We've been to Rocky Mountain National Park a couple of times before, but both times we just went in the East Entrance and stayed on that side. This time we went in the West Entrance to see what was over there. On the way up to the park we passed this huge reservoir that was really pretty.
I researched ahead of time which hikes were supposed to be good for kids. We started with one that was a flat walk through some fields with views of mountains. It wasn't super long, and the kids had fun throwing things in the river on one side of the bridge and then watching for them to come out the other side.
I have a bunch of 'scenery' photos because I just can't get over how pretty it is. RMNP is one of my favorite places ever. I could go back there every year and it would not get old.
Every time we got to a spot that was a little tricky Colby would say "I do it. I do it." Then if he realized he needed help he'd say, "Hey! Help me!" And then, "I did it! I did it!" He was so proud of himself for hiking all the way like a big kid.
Next we went to an old ranch that still had the original cabins and stuff to look at.
They had some activities to do, like this old washing tub with actual socks for the kids to try putting through the wringer thing.
They also have a lasso station...
...and tug-o-war.
The photos below are close to where the Colorado River starts. The kids thought it was so cool to see the start of the river that then flows about 1400 miles to the Gulf of California.
We ate lunch at some picnic tables and there was a fallen log by our table. The kids balanced on it about 100 million times each before we finally made them leave.
The road then goes way up the mountain, to a high of over 12,000 feet. You can see over 100 miles in several directions.
Way up at the top there is a hike you can do that goes even higher up the mountain. Skyler was LOVING the fact that airplanes kept flying over and they looked like they were flying really low because we were so high up! At the very top there was a rock you could climb up on top of. I took Kylee, Skyler, and Ally up, and it wasn't as difficult as we thought it would be, so when we came down Andy took Colby up. The kids all thought it was super cool that we were even higher than the unmelted snow.
As we headed down the other side towards our campground we stopped at a walk called "Beaver Ponds". As we walked out on the boardwalk it started looking familiar, and we realized we've been here before and we have a really cute picture of Kylee and Andy sitting on this wooden railing, so we took another one. We couldn't remember the exact pose, but we got the location pretty close if you look at the mountains in the background. These pictures are almost exactly (within about a week) four years apart.
On Sunday night we headed to our campground and the kids had fun running around climbing on the rocks.
For some reason Colby woke up super early, so he climbed up on our bed with us and watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on my phone while the rest of us were sleeping. Finally he fell back asleep with the phone in his hands. I love his squishy face!
On Monday morning mom and Bruce and Connie and her kids drove up to meet us. We did our favorite hike and it was just as pretty as we remembered it being. Andy had to turn back early to go find cell service and make sure our offer got accepted on our house, so I carried Colby in the backpack after he got tired of walking. He actually hiked almost all the way up by himself (about 1.5 miles uphill), but then on the way down I carried him. He's quite the good little hiker!
We found a patch of muddy snow that of course the kids wanted to play on. After we headed off the trail to walk on it some other adults from another group decided to do the same, but one of them fell through up to his thigh because the bottom of this patch was melted away, so we made everyone get off. Good thing our kiddos are light-weight enough not to fall through!
After our long hike we headed back towards camp, but stopped to walk around another lake on the way. It was a fairly short walk and mostly flat.
When we arrived back at camp Andy was nowhere to be found. I thought for sure he'd be in the tent taking a nap. It turns out that he...GASP...took himself on a hike. WHAT?!? Anyone who knows Andy knows that he does not love hiking. But apparently after he took care of the house business he was feeling the spirit of the mountains and went on about a five mile hike all by his lonesome. I pretty much died of a heart attack when he told me.
On Tuesday morning we headed out for one more hike that people had said was fun for kids because it has lots of rocks to climb on. However, two of Connie's kids were losing it, and it was another 3.5 mile hike, so they quickly gave up and decided to head home. At that point Kylee and Skyler also lost it and started crying and screaming about me being the worst mom in the world, and how dare I expect them to hike another 3.5 miles when they already hiked about 5 miles yesterday. The first 1.5 miles of the hike continued in this vein. I really wanted to do it and I was unwilling to give in to the tantrum throwing, so I just ignored them and kept walking.
The photo below has Estes Park in the background, and doesn't include Kylee and Skyler because they were still in full-on melt down mode at this time.
If we're being honest, it turns out that this was not an easy hike. It was uphill the whole way, and not a gradual easy kind of uphill. It was pretty steep! However, as we got higher up there were lots of rock stairs and stuff, and suddenly, magically, it became the best hike ever. These kids LOVE to feel like they are "climbing" and that's exactly what this hike was. Some of the stone stairs were half the size of Ally, but she was a trooper and just kept hoisting herself up. It's a good thing Andy carried Colby because I really might not have made it. Some of those steps were HUGE!
At the top there was a lake where you could sit and have a picnic.
There were about a million chipmunks running around (Colby lovingly calls them "chicken chunks"), and they were not at all scared of people! They would come right up and climb on your lap if you let them. Colby kept screaming "Ahh! A chicken chunk! A other one chicken chunk!" If you zoom in to this photo you'll notice the nice scrape on Colby's nose. Poor little guy. I put him in the backpack in the parking lot and before I could hoist it up on my back he used his feet to launch it forward and he skinned his nose on the asphalt.
On the way back down I was able to get a picture of the other kids since they had now decided they loved this hike and the screaming had ceased. Skyler even wanted to take the long way back down (added an extra 1/2 mile or so) because some guy told us there were nice views of the valley. Funny how quickly you can go from "worst mom ever, how dare you make us do this" to "this is so fun" within such a short time. Maybe next time they'll just believe me when I say it'll be fun, and we can skip all the weeping and wailing? Probably not, but one can always dream!
After the hike we headed to see Grandma Karen's new house and go out to dinner, and then we headed down to Connie's house to spend a couple of days.
