There is nothing on the blog for the month of September.
I hope this doesn’t make you think that September was uneventful. Quite the opposite, actually. September has been a month of HAPPENINGS. Big ones. Exciting ones that deserve their own post. We’ll start at the beginning (always a good place to start) and go from there!
This biggest event in September was the arrival of the Strongs! Sean’s parents came all the way out from Philly to spend the week surrounding Labor Day in Denver and Estes Park. They brought plenty of sunshine and warm weather with them and it stayed around the whole time.
Sean and I were able to spend about 3 days with them up at a cabin in Estes Park. Estes is the city right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. The cabin was a perfect mountain log cabin right outside the entrance to the park.
We started our first day (Saturday) with, arguably, the best hike of the weekend. They were all beautiful but there is something about The Loch that takes your breath away. The Loch gives the classic view of the Rocky Mountains, beautiful jagged peaks whose reflection is clear as day in the water below. The hike up to The Loch is just over 3 miles and covers some beautiful terrain. We passed Alberta Falls and multiple stunning vistas along the way. Once there, some of us went on to Timberline Falls and Lake of Glass adding another 1.5 miles each way to the trip. Lake of Glass was especially cool because we had to climb alongside Timberline Falls to get to the Lake.
Hike to the Loch
View along the trail
The Loch
Timberline Falls
Day two had us at Gem Lake. The trail took us around interesting rock formations and more beautiful views of the Rockies (we were literally across from where we hiked the day before so we got the opposite view) The lake was pretty small, but it has a totally different feel than the other lakes we saw- especially with the sandy beach. There were lots of big rock faces that were calling Sean’s name…I think we are probably just a few weeks away from a post about the Twin Owls!
Twin Owls
View of the mountains from Gem Lake Trail
Sean and me at Gem Lake
Our hike finished just as the rain started. Determined to see more of RMNP’s beauty, we hopped in the car and headed to two scenic drives throughout the park. One drive, Trail Ridge Road, is the highest continuous paved road in the United States. Both parts of the drive were awesome, but undoubtedly the highlight came on Old Fall River Road when we saw a huge, beautiful elk! He was absolutely stunning and looked (almost scarily) strong. That evening we headed into Estes Park and got a drink at The Stanley. The Stanley is a huge hotel in Estes that was the inspiration for The Shining. Though it was not used in Kubrick’s adaptation, the miniseries was filmed there. The Stanley is celebrating its 100 year anniversary this year. I wish that we still valued new hotels the way that they had been valued- old hotels are some of the most beautiful properties out there.
On Monday we headed to the Bear Lake Trailhead to hike to Bear, Nymph, Emerald and Dream Lakes. It is a popular trail because there are very few moments during the hike that aren’t stunning. It is cool how the lakes can be so close together but be so very different from one another. On my way down from Emerald Lake I ran into my brother’s girlfriend! Tyler, who is dating my brother, Brian, was visiting Colorado with her family. We had a brief moment where we felt like celebrities (the paparazzi took 100 pictures) and I told her whole family to check out the Loch (they did. They loved it. ) I love when the world is small like that-in one of the busiest parks in the nation on one of the busiest days of the year (labor day) on one of the most popular trails in the park- I run into Tyler! Crazy…and great.
Nymph Lake (look at all those lillypads!)
The four of us at Dream Lake
Emerald Lake
Tyler and me on the trail!
We were bummed to have to go back home Monday evening, but we were lucky to have fit in an entire weekend of stunning hikes in the sunshine. We had to introduce Sean’s parents to Wahoo Fish Tacos (our post-mountain dinner ritual) before they left town.
This was our first trip to RMNP in non-winter conditions. It is obvious why this selection of Colorado wilderness was selected as a national park. Its terrain is diverse and it has a little bit of something for everyone. Experiencing that wilderness with family makes it even better :)
No comments:
Post a Comment