Colorado, Estes Park

Monday we rolled into Estes park Colorado and arrived at Ram's Horn Village after dark around 9/10PM. We stayed there exactly 4 years ago almost to the day. I just love it there, it is my "Happy Place". It is so beautiful, peaceful, quiet, and amazing. Everything is so perfect, the weather is cool and crisp in the evenings with bright stars in the sky and mountains surrounding you. The mountains are breathtaking and we can see them in every direction. Ram's Horn is a luxury cabin, set in its own little community. Each cabin has a grass lawn, hammock, porch, and grill. The street is paved all throughout with bikes to use as often as you like. There is a pool with a hot tub under the stars and among the trees. They have all the extras, free laundromat, the rooms each have a tv, a fireplace, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a view. We all love it there. We had a little time to sit in the hot tub before calling it a night. Everyone is so friendly at Ram's Horn. They all smile ans say hi or wave. They want to get to know you. Maybe it is because most of them are Iowans. It seemed every person we asked where they were from, it was always Iowa. We saw tons of licence plates from Iowa or shirts from Iowa everywhere we went in Estes. We ended up side by side with neighbors from Iowa that Mark knows. We saw them the last time we came out too. Small world!!

Tuesday morning we had to temporarily check out until we could finally be in our final cabin for the next 3 nights. We headed downtown and roamed the shops for awhile then had an early lunch at a delicious BBQ restaurant. While downtown I regret to say, we temporarily lost Luke. It makes me sad to think what he went through in the time he couldn't find us. Mark had gone to look at art prints farther down and I had the kids. We were in a shop and the boys were looking at toys. After several " Let's go's" I walked out with Jayden behind me and Jake behind here. I assumed Luke was with us. We walked into the store next door and all started to roam. After some time, 10/15 minutes I realized Luke was not with any of us. He is not the kind of kid to wander. He is literally always beside one of us. None of us had seen him and I began to worry. We split up and searched the store. Nothing. After that I went right next door where he was waiting with the shop owner. He was being very brave and broke down when he saw me. I felt so bad. Apparently in the mountains his phone did not work. He had gone out on the sidewalk and had a passerby call my cell phone. Of course I saw a call come in from Utah so did not answer. We are all so relieved to be together, grateful that things did not turn badly, and stayed close after that.
We then headed up the mountain and headed to Bear Lake for some trails. We had to park and ride a shuttle to get to the trail. I did not enjoy that at all. We were on a large bus standing up going around switchbacks all the way up. I had to really focus and breathe so as not to get sick. It made me feel dizzy and not so well. I was happy I didnt get motion sickness. Any longer and I may have. Our location was very popular and busy. The trails had a lot of people coming and going. When we started it was a little cool, Jayden in her tank top and shorts felt it. The first leg of the trail was all down hill which made for some super easy hiking. We kept thinking we would have to take all that hike back up later. Luckily we found and alternate route and didn't have to. The trail was awesome. Every little bit of it was neat. So many trees and boulders. Views that were just amazing. We would stop and look out at the mountains and just be in awe of all that God created. So wonderful and amazing all for us to enjoy. Each placed by the hand of God. We hiked along a rushing creek,  a small rapids of water. We found a path down to some big boulders and sat and watched the water for some time. It was so peaceful and relaxing. I think we could have sat there all day in silence just taking it in.  We hiked to the Alberta Springs. As we got near, it was rumbling and started to rain. Fortunately it only lasted a couple minutes. Being up at the top of the mountain I can see where you would be in quite a predicament if it down poured heavily. It isnt a a good feeling to hear the thunder that sounds right beside you. I heard the day before they got hail where we were hiking. Storms roll in with no warning. The weather can change in a matter of minutes. It is normal for daily storms and showers in the mountains. The sun was still shining when we got our rain and it felt good. The temperature stayed around 70 the whole time, it was perfectly perfect. We couldn't have asked for a better day.  We hiked around 3.5 miles. I pushed the water making sure we all drank to prevent altitude sickness. I had a mild headache and I am sure that is why.

Wednesday in Colorado we were up by 7 am. I made eggs and sausage for breakfast so we would have some energy for our morning hike. The prices here are so high, a dozen "organic" eggs were $6 and I have cartons full of eggs at home. Mark did the dishes by my request while I made sack lunches for our hike. We drove into the Rocky Mountain park early by 8AM. We didnt drive far and we found our hiking path. It was listed at being 3 miles and the first mile was 'easy' with the remaining having some steep areas and elevation would reach 9600. It didn't take long to realize this trail was not easy. It was a steady incline the whole path. We had to stop every 15 minutes to sit and catch our breath. Jake was by far the family leader, always way ahead of us and not needing to stop. Mark was the one who kept pushing is onward to go a little farther. Jayden and I declared he can never claim to refer to himself as crippled. He likes to tell people he is almost crippled because of all his ailments. He complains about so many different thing hurting all the time and here he was pushing us. He was a man on a mission and he never complained about anything hurting on this trip so far. I personally think he needs a mental break as well as physical once in awhile. I bet half of his ailments are stress related. He loved the hiking and I am so glad! I hope that this is something we can do more of in the future. We didn't go the 3 miles, we may have gone 1.5. We could see our vehicle and it was a long ways down! The kids and I took a slight short cut going down a very steep path between the trails. It was sandy loose ground, long, and steep. I thought it looked doable and Jake went down it with no problem at all. He half jogged down. It was very scary and one stumble would have sent you rolling. I went second and grabbed a big branch to steady myself with. Luke was next with a short branch and went down slowly foot by foot. Jayden was last with her branch and only sat down once. It was an adventure and I am glad no one got hurt. Jake really surprised me with his energy and ability. For someone not being in any sports and i wouldn't consider being in shape, he outdid us all. A funny moment along the trail sent Jayden and I into uncontrollable laughter. She had seen a hummingbird earlier on the trail and said something about feeling like a hummingbird is going to attack her. I told her to stop and listen. At that moment I heard something behind me near my ear and froze. It honestly made a sound like an animal growling or making a strange animal sound. Jayden turned to look, screamed and ran. For a split second I was sure there was an animal, a moose or Elk was what went through my mind, and I froze. I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw a hummingbird. We laughed and laughed about that. We got to the bottom of the trail and drove up the mountain to a picnic site and pulled out our sack lunches and had our sandwiches in a picturesque area between more mountains. That led us into another small hike. Back on the road we were headed to the Alpine village at the top of the mountain, elevation 15,000. There was a steady flow of traffic both coming and going. By the time we reached the top there were so many cars the parking lot was full and they were not letting people in. There was a restaurant, gift shop, and amazing views. We were all bummed that we couldn't stop and had to continue back down the mountain. It was just busy everywhere. Every little pull off spot was full. Back down we went with brakes on and starting to smell. Finally We all rested back at the cabin as a cloud moved in, rain dropped giant drops for about 20 seconds, then the temperature cooled.