Jun 10 2014

Rocky Mountain National Park

We loved this park so much. If you haven’t been here yet you NEED to go and plan at least a week. This park has been described as the Disney World of the National Parks, I couldn’t agree more. There is so much to see and do, you can waste months here and still have more to come back to see.

The drive was foggy with thick puffy black clouds rolling. Even though it was cloudy the views were still amazing!

This little guy was stalking us while we eat lunch on the tailgate of the truck. I wish you could hear all the sounds he was making, it was hilarious.

We never go hiking without supplies, water, rain gear, first aid and emergency kit, and snacks. We were prepared for rain, as a quick shower is very common, but we were not prepared for hail!

First we stopped in the Moraine Park Visitor Center to get trail recommendations from a Ranger. She recommended a few trails that were very scenic, great for pictures.

We decided on the Fern Lake Trail with an elevation gain of 1,620 ft, elevation total was 11,095 ft. It was an easy hike with a very gradual elevation increase, we really just wanted a good experience with great pictures. I think that’s exactly what we got with this trail. It was spectacular, awe inspiring, and majestic!

We hiked to “The Pool,” which I assume gets it’s name from a much lower water level than this day. Pools of water are usually calm and peaceful with little to no movement, today the water was raging!
After sitting a spell and taking in the beauty, we chose to walk back the way we came, it was shorter than continuing the loop to the Falls. Just as we were fixing to leave it starts to rain….and Jacob runs into a colleague from Shell, random small world. As they are talking the rain changes…I said,”man, this rain hurts!!!” Just then, we see the “rain” bouncing off everything. It was like being in a paintball war zone with no place to take cover. They said their goodbye and that’s when our gently stroll of a hike turned into a “high-tailing-it-outta-there” power-walk/running for cover. We eventually found an area for cover after about a mile of “ietchie-wa-wa!” Our cover was a nice boulder teepee, it was a perfect blessing. The pelleting last about 20-30 minutes total, when it changed back to rain we started power-walking to the truck.

I wish the weather would have been better. It was rainy and cold the rest of the day. Even with the horrible weather we still had a great time and loved our hikes. We can’t wait for the next time we visit Rocky Mountain National Park.

Jun 9 2014

Prospect Park, Colorado Green Belt

There are a few notable things about this park.
This campground was great for it’s location, close to Denver, Golden, and Boulder. There no fires allowed, the campers are too close to each other anyway.

There are 6 washer and 6 dryers that are clean and the dryers only need 1 cycle…which is soooooo nice!

It also backed up to the Green Belt, which is the best thing a city can do for it’s people! It was funny though because when we got to the campground I took Roux on the “pet walk” which was kind of a bummer and I was thinking “this parking-lot campground SUCKS!” But then I noticed there was a gate open at the end, I’m nosy so I checked it out.

There are cute little bunnies everywhere!

It turned out to be an awesome park with a fishing pond, walking trails, soccer field, playgrounds, restrooms, and a river.

An even funnier thing that happened was while Jacob was taking a nap, Roux and I went to the park for a walk. I figured we could just walk around the pond and it would take us back to the campground. We were strolling next to the river for a good 45 mins. and I kept thinking, “ok, the turn around should be coming up soon.” Some runners passed us and then slowed for a cool down so I asked them how far was the trail. Their response, “uh we don’t really know but it goes from Denver to Golden.” So I was like, “OMG, I would have been walking for sooooo long before I realized that, my dog would have wanted to kill me!” We all had a good laugh at my expense….ah, good times!

So over all this campground was a great choice for it’s proximity to the major cities and the lovely park behind it.

Jun 7 2014

Prospect RV Park in Wheatridge Colorado and a day in Golden

Our drive from Clayton Lake was a long one, but we have an audiobook to keep us focused.
The clouds moved in and we caught a little rain, which wasn’t too bad considering one of the towns we drove through had multiple tornados touch down.
So many things to see…mesas, windmills, animal-crossings, outcrops, “points of interest,” and rain

I believe this was in Huerfano County, it was off the interstate and we didn’t stop to figure out what it was…so I googled it! But I couldn’t find the info when I went to post this. I believe it said that it is an ancient volcano and it’s all alone so the Spanish named it Huerfano which means “orphan.” So it’s an ancient orphan volcano!

Jacob bought Slap Bracelets to remind him of things to do before we leave a campground.

After we set-up, we headed over to the closest grocery store for some quick-meal items for the next few days, cause there’s no fire allow here either.

The next day we went into Golden to write up a few blogs before going to the Geology Museum at the Colorado School of Mines.

While I was hard at work Jacob went off on his own to get a hair cut….and it’s super duper short.

The Geology Museum was fan-freaking-tastic! They have so many specimen on display, I was in awe and I took a lot of pictures! I didn’t realize how many minerals are found in Colorado, these Mountain-people are so lucky!

This one’s famous, it made the cover of a Mineralogy textbook. That’s not the version I had in school, mine was like old and decrepit.

Rhodochrosite, pictured above and below, is the Colorado state mineral, I didn’t know it could be found inside of stalactites…mind-blowing

Jacob is such a trooper, I know that’s not his thing but he pretended to enjoy it.
When we got out of there, the sky turned dark and scary. We looked up and saw people floating in the air from the mountain, so the weather couldn’t be that bad!

So we walked a few blocks to a farmers market.