I have wanted to do this vacation for so long. Ever since a good friend in Wisconsin mentioned the park to me, and told me how much I would love it. She was right. I was so excited when Dave mentioned there was a medical conference there this summer. I totally jumped at the idea. It was one of those places I would love to visit again and again. The best part was after a beautiful hike or picnic, the kids would make comments like. "Thanks for bringing us here", or "I love it here, can we live here?" The first day we drove in and got there in time for picnic dinner along the banks of the Colorado river, near its headwaters. (On the way there I had the kids watch a documentary about the river, since we live so close to it here in Grand Junction, I thought it would be neat to see it closer to it's beginnings. I am a nerd, I know, but it did make it meaningful and hopefully more memorable.)
Nearby we scared this mother and baby moose out of the brush. We ended up having a pretty close encounter with them as they decided to approach us. I was pretty nervous, but Dave kept his cool and got a very neat video of the whole thing. They crossed the river from here right in front of us and went into the brush. We saw them several more times as we finished the hike. I wish we had a better picture of the baby as it was really little, but the lighting was tricky. At one point they were about 3 feet away from where we were all huddled under a pine tree, with the boys on our shoulders. 
And you will notice another rare sighting on this blog...Amanda without a boot on her foot! She loved to be able to hike with us and really enjoyed doing all the activities at the YMCA. Side note, she does have a brace on her finger though...as she broke it running into the lane line at swim a few weeks prior.
We stayed at the YMCA in Estes Park. It was a very kid friendly, fun place to stay. There was tons of activities for the kids to do there, rock climbing, archery, nature walks, crafts, games, teen nights, star gazing, swimming, miniature golf, tennis, volleyball, horseshoes. Seriously, if you were bored there it was your own fault. The kids even discovered they had a library, which ironically was a favorite place to go when they were over stimulated and ready to get out of the sun. My favorite activity was the orienteering class Amanda, Maren, and I took together one day. I have always wanted to learn how to use a map and compass correctly.
Spencer and Maren rocked the rock wall.
Dave's medical classes were mostly in the mornings, so we would do activities until lunch, then meet up with him for an afternoon hike and be back for dinner. It was perfect...mostly. I do not recommend the food here. But besides that detail it was a great place to stay.
We happened upon this old ropes course on a walk one evening that the kids loved to play on.
It would be hard to hard to pick a favorite hike in RMNP. They were all so beautiful. This one to Gem Lake would probably be right up there though. It was a tough steep hike for little legs, but they all made it and the reward was worth it. The water was clear and cool, and the kids immediately were out in it barefoot. We hung up the hammock and hung around for a while enjoying the views and mostly solitude. Amanda picked this hike from the guide books, I think I like her taste.
The kids an I did this short hike to the very popular Alberta Falls on one of Dave's longer days in classes. It was so dramatic to see all the water rushing over the rocks, and it was about three times this size, just couldn't get a picture of the whole thing in the camera's view.
Another popular spot was the hike from Bear lake to Nymph, Emerald, and Dream lakes.
Dream lake was gorgeous, we played here for a long while. Maren chose this hike, and wasn't sure she wanted to go on to the next lake, but she made a friend and since they were going up to Emerald she decided she was game. It is always more fun to hike with friendss.
Emerald lake was gorgeous and since there was still ice in the water it really gave us a taste of altitude how desolate the area can be. The dramatic Tyndall Glacier was neat to experience up close.
And of course since there was snow there was also lots of time for rain coat sledding.
This hike was in a less popular area of the park called Wild Basin. We still saw plenty of people, but the canyon reminded me more of Smoky Mountain, NP. It was so lush and full of flowers. We hiked up to Calypso cascades which was huge. Pictures again don't do it justice.
The kids and I spent one day in downtown Estes park eating the best donuts ever and playing along their river walk. Spencer loves Eagles, so we had to picture with this statue.
On our way out of town we drove back over the top of the Tundra. It was amazing, but freezing, and there were strong winds that day (like 50 mph) so we opted to abandon our plans for a hike up there. We explored the Visitors Center and I took a quick nature walk freezing by my lonely self to get a peek at the miniature wildflowers that dare to grow in this unforgiving climate.
Dropping back down to a more reasonable elevation we did one last hike along the banks of the Colorado River. We spied this water fall, some big horn sheep with some babies (about 13 sheep in all), yellow bellied marmots, and some bear scat along the trail. Along with all the elk we saw virtually every day, we decided this place totally trumps Yellowstone in terms of wildlife viewing, without nearly the crowds. Plus such amazing scenery!
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