Estes Park Colorado

The home of Rocky Mountain National Park. Truly my favorite place to visit. I haven't been in like 18 years but little has changed. Samantha was floored by the beauty of this park.

Our first stop was the alluvial fan that was a result of the Lawn Lake Damn that burst in 1982. The last time I was here my sister Debbie and I hiked to the lake. Sam and I were not up to that and we only had 1 day to visit the park. So instead we roamed around the rocks and boulders that were piled up at the entrance to the valley.


Oh photo op. When we got out of the car we thought it was cool. Yeah, wrong! With in minutes we were wishing we had ditched the sweatshirts and jeans.


So Sam took off her socks and shoes to climb on top of this massive boulder in the middle of the river. Took her a few minutes and her toes got a little chilly.


But she made it. Now she's on top of the world!


Our next stop up the Old Fall River Road was Chasm Falls. And they were not kidding when they said use caution. I was really steep.


The trail was worth it. The falls were awesome.

Looking down stream offered another breathtaking view.

Sam had such a good time climbing around the boulders, she did some more. Scooted right on down there and click I got the picture. Little did she know she'd pay for this climbing later. The next day her calves were screaming. Foolish kid.

The top of the Old Fall River Road takes you to the Alpine Visitor Center. You can see forever. Even when it's hailing. Little did we know we'd get stuck in a little snow squall up there. You never know what the weather will bring you in the mountains.

Had to capture this sign. This was the highest elevation we would encounter on our journey.

And around the bend.....a very large herd of Elk! Yeah. They were still in the velvet and looking so majestic. My Dad and Rob would have been drooling.

Got back in the car and around the next curve ... Bamm! More Elk and right on the road. You can see the velvet covering on his antlers. Absolutely amazing.

We enjoyed our Rocky Mountain adventure and the ride back to Stub Creek. We would have gladly skipped the swarms of bugs we drove through but it was out of our control. We could barely see out the windshield by time we got back. Thank God Grandpa likes to wash cars, he did it for us the next morning.