At the beginning of June, Louie and I only had a week to travel, but we decided we wanted to get somewhere totally beautiful and different than St Louis. We settled on a return visit to Rocky Mountain National Park, where we’d been twice before but really love the park. The added bonus is that it’s just over a day’s drive away (or technically a really long day’s drive, probably.)

We started on trip on a Monday morning. We had the car loaded up and ready to go for a trip of camping and hiking. The bonus to this trip would be that I was going to celebrate my 40th birthday in the park!

We drove to Kansas City for lunch first—though we both eat a mostly pescatarian diet these days (no meat other than fish) it is our vacation “tradition” to have a barbecue lunch at Arthur Bryant’s in Kansas City. Some people are very strict “no animal products” type of people (and more power to them!) but I also think that as long as I’m only eating meat here and there, I’m still making an big impact. Imagine if everybody only ate a little bit of meat each year rather than so many people eating meat for practically every meal?! (You might say, why is she preaching…I’m not. I’m just telling you how I feel. If you feel uncomfortable about your meat consumption, I’m telling you, you can just simply cut back. You don’t need a label for your diet, even though it will confuse people.)

So! We had a very nice meal at Arthur Bryant’s. When planning the trip, we mentioned this meal to people, and everybody has an opinion about what the hottest BBQ restaurant is. But it’s not about that—this is our tradition. This was our third time in 4 years!

After that, we drove the long drive across Kansas and much of Colorado. We had a reservation at a cheap hotel in Limon, Colorado for the night. To be fair, Kansas and Colorado, though not terribly exciting, have a certain understated beauty. The open sky, the open road, the wind farms…rolling hills making way to flat ground, but the world just opens up, doesn’t it?

We spent the night at the Rodeway Inn in Limon. It was less than $50 on Priceline, and worth every penny. We ate dinner at a nearby Denny’s, which was perfect.

The next morning we got breakfast in the hotel, and then headed to Denver to meet a friend of Louie’s for lunch. We’d visited Derek a few years before for a little longer, but we just didn’t have the time today. His wife was working, so the three of us walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch—it ended up having to be a different place than he originally chose, but the lunch turned out great! We went to the Mercantile at Union Station, and had a delicious meal.

Aside: as you get close to Denver, you see the mountains. It’s called the front range, and after spending a day driving through the Great Plains, it’s absolutely breathtaking. I always love the first glimpse of the mountains.

After lunch, we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. We decided to take the scenic route rather than the most direct. Our route took us by Golden Gate Park (where we should probably return to spend time), through Central City (where it seemed the town had added a large number of casinos) and through Nederland which is an adorable town that I kind of want to buy a vacation home in. This took a few hours, but the drive was just gorgeous! The road was winding, which is Louie’s favorite kind of driving (not mine), and we loved it. We stopped in Lily Lake when we got there and walked around the lake. We saw a muskrat (?) and a moose (!) but the moose was lying down and we couldn’t get a really good view.

After that, we headed to our campsite to check in and get unpacked. I’d reserved a spot for us at the Glacier Basin Campground, site C99. We’d stayed at this campground before and I thought I preferred it to Moraine, so I booked it again. One thing to know about camping in RMNP is that there are no showers or hot water, but otherwise it’s cheap ($20 a night) and there’s soap and air dryers in the bathrooms (and flush toilets!). You have to be really careful about your food and whatnot because of bears (oh, and mountain lions were also mentioned on signs) but otherwise, it’s a really fun time.

I’d considered getting a National Parks Annual Pass just to be supportive, but we ended up just getting a 7 day pass. We don’t have another parks trip planned in the next year so it would have been a donation to do the annual pass (it’s a great deal if you are visiting quite a few parks though, and it’s easier to hang onto than the little paper receipt you have to use for the week!). When we checked into the campsite, the ranger at check-in warned us about bears, told us she’d seen one on her way into work that day, and mentioned that they can smell m & m’s from miles away. The only thing that made me worry was: how did she know we had m & m’s???? I decided she must be a bear.

Our campsite was beautiful, with a great view of the mountains. We had a picnic table, a tent pad, a fire pit, and though we didn’t have our own bear box, there was one at the site right across the road. We were also basically right across the road from the bathrooms—when you have to bear proof your campsite it’s much easier to be closer to the bathrooms. I’d done a fair amount of research online before booking the site (studying campground maps, looking at campsite photos online) and I think from the available ones, I chose well. We planned to stay for 4 nights, so I wanted something as nice as possible.

The campground was supposedly full but not too busy at this time. We had people near us, but not every site was full (though evidently they were booked…I guess people didn’t make it. That’s too bad though, because it means other people might have been turned away, and there is nothing like camping in the park.)

We brought our “old favorites” for camping meals—which mostly means canned and boxed food. We had a lovely dinner around the campfire and just relaxed the rest of the evening.

I was rereading some old blog posts to give a friend a few hiking recs and realized that my humor has changed a little. Or maybe not, but I thought my old posts were so funny! I also thought maybe they were more detailed, so I thought I’d elaborate on a few things—

First, meals we like to eat while camping: couscous/white beans/tuna/canned veggies ALL IN ONE BOWL, trader joe’s veggie chili, trader joe’s boxed indian food that you boil in water plus boil in a bag uncle ben’s rice (which isn’t bad at all and is a good way to make rice while camping), and our last one was mac and cheese with added canned tuna and canned veggies. We supplement with some beer, preferably from the area we are in, though on this trip we didn’t bother, and maybe some snacks like cheddar popcorn or something. On this trip I brought a bag of pirate’s booty from St Louis and it exploded in the trunk due to the altitude change (still good though). Other food we eat: oatmeal in the morning is good, filling, and easy (boiling water is an easy way to make food, and it doesn’t create many dishes—remember, we are cleaning up with cold water unless we boil water to wash dishes too), and we do LOTS of peanut butter sandwiches while hiking. Apples travel really well as far as fresh food. I always imagine making salads and such, but it’s just hard to keep track of that sort of thing—you’re putting things in the bear box which gets hot—the cooler keeps things cool but so often they end up getting wet…so canned and boxed food is the best solution to me.)

Other things: We love making fires, so often buy the firewood. The parks mostly sell firewood at the campgrounds and it’s not a bad deal. We often only burn a few logs per night, not the whole bundle. It’s relaxing and fun to have a fire! We cook on a Coleman two burner stove with propane. It’s hard to control the flame too much—mostly you get just high, and then high again, though occasionally medium to low is possible. I don’t have a great method for washing dishes, but we just try not to worry too much. I use campsuds and a sponge and towel, and do my best (usually I end up washing while Louie cleans something else up or starts the fire)—I figure since there’s no raw meat or anything, food safety isn’t terribly concerning for a few days. You get dirty camping! One last detail, before I continue talking about the trip itself: we starting making coffee in a pour over, and it’s WAY better than other options for camping (I love drip coffee, but haven’t found a good way to do that.) Louie set up a way for the pour over to pour into a large thermos, and this trip we finally had good coffee in the morning!

So, continuing on—our first full day in the park!

The next morning we got up on the early side and decided to go into Estes Park to do a loop hike called the Lumpy Ridge Trail Loop, about 11 miles RT.

This was an area of the park we hadn’t explored on past visits so we thought it would be nice.

There were a few things I didn’t plan on: not being so adjusted to the altitude, not being in as good of physical shape as previous visits, and the heat. As far as the altitude, on previous trips we’d already spent several nights in Colorado before visiting the park. I’d been working out consistently again for only about a month before we visited, and the heat…well, it wasn’t super hot, but it was in the 80’s at points during the day. The hike started out nice and easy, but got challenging for me. I also have an issue not drinking enough water even though I’m sipping often—I realized I need to do more than just sip.

The hike passed through an area that was greatly damaged by a large flood a few years back. The power of water!

We walked through a beautiful meadow filled with wildflowers. I was so hot and tired at this point—I didn’t take many pictures and instead just was regretting my life choices. But I suppose it was beautiful, and I wish I could have enjoyed it more!

At one point I sat down and cried and told Louie my hat was broken and it didn’t block the sun anymore. I was tired of just going up and up and up…but finally…the top! We made it around to Gem Lake which was gorgeous (and the chipmunks were very aggressive).

We rested for a bit by the lake and the chipmunks tried to get at our snacks (I was able to keep them at bay, I think) and then we headed down the path back to the car. It was a nice hike, even though I was bitterly tired, and you could see the mountains and the town of Estes Park as you hiked. There was also a toilet near Gem Lake, that was basically an open air vault toilet—just a gate in front of it, not a door or a room.

This was called Paul Bunyan’s Boot—a natural rock formation!

A rare picture together!

On the way back I almost had to turn around as this tree was blocking the path…

Then we made it back to the car, which was at that point, completely covered in a thick yellow pollen. I also got a nasty blister on the side of my heel because I got something in my hiking boot and didn’t have the energy to get it out…stupid of me. (The blister is still healing as we speak!)

Anyway, after that hike, we (especially me) were exhausted, so we headed back to the campsite to relax and get cleaned up a bit. (No showers, but one can use various types of wet wipes and a change of clothes is a must!). Again, we relaxed, read, chatted, had dinner, a campfire, etc. Our neighbors changed, and this night we had a young college age couple who were at the beginning of a six week road trip across the west across from us, sharing the bear box. We also had a group of people who annoyed me by listening to music loudly (huge pet peeve in a national park campground) and by collecting firewood even though it was expressly prohibited. Downed firewood may seem like it’s fine to use, but in certain ecosystems that wood is very important to the life of the forest, and again, you have to think, if everybody did this would it be okay? And the answer is no. (As far as my music pet peeve—why are you in nature if you need so much background music? Can’t you have any silence?)

I sounds grumpy  

Anyway, the next morning was my birthday! I celebrated by sleeping in a bit, and then we took the shuttle up to the Bear Lake Trailhead. We’d decided to do an easier hike today, and chose to hike to Mills Lake, just over 5 miles RT. We’d been to Mills Lake before as part of a longer hike and remembered that we were awestruck by how beautiful it was, so that seemed like a nice day. We packed lunch and planned to spend some time relaxing at the lake as well.

Bear Lake.

The line for the shuttle was pretty long (this was around 10:30 to 11 am) but we finally got onboard and rode up to the Bear Lake Trailhead. We decided to hike around Bear Lake first since we had never actually done that (at least we thought we didn’t, but I re-read an old post, and we did!) and we did see some snow on the ground! When I’d first started planning this trip I’d thought we might be more limited by snow since this was pretty early in the season to visit, but they had less snow than usual, so we didn’t have any problems.

Anyway, we headed up the trail to Alberta Falls, and then continued on to Mills Lake. Alberta Falls was the least crowded we had ever seen it, and we stopped for loads of pictures along the way. It was another hot and sunny day, and I was glad to be wearing shorts and a short sleeve shirt. The sun was relentless at times.

The hike was absolutely gorgeous the whole way.

I liked the “small” boulder balanced on top of the hill here.

Snow!

And then our first glimpse of Mills Lake.

When we made it to Mills Lake we walked a little farther and then found a really nice place to sit down and relax.

This was my view. On my 40th birthday I got to relax with this view. Not too shabby!

I don’t know how long we stayed there just enjoying the view and relaxing, but it was longer than we usually sit during a hike! Then we hiked back down, and spent the rest of the night chilling out at the campsite.

Our vacation was less action packed than some. Part of that was by design, and part was because I just ended up feeling really exhausted! One of my goals for the summer has been to really get back into shape—I’ve let that slide and focused on other things, but I think that being in better shape will help me manage my stress levels. I also have been working too hard, and I’m not sure the level is sustainable. Louie is in a similar boat, at least with working too hard, though he’s in fine shape…in any case, relaxing at the campsite was nice and I figure that’s part of what a vacation is for. It’s not like we weren’t enjoying the view! And this campground does get animals coming through it as well—deer and some small animals too.

The next morning we had to go to Estes Park very early, as I’d booked us on a downhill bike ride with New Venture Cycling again. We’d done a tour about three summers ago and I loved it, so this was my birthday treat. We had hoped to do the Old Falls River Road instead, but it wasn’t open to cyclists while we were visiting, so we did the Trail Ridge Road again. Last time I was quite nervous beforehand, but this time I was just excited! I’d also been doing more biking generally so I felt more experiences and ready for the trip. Basically, they drive to the top of the Trail Ridge Road, and we bike down it, stopping along the way to take breaks, catch our breath (not needed so much as it’s mostly downhill) and you learn quite a lot from the tour guide along the way. We were in a group of about 8 and we had a great time!

More snow!

Our guides were Brandon (from before) and a new guy named Seth who was great. They were both really nice, very informative and interesting, and the tour was amazing and so much fun. It was obviously cold when we started out, but warmed up by the end.

After the ride, we went to Dad’s Maytag Laundry and Showers for, well, showers. And then to Ed’s Cantina in Estes Park for a yummy lunch. I was pretty sore at this point in my legs, and hot and tired, and had blisters and whatnot, so I wanted to just sit around and relax. Louie was feeling a little stir-crazy, so he went for a short hike. The next morning we were to leave, so we were a little sad about that as well—a week just isn’t long enough, is it?

We made our last dinner then, and last campfire.

The next morning, Louie decided to go hike to Bierstadt Lake. I wasn’t up for it, so I walked over to Sprague Lake, which he had done the night before (it’s a direct trail from the campground, actually!) and then I sat facing the mountains and read a book until he returned.

You can see our green tent on the bottom right corner.

Then…sadly…we packed everything up and drove away. It’s worth mentioning that we left the park around 11 am on a Saturday and the line to get into the park was possibly 1/2 mile long. It went on and on, around curve after curve. If you are visiting and not staying in the park, get there early or later in the afternoon or you will be a line for a long time.

We didn’t take the scenic route this time—just the most direct route home. We didn’t know how far we’d get in one day, but we hoped to make it to close to Kansas City. We ended up driving to Lawrence and stopped there (and had dinner at a Cracker Barrel  before we stopped) and then drove the rest of the way in the morning the next day.

So there you have it! One really long blog post to cover a trip that was really all about one destination. Some of you may never go, some of you might think we are crazy to camp there, but I’ll tell you, once you have camping gear, you save so much money camping, and you get to experience the great outdoors—and the VIEWS!!

And then you get home to your bed, and the hot water, and the easy access to showers and the toilet, and you really feel like you are lucky, and you don’t take nearly as many things for granted.

If you have any questions about Rocky Mountain National Park, don’t hesitate to ask! I’m not an expert by any means, but since this was our third trip (but hopefully not last, I still have a dozen hikes I want to do!) I might be able to help.