Well today we took a break from floors, lawn work, and dog taming to actually go somewhere. We drove to Rocky Mountain National Park and started to make the drive up Trail Ridge Road. It was obvious from the beginning that we may have picked the wrong week to go. Apparently this is the week for Texans in Suburbans to swarm on the park. I prefer to enjoy my nature as alone as possible (with the exception of a couple friends or family and maybe even a very stupid brown dog). I know it is my own fault for going to this particular destination but I wanted to take my little kids above treeline and this was the quickest way.

The first stop was some waterfall with a short quarter mile hike. The kids enjoyed sticking their feet in the freezing water. As I mentioned before, the entire city of Omaha was visiting this waterfall today but besides that it was enjoyable.

Next stop was on top of the world -somewhere between 11000 and 12000 feet. It was probably in the 50s and windy. We all noticed that is more difficult for even us highlanders to breathe. We found a little patch of snow which Aden fell in so we left. Once again there were a lot of people. I did notice that the Park Service is doing something right. All these people are so scared to step of the set path and damage anything to the point of silliness. This just leaves more places for me.


On the way down we pulled into the Hidden Valley picnic area and for some reason no one was there. I guess there were no spectacular waterfalls or alpine peaks to draw the crowds. Fine by us. We had a very lovely lunch.

Back in Estes Park we stopped at a large store shaped like Noah's Ark that sells stuffed animals. Cale got a flying squirrel, Maya a bear, and Aden a frog.