Yesterday morning we woke up and said "we should go hiking." In discussing where, I remembered that it was National Parks week and that meant Rocky Mountain National Park was free admission. Despite being a 2 hour (each-way) drive to Estes Park, we decided "why not?" We packed up Kyle, all of our gear and provisions and drove to RMNP for the day. It was a beautiful 70 degree day and was perfect for hiking.
Despite the rangers warning that we'd need snowshoes to hike the trail we really wanted to do, we went for it anyway. Several other hikers had informed us it was all snow pack and easily managable with hiking boots.
The hike goes through beautiful canyon walls, the Alberta Falls (shown below), and through majestic mountain vistas.
The entire 6 mile hike was breathtaking-- one of my favorite all around hikes in Colorado so far.
Despite the nice temps, over 80% of the trail was covered in snow. It was packed well, but the side slopes made for some careful slow trekking. I think we would've normally managed this hike in a couple of hours, but the conditions slowed us down. It ended up taking us nearly 3 hours to get up the mountain and 1 hour back down.
Kyle seriously had a blast the entire way up! He was all smiles, constantly jabbering, and pointing at things. We introduced him to tons of new sights.
The view at the top of Mills Lake was goregous.
After about 1 mile in, we had most of the trail to ourselves, only passing a couple of other hikers.
We were treated to nice seculsion at the lake. [Side note: I can't think of a more beautiful place to nurse my little boy than here. How truly special!]
With the 4 hours of driving, 4 hours of hiking, and nearly 2 hour stop for dinner in Lyons, it was quite the long day for the K-man, but he did AMAZING. He was content to take his morning nap in the car, his afternoon nap on the trek down the mountain, and even handled being up past his bedtime reasonably well.
We must've had a dozen people stop to gawk at him and comment on how wonderful it was that we were introducing him to the outdoors at such a young age. Our response? How can you not when you live in such a beautiful state? I really hope he grows to love hiking as much as we do.
