The Majestic Rockies

We just returned from a wonderful trip to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. They are both located in the Northwestern part of Colorado. About an hour from Boulder. I read somewhere that Rocky Mountain National Park rivals Yellowstone, although it doesn't receive as many tourists, good news for us.

We had a great time. Our hotel was walking distance to town (Estes Park) so it was easy to grab a bite to eat and do some window shopping. And we were also only 4 miles from the entrance into Rocky Mountain National Park.

This picture is of a glacier basin which was formed millions of years ago. Amazing! Unfortunately the picture is a little hazy because it was threatening rain at the time. I'm also not the best photographer so I can't capture the beauty of this region anyway.

On Sunday, we drove to the park and took a shuttle bus to Bear Lake. It's a gorgeous alpine lake and an easy hike for young kids like Aidan and Kellen. Here are a few pictures of Bear Lake.

We then walked a mile (up/down and switchbacks) to Alberta Falls. Here's a picture of Aidan near the falls.

There are so many rocks in this area and they are a lot of fun for the kids to climb. Kellen, of course, thought he could climb just as well as everyone else and became a little frustrated that he couldn't climb as high or as far as his brother and dad. Aidan had a blast climbing the rocks and thought he was a true mountain climber.

The last leg on the hike back to the shuttle bus wasn't as fun for Aidan. He was getting tired, especially during the uphill part, but overall I think they enjoyed it. (In case you're wondering, Kellen got a ride on Daddy's shoulders.)

Later that afternoon, we headed back to Estes Park and took the kids to Fun City. A great place for families to spend a lot of money. They have a miniture golf course, massive slides, bumper cars, go karts, video games, etc.

Here's a picture of the kids (and Rick) going down the big slides.

At first Aidan was a little scared to go down the slides so Rick went with Kellen, but he eventually gathered up his nerve, went with Rick and then went by himself.

We also played a round of miniture golf. (Note to parents of two year olds - they are too young!) Kellen tried to play for about 8 rounds and then just dropped his club and ball and said, "All done!" And walked off. So Rick ended up taking him to ride the go karts and Aidan and I finished playing.

While Kellen and Rick were riding the go karts (too loud for Aidan), Aidan and I rode the bumper cars. Once again, like everything else at Fun City they both had a blast. It was hard for them to leave and they complained on the ride home that they really, really wanted to go back there. We'll have to find something equivalent here.

Monday morning we decided to head back to Rocky Mountain National Park and drive the "highest continuous paved road in the country" to the tundra region. That's over 12,000 feet above sea level. It's quite barren because the elements are too harsh for trees to survive and not many animals stay in the region year round.

Even though I've lived here for a month, trying to carry Kellen for a stretch was hard. I was actually out of breath. Here's a picture of the boys at about 11,000 feet above sea level.

It was pretty cold and windy up there too. Definitely not a place I'd venture to in the near future.

On the way back to civilization we stopped off at another great kid-friendly location called Alluvial Fan. I thought the name for this waterfall was funny until I read the information about it. I'm not going to explain this properly, but this waterfall was created back on July 15, 1982 when a dam at Fawn Lake broke. A garbage collector in the area heard the massive noise (can you imagine, HUGE boulders, trees and other debris crashing down the side of a mountain, gaining speed every second) alerted the Park Rangers who evacuated campers in a neighboring part of the park. The river connecting RMNP and Estes Park rose dramatically flooding the area and eventually the rushing water and debris came to a stop at Lake Estes. Anyway, the alluvial fan or a fan shaped deposit area was formed creating a beautiful waterfall for us to enjoy.

Enough of the science lesson, Rick and Aidan decided to climb the rocks while Kellen and I played "car wash" in the freezing cold stream. Here's a picture of Rick and Aidan near the top of the waterfall. (Or at least as far as one can safely climb.)

We're looking forward to our next Colorado excursion, so stay tuned....