Rocky Mountain National Park

We woke up to the sound of rain on the metal roof of the tiny house this morning.  Morgan said that rain is really loud on a metal roof, especially when you're sleeping in the loft and your head is only 2 feet from the ceiling!  All in all, tiny house living has worked out pretty well for us.  We have found a few challenges, like the fact that tiny houses don't carry around giant water heaters so it is a challenge to get 4 people showered in one evening.  We also had some difficulty with the coffee.  This is not really the fault of the tiny house, but with the tiny house rental company.  They only supplied us with a French press coffee maker.  They included instructions on how to make coffee with it, but it didn't work out for us.  Why can't you just put a tiny coffee maker in there, tiny house people?  I would have preferred it to the full size blender that you supplied.  Sheesh.

We still had some muffins leftover from our Palo Duro breakfast and a few donuts from Pikes Peak yesterday so it was a breakfast of leftovers.  There is a tiny little table that folds out in the "living room" area, but we would have had to put away the murphy bed to fold down the table and that just wasn't worth the trouble.  We had planned to send the kids and their muffin crumbs outside for breakfast this morning, but the rain had other ideas.

Did I mention it was rainy?  Not a good thing when your plan is to spend the entire day hiking at Rocky Mountain National Park.  As much as I love these road trip vacations, one downside is that you really only get one shot at everything.  There's no "Oh no!  Looks like rain today.  Let's hike tomorrow instead."  Nope.  We won't be here tomorrow.  Today is our only chance.  So we packed up our ponchos and headed for Rocky Mountain National Park (after stopping for coffee, of course).

Fortunately for us, the rain let up just before we headed out.  We stopped first at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center and the parking lot was practically empty at 9AM.  The park ranger gave the kids their junior ranger booklets and told us that we could probably find parking at the Bear Lake Trailhead because the weather was keeping park attendance down today.  Maybe a little rain isn't so bad after all.

When we got to the park entrance sign, we stopped to take a picture.  I saw a post in the ground and thought maybe I could set up the camera there.  It turns out that is exactly what it is there for and it is PERFECT!  This may be my favorite park now just for this reason.  Way to go RMNP!

As we headed toward Bear Lake, we saw a sign that the Bear Lake parking was full and we should park up ahead and take the shuttle.  A shuttle was waiting when we arrived and we got right on.  Not bad!

Shuttle selfies!

We got off at the Glacier Gorge Trailhead and started down the trail toward Alberta Falls.

The trail was pretty steep, but absolutely beautiful.

We liked this bridge made from half of a tree.

Caleb pushing a boulder over the falls

We saw several chipmunks today during our hikes.  You can tell that people have been feeding them because they are not only not afraid of humans, but will follow you around.

We didn't see any bears in the park today, but we were prepared in case we ran across one.  They say if you see a bear or want to avoid seeing a bear, you should make a lot of noise as you hike because bears don't like to be startled and they really don't want to be anywhere near us.  Caleb was our bear deterrent today as he is never silent.

The water was really rushing!  It was a roaring waterfall.

We inadvertently hiked beyond Alberta Falls, not knowing if there was another viewpoint of the falls uptrail.  We stopped for a snack and decided to ask some other hikers who were making their way down.  They said the Alberta Falls trail was over and we were now on our way to a mountain lake that was still another 2 miles further.  They said it was a beautiful lake and they had seen moose there but we decided to turn back!

Caleb was so tired on the way down that he stopped for a nap on a large rock.

By the time we made it to the Bear Lake Trailhead, the sun was out and the park was getting busy.  We were thankful for the good weather and that we beat the crowds!  We were feeling good by this time so we decided to start down the trail toward Emerald Lake and see how far we could get.  This trail passes by 3 mountain lakes - Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and Emerald Lake.  There is a good elevation rise between each lake so it was a good workout.  Since the trail is down-and-back, we figured we could turn around anytime we needed to.

We noticed several of these trees that look like they grew in a spiral.  Very interesting.

Nymph Lake!  It was a beautiful, still lake covered in lily pads.  There was a beautiful reflection of the mountains on the water.

We were hungry by now so we stopped for lunch on a log next to Nymph Lake.  There was a chipmunk that would not leave us alone while we ate our chips.  Morgan joked that they are called chipmunks because they love chips!

The broken lower branches on the trees made the perfect place to hang our backpacks.

They also made the trees perfect for climbing!

Nymph Lake from up the trail.

Soon, we made it to Dream Lake.  This lake is larger and longer than Nymph Lake and we could see fish in the crystal clear water and there were even a few people fishing in the lake.

Everyone was doing great so we decided to keep going all the way to Emerald Lake.  When we started the trail it was quite busy, but by this point the crowds had thinned out considerably. 

We even ran into some snow beside the trail.  Time for a snowball fight in summer!

Morgan even shook the hand of a chipmunk!

This one found a strawberry.  They are cute little guys.

Just before reaching Emerald Lake, we ran into some more exciting wildlife.  We saw 2 elk!  One passed right in front of us on the trail and it was large.

The kids admiring the second elk from a safe distance.

At the very end of the trail, there was a portion that was still entirely covered in snow.  We had to walk across this slippery, filthy snow to continue on the trail.  I won't say who fell and who didn't.

Emerald Lake.  Gorgeous!

By the time we made it back to the trailhead, our legs were sore and tired and there was a long line for the shuttle bus.  After hiking up the equivalent of 133 flights of stairs and over 8 miles, we were ready for some rest!  I'm so impressed with these kids and their hiking!  They were tired, but overall they did great and went much farther than I expected.  This is a good sign for a trip that has lots of hiking planned!

On our way out of the park, we spotted 2 moose!  They were not as large as I expected and did not have antlers, so I guess they were possibly young?  Still very cool to see!

We drove back through Estes Park on our way home from the park and it was a bustling place now!  We were too tired to stop, but it definitely looked like a place we could spend a lot more time in.

Morgan even fell asleep on the way back to the tiny house!  That NEVER happens!  I guess now we know what it takes to get Morgan to nap.

We relaxed at the tiny house for a while before getting cleaned up and heading out to dinner.  We had some delicious Mexican food in town and fell asleep quickly at bedtime!