Days 6 and 7 - Rocky Mountain National Park

I'm falling behind on blog posts, and with over a week left on our trip I can't afford to do that. So I am combining both days in the Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) into one post. We went into RMNP on both Wednesday and Thursday. From when we started planning this trip RMNP was the target destination. We eventually added in Mount Rushmore and the Badlands, but RMNP was always the goal.

RMNP is a very popular National Park, and to address overcrowding they instituted "Timed Entry" at some point in the last few years. So a few weeks ago we had to reserve a time slot to get into the park, if we wanted to go in before 2pm, or if we wanted to go to Bear Lake before 6pm. We had a pass to get to Bear Lake for 4pm on Wednesday, so we had time to do other things in the morning on Wednesday. We ended up going to Lake Estes and taking a walk. It is a small lake in Estes Park, with a nice path around it and a marina where you can rent stuff. The walk was nice and complaining was kept to a minimum.

While we were on the walk we saw people on the lake in pontoon boats. Allyson suggested we rent one the next day. At first I wasn't too high on the idea because I assumed it would cost a fortune. I ended up going over to the rental counter and learned that we could one on Thursday for an hour for just $70, which seemed like a deal, so we signed up. The kids played on the playground a bit and then we went back to the campground to rest up before going into the park.

The drive into the park takes you right through the main tourist area which was cute, but felt congested. We made it past that and then went to the visitor center. At the visitor center the girls got their Junior Ranger stuff. The park rangers swore them in before they completed the packets so that we didn't have to make it back to the visitor center again later. This was a huge perk! The girls go crazy over the packets, so we were confident they would complete them anyway. After the visitor center we started the long winding drive up to Bear Lake. The whole drive up was amazing. Just mile after mile of beautiful mountain scenery.

We eventually made it up to Bear Lake, which is a very popular attraction in RMNP. It's a relatively short hike around a lake at about 9,500 feet. I can't really say much about it other than it is awesome. The hike was the perfect level of difficulty for us with 5 kids. There were some puddles from rain earlier in the day that made for a few areas we had to get creative, but it wasn't too tough.

The hike around Bear Lake was probably one of the best experiences we've had as a family. Everyone absolutely loved it. By the time we were all done it was time to head back for dinner. The hike seemed to wear everyone out so Allyson and I finally got some time to relax without kids at the end of the night.

On Thursday our boat reservation was at 10am. We got everyone up and made breakfast and then went over to the marina, which was less than 10 minutes away.

The idea to rent the boat turned out to be a perfect one. It was a pontoon boat so we could drive it without any real boating experience, and the lake was calm and the water was flat. We cruised around for an hour and everyone got a chance to drive. I figured that someone was going to see the boat when Natalie was driving and call the police about a drunk driver. Even at 7 years old her maneuvering skills were concerning. We never went straight with her behind the wheel!

After the boat rental we again took a break before heading back into the park. During the break Nolan took a nap and when he woke up he appeared to have a fever. We think a virus went through the family over the past couple weeks, so Nolan must have caught it. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal but given Nolan's history with pneumonia any illness raises anxiety. We didn't pack a thermometer so we had to stop at a grocery store to get one to take his temperature. He registered a modest fever so we gave him some infant tylenol and he seemed to feel better. So we had the green light to head back into the park. This time we went to an area called Alluvial Fan.

Alluvial Fan is a waterfall area that was created by a flood 40 years ago. A damn broke on a lake higher up in the mountains and pushed rocks and boulders downhill to where they settled out at the base of a waterfall (Horseshoe Waterfall). We walked the trail to the waterfall, and then spent at least an hour there. It was absolutely beautiful. The pictures we took don't do the scenery justice. Horseshoe Waterfall looks like something in a movie.

We finished up our hike and headed back to the motorhome for the evening. Once we got the younger three to bed Allyson went and took a tour of the famous, haunted Stanley Hotel. It's right in Estes Park, where we were staying. I don't get as big a kick as she does out of haunted places, and someone had to stay back with the kids so it worked out well. Caroline, Natalie and I had a campfire where we made s'mores in a campfire pie iron.

Miscellaneous thoughts and notes:

• Wednesday was Nolan's lucky day because at breakfast Julia treated him to one of her crazy lullabies, this time with the guitar.

• On the Bear Lake trail we saw the couple below. They had to be at least in their 80's and were up in the mountains going for this hike together. Later we would come across them again and I saw the woman had a Cleveland Clinic jacket on. It turns out they were from Pepper Pike. Small World! I hope that when Allyson and I are in our 80's we are as mobile that these two.

• How is it that children have the innate sense to throw a tantrum at the worst time? Our two year old, Samantha, decided to throw a fit on the Alluvial Trail and treat everyone around us to her whining. Fortunately she eventually came around.

• The chipmunks around the picnic tables on the Alluvial Fan trail were not messing around when it came to getting scraps of food. I would wave my hands, stomp my feet, and yell and they would barely budge. Then they'd come back with freinds! Natalie dropped a whole cheese stick and we saw one run off with it. A cheese stick is an extremely large piece of food for a chipmunk to carry!

• We came across some people sniffing trees. From a distance I thought they were high. When we got closer they explained that they were smelling the tree because it smelled like butterscotch...and they were right! Everyone eventually took a sniff. Later I looked it up and learned that Ponderosa Pines smell like butterscotch. One of the people told us that on very hot days the whole forest will smell of butterscotch.

The two days we had in RMNP were amazing. Definitely worth the long drives and gripes from the kids. Each of the days we spent in the park were some of the best family time we've ever had, amongst the greatest scenery I could imagine.

That's all for now. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading!