Rocky Mountain National Park

***pics coming soon***

We saw a mooooooooose!

But I digress.... lets start from the beginning :-) 

We left Fort Collins on Sunday morning and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park to meet up with the McCanns.  It was actually a bit of a logistical nightmare.   Rocky Mountain is one of only a few national parks (and the only one we went to) that is doing a park reservation system this summer to cut down on crowds.  Connie was able to get 11am entrance times for both Sunday and Monday, but since we couldn't get a campsite in Estes Park for Saturday night, we wouldn't be able to ditch the RV at our campground until 2pm.  We also had 8 people to get in to the park with the one entrance pass.   We decided to meet at Estes Park visitors center and drop all the cars, and pile everyone into the RV to enter the park.  Every National Park is different in terms of parking, but we haven't been to one yet where we didn't see RVs driving around.  So we loaded up and headed to the wild basin park entrance near the hike we wanted to do.  When we got there, the gate attendant basically laughed at us.  No way we were getting the RV down the road to the trail, and the closest parking lot was completely full.  So we turned around and Pat and Jim dropped Connie, the kids and I at a lake for lunch and they drove back into town to trade in the RV for the McCann's explorer.  Operation Clown Car was on!  We loaded back into the explorer and headed to the trail.   Everyone had seat belts..... Sarah and I just had to share one, lol.

Jim had chosen for us to hike the Ouzou Falls Trail.  Between the elevation and the grade change of the trail, this was one of the toughest hikes we've done on this trip.  Sarah, Reagan, Connie and I only made it as far as Calypso Cascades, but the 4 boys made it all the way to the falls... 2.7 miles one way.  I couldn't believe Zach made it all the way-  that's definitely the longest he's hiked.  He's always way more capable when he's trying to impress Braden ;-)  

We were all pretty spent from the hike, so we headed to the campground to get registered and set up.  We cleaned ourselves up a bit and then drove into Estes Park for dinner.  It was Reagan's 18th Birthday, so after dinner we hit a big candy store and she bought lots of goodies.  Jim and Reagan headed home after that, because they had to work the next day, but Braden and Connie were staying at the campground in a cabin.

We had a campfire that night, and the kids did our official end of the school year tradition-  the burning of the math books!   The tradition started last year when we were so relieved to finish up covid quarantine school that we burned Zach's math workbook.  Sarah was excited to have 2 math workbooks this year to throw into the fire.  

Monday, we went into the park again, but we stayed mostly in the car to see as much of the park as we could.  We drove Trail Ridge Road from the park entrance all the way to the Continental Divide.  We gained about 3000ft in elevation, with the highest point of the road over 12,000ft.  Sarah had jokingly said at the beginning of the ride that she wanted to touch the snow at the top of the mountain.... and we did!  

The first place we stopped on the ride was at Junior Ranger Headquarters. The park rangers gave the kids their badges and booklets, and then asked if we would be staying in the immediate area.  They had tote bags made up with 2 magnifying glasses, a thermometer, binoculars and some laminated identification guides. We stuck around by the stream behind the ranger station and the kids did some observing and came back to the rangers with a full report on what they saw and water and soil temperatures.  Of all the National Parks we've been to, we've never seen anything like the exploring bags, and the rangers said they just came up with the idea this year during covid and something interactive but distanced.  I told them they should definitely keep it around after the pandemic, and to let their ranger friends at other parks know about it!  It was definitely a highlight.

The rest of the ride, we stopped at a few scenic overlooks, but didn't do any other hiking.  The Ibbys were definitely feeling the altitude, and just walking around the outlooks was exhausting.

On our way back, just before leaving the park, I mentioned how disappointed I was in not seeing a moose.... again!  We've been on the hunt in Acadia, Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain.  We were joking that they were mythical creatures.  And then, we came around the corner and there it was, running across an open field.... a big old moose!  It ran over to Sheep Lake and stood there cooling off while everyone pulled over to take pictures.  I didn't have my good camera with me, but the pic came out ok when I took it through Sarah's binoculars, haha.  

So, I can end this trip happily now... I've seen a moose... they do exist!