A Rainy Adventure

This Labor Day the family decided to do a new hike in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park.  We headed to the Fern Lake Trailhead to hike to Fern Falls.  The drive into the park was lovely!  We saw a huge bull elk bedded down near the road, and good herd of female and young elk closer to the trail head later.

We got to the trailhead, scored on the parking, got out of the car to gear up... and sprinkles start.  "20% chance of rain" my foot!  Ah well.  It was only a sprinkle.  We all had hoods and it wasn't too cold (62F) - let's hike!

The forest was beautiful all wet and clean!  Fern Lake trail is named aptly - it's covered in ferns and feels very lush, especially in the rain we had.  The trail runs right along Big Thompson River, and we noticed more than a few good fishing spots along the route.

Of the 1.7mi we'd planned on hiking in, we made it about 1.2mi to Arch Rocks.  The rain never came down real hard and heavy, but it was enough that by that point heads and feet were pretty wet.  The boys never complained - not once!  They had a blast jumping around puddles, throwing rocks in the river and hunting for caves in the rocks.  It was a great family adventure and we're even more excited to do the trail again... when it's a bit drier.