Day 1: Saturday we flew into Denver, picked up our rental car and drove an hour or so up to Fort Collins. There we attended Noah's friend Craig's wedding. We're so happy for Craig and Shannon! They're enjoying their honeymoon in Aruba right now!
Day 2: Sunday we enjoyed our yummy complimentary breakfast at the hotel (I'd definitely recommend staying at a Homewood Suites if you ever find one!) and headed out. We drove down to Estes Park, which is a very beautiful and scenic hour and a half drive, to where we'd be staying at a little B&B. Estes Park is a cute town located right outside Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), with wonderful views of the mountains. It's a little touristy as one might expect, but everyone was very friendly and our stay was great.
We took a very scenic 1/2-day drive up into the park on Old Falls River Rd., which is a dirt/gravel road. Old Falls River Rd. is a one-way only road that winds up into the mountains and as you can imagine has incredible views! It connects with Trail Ridge Rd., which is the main road through the park - which also has great views. (Here's a map of the park.)
We drove all the way down to Grand Lake, which is on the west side of the park. The drive is approximately 48 miles, but is very beautiful and a very windy road! We saw a mule deer (which we were told is fairly rare), elk and moose. We were lucky enough to see a mother moose and her calf! If you look carefully at the picture you'll see the baby to her left. It was difficult to see through all the brush and get a good picture, also because the mother kept the calf close to her.
We went to the local grocery store (which was an absolute zoo, due to it being high tourist season) and got some goodies for supper, and went to bed early so we could get up and hike the next day.
Day 3: Monday morning we had a wonderful homemade breakfast, courtesy of our hostess, Miriam, and ate with 5 or 6 other people also staying at the B&B, who were very nice. Drove out to RMNP and hiked the Fern Lake Trail. The first part of the trail to the pool was fairly easy, and we even spotted some bobcat tracks (but no bobcat)! Noah was hoping we'd see a mountain lion or a black bear... but no such luck. (Whew!) We reached the pool, which also had a waterfall that flowed into a rapid-filled small river. From there we started up to Fern Falls, which was a much tougher hike - uphill almost all the way, and the trail was windy and steep, and filled with rocks to step over. It was a tough hike! The elevation (lower level of oxygen) takes your breath away, and we needed to stop every 5 minutes or so to catch our breath. We weren't really tired - it was the elevation that caught up to us fairly quickly! The falls were amazing. The mist from the falls cooled us off as we snacked on a granola bar to keep us going. After talking to a few other hikers and taking a break, we decided to keep trekking up to Fern Lake, which was a little more than an additional mile from where we were, but a challenging uphill hike. When we reached Fern Lake, it sprinkled for about 10 minutes, then let up and we had lunch right on the shore. It was a beatiful spot, with an awesome view of the mountains. We even got a show! A duck decided to hang out on a rock in front of us and take a long bath! haha!!! Our hike back was easy - all down hill. It took us about 4 hours to get up to Fern Lake, but only 2 hours to hike back to the car (2 hours exactly - Noah timed it on his stopwatch!).
After our rigorous hike, we washed up and went to a wonderful restaurant called Twin Owls Steakhouse just outside of town for a fabulous dinner. The restaurant served a gourmet menu, but was casual. Noah had filet kabobs and I decided to try elk - which both turned out to be incredibly delicious. Best dinner we've had in a very long time! With our tummies full and recuping from a long hike, we were ready to hit the hay early!
Day 4: Tuesday we again had a great homemeade breakfast at the B&B, and then decided to take it easy, seeing as we were both pretty sore from our hike the previous day! We wandered around town after breakfast and then chose to drive down to Boulder and hit a few wineries and/or breweries. Boulder is a cute city - very clean. We stopped for lunch and hit what we thought was a brewery - but they didn't brew beer! They instead brewed mead, which is a sort of wine made with honey. Yum! We ended up taking back a bottle! The owner was our bartender, who gave us several free tastes.
From the meadery, we headed down to Denver, where we tried a brewery. Noah sampled a few microbrews and enjoyed himself. I tasted a few... but I still can't get myself to drink beer. Hmm... I'll have to work on that... maybe?
After a day of relaxing, it was time to go home again. Our flight home was direct, which we were thankful for. But it wasn't very relaxing, thanks to some parents who let their little boy throw a fit the whole flight. All that aside, we were glad to sleep in our own bed again... home sweet home!
We both said we'd love to go back for about a week next time and do some more exploring, hiking and sightseeing. The mountains do take your breath away... in more than one way! :)
We'll see all you Wisconsinites over Labor Day weekend!!!
Click on the photo below to see our pictures from the trip. Then click "View As Slideshow" on the far right side!
Photobucket Album
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