Rocky Mountain National Park

As we reviewed our adventures from last year, it occurred to us that we have seen lots of beautiful places. Some of those places are a very long drive from our home in Colorado.  And yet there are many gorgeous places right here in our own amazing state that we had yet to visit.  We decided to work on rectifying that situation - so the week after school let out we traveled north to Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was everything that we could have hoped for - and more! (Including a delightful three hour rainstorm where we all got to lounge around in the RV and read books - vacation at its finest!)

Hiking is good for the soul!

We attended a Ranger talk about Bighorn sheep and couldn't believe how big those horns are!

It was time for the kids to get back into hiking mode in preparation for this year's National Park vacation, so we took the opportunity to take some short hikes so they could try out their new hydration backpacks.  One of the hikes ended up being a non hike - it was about 250 feet to this pretty mountain lake, and that wouldn't have been notable at all, except in the end of May when we were there the path was covered in at least two feet of iced over snow.  This was the lovely picture we took at the lake - 

And this is Luke walking on the slick snow pack in his sandals.  He was pretending to slip and slide, until this picture when things got real.  Unprepared hikers - yep, that was us that morning.  Whoops!  Does it count that we brought water and winter coats?  

 How could we have neglected this National Park for so long?  We don't know either - but that will change.  The kids are already demanding that we go up for Elk bugling season and to watch the Bighorn sheep fight in November. The amateur photographer in me has a lot of ideas.....