Our Day @ Rocky Mountain

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Rocky Mountain National Park is one of our very favorite places, and we try to make sure we get up there at least once every summer. So we drug ourselves out of bed as early as we could on Saturday morning (which of course wasn't as early as we had planned) and quickly tried to gather everything we thought we might need for the day's hiking adventure. We realized just down the street that we had forgotten the sunscreen and went back for it, then made a quick stop by Carl's Jr.s to pick up some breakfast for the road. The drive up to Estes Park was fairly uneventful, with almost no traffic. Lily watched one Backyardigans episode on the iPod, other than that we all just enjoyed the scenery and each other's company.

As we were nearing the gate to the Park, we came to the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center and decided to stop for a quick potty break. Just as we were getting back into the car Lily asked for some water - so we opened up the back of the car to get a bottle out of our packs. Except that the water pack wasn't there! Somehow in our rush to leave we must have left it si

tting on the kitchen table. I had one bottle in my daypack, but we knew that wouldn't be nearly enough even with the water filter, unless we wanted to be stopping every half hour on the trail to fill it up again. So we headed back inside hoping to find some vending machines where we could get a few more bottles.

We didn't find any machines, but the gift shop sold large re-usuable sport bottles so we bought one of those. And Lily spent some allowance on a small stuffed Eagle fingerpuppet. I was glad she had asked for water while we were there - finding another bottle once in the park would have been much more difficult! This meant however that ALL of the water was going to be in the daypack making it heavier than usual.

We drove on into the park - the line at the entrance gate was the longest I think I have seen, but it moved pretty fast. It was a little after 10:00am when we entered. Our National Parks Annual Pass we got last summer was still good at least. We will need a new one before we go to Moab in October though. We had already picked out our first destination - we wanted to do the Mills Lake hike, which was off of the Glacier Gorge Trailhead. It is in the same area of the park as the Bear Lake Trailhead which we have started from many times, and knew well enough that the lots would be full by now so we went ahead to the Shuttle lot and waited for a bus. Lily always gets a kick out of riding the shuttle anyway.

It was extremely busy in the parking lot and we had to wait for a second shuttle. I was glad to see though that almost no one else got off at Glacier Gorge, apparently everyone was heading for Bear Lake. The trail was still a bit crowded at first, not unbearable but there were always other people within sight. It was only a short walk on the trail to Alberta Falls, and I suspected that much of the crowds would dissipate after that.

It was shaping up to be a very pleasant day - warm and sunny, but not excruciatingly hot as it had been lately in the Springs. And even with the crowds it seemed peaceful and cheery. It wasn't long before we came to the falls, after following Glacier Creek for about a half-mile. It was certainly a popular destination. We got a few pictures by the falls and were heading on down the trail when Lily spotted the rocky area that went up beside the falls. Lots of large flat boulders gently sloping upwards - it wasn't really part of the trail but it didn't look all that treacherous and plenty of others (many with small children) had gone up there already so we decided to be adventures and go explore. There were some really neat nooks right beside the falls where we could watch the water rushing past (at a safe distance away of course). One spot was shaped just so that the falls reminded me of a waterslide...not one I would want to ride though! We carefully made our way back down and picked up the trail towards Mills Lake again.

As I had suspected, it was much less crowded now, though there was still a fairly regular trickle of hikers. One stopped and showed us a spot up on the hill where he insisted he had seen aGrizzly Bear earlier in the day...he was sure it

was a Grizzly because it was light brown. Brian and I tried not to laugh too much until he was out of earshot - Grizzlies have long been extinct in this region though black bears are still quite plentiful. A common misconception is that black bears are always black, in fact they can be just about any color, including light brown. I don't doubt that he saw a bear, but the chances that a lone Grizzly suddenly found itself in the middle of Rocky Mountain National Park are pretty much zero. I was still a little jealous though, I've never even glimpsed a bear in the wild before. Not that I'd want to get too close (even to a black bear), but an unexpected view of one in the distance would be really cool.

The weather was still beautiful, but we noticed with some worry the dark puffy clouds forming above us. Hopefully the rain would hold out a few more hours, but I was starting to doubt it.It was then that I realized I hadn't packed the raincoats! Or a dry change of clothes. We had extra sweatshirts in the car, but that was it. It wasn't the first thing we realized we forgot, and it wouldn't be the last.

Before long we were getting hungry for lunch so we found a nice rocky ledge on the side of the trail to sit and enjoy our peanut butter and jelly picnic that we had packed. A very ambitious chipmunk refused to leave us alone, apparently someone has been feeding the wildlife. Of course we didn't give him anything - I'm not sure why people seem to think they are doing these creatures a favor by increasing their dependance on us. It will not serve them well one day. With our hunger abated we headed on down the trail. The scenery was simply stunning, with views of the mountains and valley in between. And the rushing sounds of the creek were never far away. As much as we love traveling and seeing new places, I thought nothing would ever be able to compare to this right here.

By this time we were almost out of water and found a good place near the creek to fill up again. Lily has learned how to help Brian with the water filter so they quickly set about their task. While they were working, I felt the first raindrop hit my head. By the time they were done, it was definitely raining, though not too hard yet. We continued on to another bridge and ran into some people we know from church. It wasn't more than a few minutes before we felt the raindrops turn to hail. It was coming down hard and we were getting pelted pretty good, I knew we had to find some sort of shelter and escape this beating. We dove under the nearest tree, which helped some but there wasn't really enough room for all of us to fit. And being the tallest tree around, it was likely to become a lightning magnet. We needed to move. So we went a little deeper into the trees where we could spread out, but the hail was still coming through pretty hard. Not knowing what else to do we decided to head on down the trail, might as well make some progress or look for better shelter while getting pounded.

It must have been coming down harder then I realized, once in the open I don't remember much except continually shouting "OWW!" and within moments Brian

yelling from somewhere

ahead that he had found a much better spot. All I cared was that it was close. He lead us up the bank to a shallow cave, with just enough overhang to block the unceasing onslaught outside. We cuddled inside, grateful at last for a real shelter. I couldn't believe no one was in here already! That was a very lucky find indeed. It was actually very

peaceful watching the hail, which eventually turned to rain, fall over the valley from inside the protection of our little cave. Many other hikers came by and complimented us on our find when they saw us tucked inside, we offered to let them come inside too, but no one took us up on it. A couple came by later that thought we looked so cute they wanted to take our picture for us!

We wondered how long we would have to wait this out. We didn't want to put ourselves in danger of being out past dark-no flashlights! We had forgotten the flashlights. Was there anything we DIDN'T forget??? I did happen to have a towel in the backpack, I had grabbed it out of the car at the last minute thinking it would be useful for our picnic, but it came in even more handy now, as Lily was a little bit cold from being wet. We weren't soaked fortunately, but damp enough to create a chill in the rain-cooled air.

Finally, after about 40 minutes the rain subsided, though the storm didn't appear to be completely over. We took advantage of the break in the weather and headed out. We knew we were

close to the lake by now and were not going to turn back without at least seeing it, rain or not. It was only a very light drizzle by now anyway, hopefully the skies wouldn't open up again any time soon. The trail had really cleared out, we only occasionally passed anyone now. The sky still looked very foreboding though the rain had stopped, there was a strange grey, foggy quiet blanketing the whole valley. It was creepy, but kind of cool at the same time.

We reached the lake - only a handful of others were scattered out along the banks. A gloomy peace, but very pretty nonetheless. We walked on around the lake, intending to take the trail on to nearby Jewel lake since the weather was holding out. I think we were off the trail for a while, but stumbled onto it again and found our way to the second lake. After Jewel lake, the trail continues to Black Lake, but having lost so much time in the storm I was afraid we wouldn't make it

back in time. So after a while we turned to head back, and found a semi-private area up a hill to use the "facilities".

We had to carefully navigate much of the trail back, as the rocky terrain was quite slick in places, and going down is always harder than going up! By the time we got back to Mills Lake the sun was out, and it had warmed up quite a bit. We sat by the lake for a few minutes enjoying the view and the peaceful surroundings.

It was already after 4pm, and no big surprise, Lily started getting cranky. This no-naps thing is still presenting a bit of a challenge most days. We didn't have any major meltdowns, but there were a few difficult moments. She is a very intense, emotional person. Which are not bad traits, most of the time :) But when she gets tired those values get magnified to the point that she cannot control them. But we eventually made it back not too much worse for the wear, with Lily doing a fair amount of puddle stomping on the way! She and Brian actually ran the last part of the trail, just for fun.

We made it back to the bus stop, while waiting for the shuttle Lily took our picture! The shuttle dropped us off back at the parking lot, at one point earlier I had fully expected that we would be soaked to the bone by now! Thanks to our impromptu shelter, and some good luck with the weather we were completely dry, but tired. We had planned to drive up Trail Ridge Road and explore a little bit up there, but it was after 6pm, and we were hungry for dinner. And Lily was practically sleepwalking by now. So we headed out of the park back towards Estes, but Lily was asleep by the time we got there. So we kept going, thinking there was no way we would keep her awake long enough to eat right then.

As we were coming into Denver we saw a sign for Cracker Barrel, we couldn't remember the last time we had eaten at one so decided to go there. Cracker Barrel is one of those places that always sounds better than it ends up being, but I never remember that until I am eating there. Oh well, it was food anyway and soon we were back on the road heading for home. Lily managed to walk inside the house, but collapsed on the living room floor. It had been a long day!