Summer hiking

Mitchell Lake

 We have done a lot of hiking this summer... as you may have noticed from posts recently.

The boys are both big enough now to add some elevation and a bit of distance to our routes.  With this Josh and I felt it was high time to take advantage of having the Rocky Mountain National Park in our back yard!

After a few trails Van and Wes wanted to do the Junior Ranger program (which they'd expressed zero interest in before), so we got the little booklets and spent our hike up to Emerald Lake filling in the scavenger hunts and puzzles, and talked to a ranger or two!  The boys happily took the oath and received their badges at the ranger station at Bear Lake.

Seeing how much they loved earning those badges I thought earning some more would be a good way to keep them excited about hiking.  A company called Trail Tags makes a badge for every hike in RMNP... so we started collecting badges!  Currently the boys each have 9 trail badges, their RMNP Jr Ranger badges and one for Trail Ridge Road.  They are very proud of them, as they should be!

They even earned one with Nana this summer!  Gem Lake in Lumpy Ridge above Estes Park was a doozy.  The boys, Nana, Lindsay and I climbed 1,080 ft along switchback turns and granite slab steps (some over 18" tall) for 2 miles to peak out at 8,820 ft above sea level - whew!    Along the way we had spectacular views of the town of Estes Park as well as the back of Long's Peak and Mt. Meeker, and the Twin Sisters.

Paul Bunyan's Boot

At about 1.7 miles up we found Paul Bunyan's Boot - a funny, boot-shaped rock with a big hole through the foot, propped up on another boulder.  How cool!  The lake itself was pretty cool, too.  It is a snow melt lake - it has no flow in or out, the water simply is snow melted from collecting in the bowl formed by the walls of stone around.  We found a good spot to have a snack, played with the chipmunks and headed back down when we heard thunder and saw some pretty ominous clouds start to roll in.  We got to the car right as the drops committed to raining.  Dusty and feeling accomplished we headed back down to Loveland.

School starts next week, but we'll continue collecting badges with the boys and exploring our amazing "back yard" here in Colorado.  We all feel so lucky to call this amazing area Home.