pretty awesome.  The drive home wasn't.  The parking lot didn't move - it turned a 10 minute drive in to 1.5 hours.  Painful. 

The next day I had to go back to work.  Mom and Mike took the kids to the zoo and they had a good time.  The day after that I was able to get out early (note - this happens close to never in residency) and we went up to Red Rocks to hike.  This is the first time I'd been there and the amphitheater is amazing!  I cannot wait to see a concert or movie there!  Too bad they wouldn't let us just stay for the Kenny Chesney concert that was that night!

 

This is a little cave we initially went in to take this picture, then it started pouring rain so we used it for shelter.  Little did I know it was the start of monsoon season in Denver.  Every day for two weeks the storms rolled in mid-late afternoon and presented some pretty awesome lightning, thunder, down pours (2 inches in 1 hr), flash floods, and even hail!  Yesterday and today are the first days we have not had these storms.  

That concludes Mom, Mike & Ti's trip.  It was great to have them here and I'm already planning next summer!  (But of course, you are welcome to come several times before then!)