Day 13: Estes Park

For the first time, I’m playing catch up with this blog! Our first full day in Estes Park was great!

It was nice to have a time off of work and school on a week day. The forecast showed some freezing weather so Jordan headed back to our RV to make sure it was ready for the cold. Since our rig is in Loveland which has a lower elevation than Estes Park, we weren’t too worried about it, but Jordan took a few precautions. PapaGeorge and Nan took the rest of us to Glen Haven General Store to pick up delicious cinnamon rolls. We were planning to eat outside, but due to Covid they weren’t allowing people to use their picnic tables. They tasted just as delicious at the house! Hudson said the cinnamon rolls tasted like King Cake, which is one of his favorite desserts.

This afternoon, we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. I can’t believe I had never been here before! I think it is my new favorite place. I am already thinking about when and how we can get back here so we can do more hikes, which pleasantly surprised Jordan. We did the Emerald Lake hike, which was just over four miles. The kids did a great job on the hike, although they wanted to stop and climb every rock along the way. Given that the name is Rocky Mountain National Park, there are a lot of rocks they were anxious to climb.

As cheesy as it is, the hike reminded me that the journey is just as important, if not more, than the destination. The scenery was breathtaking and every look out point was a perfect picture opportunity. I could have spent four hours hiking to Emerald Lake only because I could have spent 30 minutes at each stop along the way. The kids got very tired of me asking to take pictures so I just started snapping as we hiked. When we arrived at Emerald Lake, Hudson climbed up a cliff. I’m not sure if “cliff” that is the technical description, but as a mom standing at the bottom, it looked like a cliff to me!

We came home, had a delicious casserole my mom made and put the kids to bed reminding them they had to wake up early for school the next day.

So to sum up, we adore Rocky Mountain National Park! We can’t wait to come back!

Until next time…

Sarah