We headed into Rocky Mountain National Park early to secure a campsite for the night. We made a quick stop at the nearest Visitor Center (a historical landmark, designed by the protégés of Frank Lloyd Wright) and learned that there were only 7 tent sites available in the park. We quickly made our way to the open campsite and found a great spot. Rocky Mountain National Park is the first park that looks similar to the Northwest – there are trees everywhere and it is very green. Only two differences: true to its name, there are rocks, boulders, etc. everywhere and there are large brown patches scattered throughout the forest due to the infestation of the pine beetle that is killing many of the trees. We settled into our campsite and decided to spend the day out of the car. We rode the bikes to a trailhead and set out on an 8-mile hike. We began by hiking the perimeter of a beautiful subalpine lake (Bear Lake), continued on to Alberta Falls and climbed 1000 feet on a rocky trail over boulders and rivers to Mills Lake. Some quick facts about this place: the chain of the Rocky Mountains is the world’s longest mountain barrier, stretching 2700 miles from Alaska to Mexico. This National Park was established in 1915, contains 72 named peaks above 12,000 feet, and is covered in granite rocks that are up to 1.3 billion years old. This hike was so pretty and we enjoyed the afternoon thunderstorm that rolled through. We had heard this was a daily occurrence and were warned to stay below timberline when the lightning hit. We followed these guidelines, enjoyed the exercise, and eventually made our way to this beautiful lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains. It was obvious we were from a rainy state because nearly everyone else we passed had on raingear and they looked at us like we were crazy in our tank tops and shorts. We stopped to eat a snack at the lake and were sure to hydrate…at nearly 12,000 feet, we were definitely adjusting to the altitude. We made our way back to camp and for the first time made dinner while the sun was still up. After some quinoa and vegetarian hobo stew, I taught Deven how to play cribbage and we went to bed early…worn out from our beautiful, yet tiring hike!
