Rocky Mountain National Park
Like most things with the Collett Crew, things don’t always go exactly as planned, but they always seem to work out just as they’re supposed to.
Fortunately, I have very flexible kids who are almost always up for an adventure, minus one. Today was no different.
Our plan? Some small hikes and a drive along the continental divide.
Ummmm….scratch that.
Trail Ridge Road atop the divide was closed due to snow, so no driving that road for us.
Plan B…go for some small hikes.
Ummmm…why is there snow all over all the trails? And why are most of them closed?
Okay, we’ll do the “easy” walk on a trail around Bear Lake except…it’s covered with icy snow.
Do we have spikes? No. Can we try? Sure, let’s try.
This was just the first part of the park and it was already blowing our minds.
What should take maybe 20 minutes easily took us over an hour. So we reset out expectations and realized we can’t tackle this the way we would have it was just the two of us. What will work for all of us?
Fortunately there are other ways to enjoy the park than hiking!.
Justin’s hope was to see elk and mine was to see moose. We got both!
We saw a huge herd of elk in the prairie and just sat and watched in awe at the beauty of them out there grazing. A little later, it got even better when we were on a quiet road and turned the corner to see a group of them running and playing.
As for me and my moose, we saw a younger moose eating in a field about 10 feet away from us and then another one a little later on, again, just eating a short distance away from the road.
More firsts for all of us!
We did not see Bighorn Sheep, which left us a little bummed, but we were grateful for all the other animals we saw.
Instead of hiking, we sat by creeks and threw rocks, took in the views, climbed on boulders, and just absorbed as much of what we were seeing as possible.
Coming when we did also had an unexpected perk - it felt like we had the park to ourselves!
It’s almost hard to take it all in. You could be here for a week and still have sections to see and do.. We just had a day, but I have to say we made the most of it.
We left the park and headed into Estes and right there in front of us was the hotel used in The Shining – The Stanley Hotel!
If we’d wanted to explain that movie to our littles, we would’ve gone and toured it, but we figured that might not be in anyone’s best interest, so we skipped it and headed to something more suitable - the most perfectly situated playground we have ever seen.
This park was no joke and my kids might have enjoyed it even more than the National Park!
Heading back to the campground that night, there was such a feeling of contentment. The frustration of the morning and not being able to do what we had hoped had since been replaced with a sense of gratitude for those things not working out as planned. The day had worked out beautifully and I knew we were all going to sleep well.
Except for a pesky little problem called a tornado watch, which we started to receive warnings of the second pulled up to the camper.
Our campground was nice, but it was flat and not a building to run to in sight.
What to do when you’re far from home in something that would easily go flying in a tornado?
Worried glances between the two of us and within 5 minutes Justin had us packed up and ready to leave.
The kids were champs and jumped in for our ride south where the weather was clear.
Worked out well since that’s where we were headed the next day anyway!
Again, not as planned, but we found a safe spot to spend the night and we didn’t have to ride out the nasty weather.
And the even better news? We were now at Colorado Springs and could enjoy a full day there instead of losing the morning driving! More time to explore!
