A great day for a hike!

Estes Park, CO

Today is the last day we can really spend with Seth, as he goes back to work tomorrow, and we fly home tomorrow night. So we wanted to get in a good family hike. We entered Rocky Mountain National Park at about 8:45 in hopes of being able to drive up Bear Lake Road, which is closed for construction this year from 9:00-4:00 everyday. We made it as far as the Park and Ride lot, but the upper parking lots were already full. After a short wait, we were able to board a shuttle to the Glacier Gorge parking lot. At 10:00 we began our hike.

We first went up to Alberta Falls, which we had done two years ago when we were here with Jared. From there, we proceeded on to Mills Lake, a beautiful, peaceful setting, that was so worth the walk! After eating a light lunch snack (it was noon when we arrived) while sitting on a rock by the lake, we headed back. Seth knew of a short cut back through the woods, so we took that, and then when we neared the bottom, decided to take a little .5 mile hike up to Bear Lake. Seth didn't tell us until we set out on our way, that this .5 mile was mostly uphill! But it was still a nice way to end a great family hike. We ended up going a total of 5 miles, with about 900 foot elevation gain. A good work-out, but much more do-able than yesterday's hike.

After waiting some time for the shuttle, we finally made it back to our car, and then back to the YMCA by about 4:00. We got back to the craft shop, again shut them down, and again did not finish our projects! Looks like we'll be back there tomorrow morning.

After the kids took a little dip in the pool, we set out for a Mexican dinner at Ed's Cantina. We all enjoyed the food. As we were leaving the parking lot, we saw several of Seth's friends walking by our car, so we stopped and talked to them for a few minutes. We then headed back to the Y for one last night away from home.