RED(rum), WHITE(water), & BLUE(birds)- A Grand Finale TR to Our Year of the National Parks

[HouCuseChickie]

I did spot one hawk shortly before leaving the park.

Almost out...

When we got back to the room, I put together our loot. David got a really cool retro style sweatshirt...

I took out all of the magnets at this time too just making sure my count was correct. I had one more that I bought in Utah, at the request of a coworker who wanted something from UT vs. CO.

I took a few random pictures around the area of the tram/gondola contraption (something we decided not to do)...

...before discussing dinner. This was also the night that our navigation taught us the back way into some of the town spots. Not sure why, but Mexican became what everyone wanted. The place that was highly rated that was a 5 min walk from where we parked had an hour+ wait, so we wound up going to a place right by where we parked. It was probably better this way as the other place didn't smell right...not bad...just not right. This also had better decor and a nice view...

I deserved a drink...

We even saw a few people fishing during our dinner!

Dinner wasn't bad. They had a lot of Hatch peppers in their dishes and sauces, which would indicate more of a New Mexico influence...at least from what we've seen.

We took a few pics out by the river after dinner...

...incluing one of my interesting sunburn.

Then it was on to the Sugar Shack for some sweets. I don't know if this is true of every place, but we'd later found out that the majority of the sweets and ice cream places in Estes Park are owned by the same company and just tweaked a little to look different. We were informed that we should try the Sundae Saloon as it was a young woman who opened it on her own to take on the big guy and do all kinds of special things. Sadly...we never got a chance to try it.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

They wound up splitting a gelato.

They tried to convince me to have some sorbet, but I just wasn't in the mood.

My big kids played on the playground before our next stop...

This was where we were hoping to hike on the previous day, but Kendall wasn't in the right shoes. We had seen that there was a better access point, so we drove over there vs. walking across Estes Park, which also put us in a better place to see this old cabin that David wanted to check out.

We were losing sunlight, but as we started heading up the trail, I saw something blue fly by my head. It's not the greatest pic and the colors aren't as vibrant since they need the sun to really make their plumage stand out, but it's a mountain bluebird!!!

(yeah, cropped becaue like usual, I didn't have on my telephoto)

There were actually two of them dancing around the area.

I didn't see any others, so I started following everyone up the path.

...while also turning back to get a shot of the Stanley.

The sun was starting to set, but it was pretty neat up there.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

On our way back to the car, we also had another visitor. A young buck (mule deer) was now on the trail, so we let him do his thing before we headed to the car. I even had enough time to swap lenses.

You can really only see the ears, but we saw a bunny just before we got to the car.

So, we headed off into the sunset and on our way back for another night. We had our first pre-planned activity in the morning (one that scared the daylights out of me), so I needed everyone rested.




Coming up...Day 5- our first activity, more RMNP, and my food finds.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

DAY Something...As I think I've already messed up which day we're on

Let it be known that I am scared of horses...like won't go near them, but I'm about to take my family horseback riding. I booked this activity because I knew it was something everyone else would enjoy and that my fear of horses is far more irrational than my fear of spiders. I mean, this was supposed to be a nose to tail ride...what could possibly go wrong? And I booked an early morning ride so that I didn't have all day to think about it and back out.

We started the day over at the convenience store where we grabbed some sodas (healthy...I know) and ate a little breakfast in their outdoor seating area. I waved to the mountains...

and we headed off to the stables.

The kids were all excited, but I was trying hard to hide my fear.

I guess I really didn't want to go because I found out that I didn't finish signing my online waiver. I got everyone else's and even thought I got mine, but nope. I was even accidentally given a minor form to sign in person. Yeah...I was a big girl and signed the right one so I could join my family. They even gave me a saddle bag for all of my stuff that couldn't be locked in the car. Now no excuses to stay behind.

I managed to get on my horse with little to no issues, and after the ranch hands and wranglers got done ribbing me for not remembering where I went in Arkansas a few years ago and living in TX, but afraid of horses...we were off. Our guide also praised us for having the sense to wear jeans. I really have to credit David for that, because a girl with horse fears surely would never know.

So, we headed off and up the trails. I booked a 2 hour ride since I figured the kids would at least benefit more from that. Anything shorter seemed kind of silly since it would be over by the time you'd adjusted to things. And that first pic above is pretty shaky, but it took me a while before I became comfortable to use my camera while trying to control the horse.

As you can see, it was really pretty up there. The kids did really well with it and I bought their ride pictures. They aren't digital and I haven't taken pictures of the pictures at this point. David wasn't looking at the camera for his and I have a look of fear on my face with the look of stomach problems in my posture. LOL So, at this point, you'll just have to go with what I took during the ride...

(my horse)

Apparently, this is often filled up with water...but not today...

 

[HouCuseChickie]

We got a lot of info on their trails during the ride...from where they hide out during hail storms (since it's very common in the summer), their ABC gum tree (kids almost fell for it too), and other fun points along the ride. Our guide also noted that they have an annual ride up in those mountains that never lose their snow...12 hours! Kendall was all for it and I'm like HECK NO!

We did get to learn a bit about our horses. The guide's horse is BB and he was demoted because he doesn't do well as a guest horse. I guess he would just stop and refuse to go. They had one guest tell them "Um, ma'am...my horse is broken." Sam's horse was Amarillo...but no really interesting stories there. Kendall's horse was Richard, and he is their horse they often pair up with people with special needs. The previous week, he was paired with a deaf autistic boy and apparently, they did great together. David was on Twister...who hits certain parts of the trail and sometimes decides to do his own thing. I had Tillie...short for Matilda and the only female horse in our bunch. She didn't really have any stories, but I nervously scratched her shoulders the entire ride since the guide said they like that. The horses also got a little spooked while we were up there. I didn't really notice it, but the guide said there's a mountain lion frequenting the area. Nice.

As for my fears...obviously, I survived. It wasn't awful and the scenery was beautiful, but I didn't love it. In fact, I had a hard time staying straight on my horse. We're still not sure if it was me or if the saddle was slipping, but no matter how many times we (both me and the guide) tried to correct it, I kept looking like I was titled to the left. I also wasn't the best at controlling my horse the right way, so there were a number of times where the guide had to correct me. It was all done pretty nicely, but with my nerves in play it all started to feel like it was a bit much. Still, money well spent because this would be the kids' fave part of the trip until much later on.

Time to wave good-bye to Sombrero Ranch!

Passed this as we were leaving...thought it looked neat...

Everyone was hungry, so we went to a place I'd been eyeing for months.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Sadly, there were no tables open outside, but inside works too...

Unfortunately, when we got there...I found that there was very little I could eat. The reviews I'd read said otherwise, but what can you do? I still managed to get a decent meal for myself, everyone else was happy with their food, and while nobody ate pie...they sure liked their milkshakes.

It was a little disappointing because I was supposed to meet up with a childhood friend during this meal, but they had some issues and we never got to see them. While waiting, I also marveled at the crowd at McDonalds. It's cheap, but there are just so many other fun places to eat!

We checked out the stream and fish pond in the shopping center...

Then took a look at the storms...

Kind of like FL with it's midday tropical downpours, the Rockies are prone to nasty midday storms in the summers. I'll spare you all of the meteorological reasons!

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Coming up- heading back into RMNP and our unexpected dinner find

 

[MinnieM123]

I love the side trip you all took with the horses. I would love to do something like that again. It's been a really long time since I rode a horse. (I'm not trained to ride--I've just done the type of thing you did -- a walking horse trail ride, with a guide.)

Scenery is so beautiful there.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I love the side trip you all took with the horses. I would love to do something like that again. It's been a really long time since I rode a horse. (I'm not trained to ride--I've just done the type of thing you did -- a walking horse trail ride, with a guide.)

Scenery is so beautiful there.

It was a really pretty area for a ride. I had some regrets about not booking side activities for Yellowstone last summer (I actually lost track of time and was too late to book anything when I remembered), so I tried to make up for it a bit during this trip. What's funny is I think the mountain backdrop of RMNP made for a more scenic ride than most of the YNP ride areas. The kids were a little bummed that it was such a slow pace, but considering my husband is the only one who has ever done any real riding, this was good for a first ride. Our guide was a competitive rider who has been riding since preschool, so we at least felt like we were in good hands.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

We popped back to the room to freshen up. I think someone said "I smell like horse!" So, I guess it was needed. Now we had the rest of the day ahead of us. The worst of the weather seemed to be to our east and heading away from us...

(although, this second round of building clouds could spell trouble)

...so we decided to head into RMNP again.

We kept seeing signs that the Bear Lake lot was full, so we started at the nearby trail center and looked around. On a side note, this Bear Lake area seems to be where all of the free shuttles go as well as the majority of the visitors. That's not saying that people don't drive to areas above, but this road heading out to Bear Lake gets a lot of traffic. All over Estes Park, and even right in front of our lodging, are bus stops for the free shuttle...so, I guess they need it to help ease the parking issues. It reminds me of the free shuttles in ski towns. We never took it though. Ultimately, we spent a while just waling around this center...

(here's the scientific reasons behind the weather!)

(They sure do!)

I was trying to see if there were any trails leading from this point, but it all seemed to be a dead end.

We then decided to drive over to the Cub Lake trail, which wasn't far from this point.

It's a beautiful trail...

 

[HouCuseChickie]

(Yeah, they all said they smelled like horse...but I guess not enough to change)

We were remarking how much this looked like moose territory, but I hadn't seen anything about sightings. I'd later find out that moose are now starting to be seen more often in this part of the park.

We were tempted to continue, but the skies were looking darker and I don't think the kids were up for it. We were over a mile in and still had a ways to go when they started showing signs of fatigue and I recall hearing some faint rumbles. We started exploring a bit around us when we noticed holes in the ground.

We're not alone!

David spotted this guy above, just sitting on the rock. He stuck around long enough for me to switch out lenses. The question still remains on what he is. While he was smaller and leaner than the marmots we saw in the tundra, his face looks like a marmot to me. BUT, the ranger volunteer I spoke to at nearby Bear Lake later on said that marmots aren't seen at those elevations and are strictly up in the tundra. He said this is an American Marten. I guess it's possible, but I'm not convinced. Maybe that's just a RMNP thing, because we saw a marmot in Mammoth at YNP last year, which is about 6200' in elevation...and the Bear Lake area in RMNP is around 9,000'. So, you be the judge...

 

[HouCuseChickie]

We eventually started walking back. David and Sam kept telling me they were seeing chipmunks...and maybe they were, but golden mantle ground squirrels inhabit this area and I'm pretty sure some of what they were seeing were those...

Now this...this is a chipmunk.

And this is one fat little ground squirrel.

I also loved how there were roses all through this section. I'm also terrified of spiders and didn't see that one off to the right until just now.

As we were leaving this trail area, we spotted a couple of mule deer. OK...Sam did...20/20 vision, y'all!!!

Not the greatest pic, but I also saw my first magpie of the trip...and the only one I'd get to photograph.

Certain people needed a bathroom break and forgot to mention it before, so we stopped in Hollowell Park. It turns out that a lot of cabins were set up in this area with military workers who helped service and build out certain portions of this park. It also has pretty flowers!

We had been seeing signs that parking at Bear Lake was full, and this is normal over the summer, but it was later in the day and the booths to turn people away were no longer manned. So, we figured we'd head that way and give it a try.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Sure enough, we got there and parked without issue. I'm not talking a few parking spots... I mean half of the lot was empty.

I took a few scenic shots...

...but we started to hear thunder and we didn't want to get stuck in anything too ugly, so we headed back to the car.

Cloud cover was definitely changing...

David saw one more lookout area on the way out and we made a quick pop in before heading back to the hotel. I really didn't want to be there long considering the weather coming in, but he decided to hike a bit farther than Sam which made me kind of nuts.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I finally got him to head back...

We were all kind of tired, so we had family nap time. It was sprinkling when I went to sleep, which was nice, but more of a steady to moderate rain when we all woke up. We contemplated going into town for dinner...even called a place that was near where we parked on day 1 in EP...but after seeing the horrible traffic, we decided to stick with something closer to home.

The Mad Moose and Convenience store across the way share a complex with a restaurant called The Other Side. From the outside, we thought it might be some kind of glorified Dennys, but on the inside, we found a place with a nice menu and decor that reminded us of the Canyon Lodge in YNP. They even had live music!

I think this is the video of the music. I know I was talking to K and we're in the restaurant.

While it was a rainy night, we were seated right along the water...a feature we didn't even realize existed! I mean, they even have the trees blocking the neighboring RV parks.

Oh yeah...they had some more reasonable drinks...so, we had to partake!

The food was good too! They even had rice noodles for their gluten free guests.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Another drink! Although, I think this is David's...

Or maybe it was this one? Or both of them?

This place had such a Christmasy vibe. In addition to all of the illuminated trees at the bar, they had snowflakes!

It was still drizzly outside, but I had to check out the lighting and say hi to the ducks.

We were all pretty full, but not so full for someone to play pouty face over no dessert ( still had stuff from the King Soopers visit back at the room).

Then it was back to the hotel to rest up. We didn't have any major morning plans, but we did have plans where we wanted to be out early just in case weather rolled in again. We also didn't want to get stuck, since we did have an evening activity booked at The Stanley.

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Coming up...We add some states and drink some red rum!

 

[MinnieM123]

David spotted this guy above, just sitting on the rock. He stuck around long enough for me to switch out lenses. The question still remains on what he is.

Reminds me a bit of a groundhog, but I'm not sure what the animal actually is.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Reminds me a bit of a groundhog, but I'm not sure what the animal actually is.

Yeah, I don't know. The marmot is a close relative to the groundhog, but this guy was a bit different. I'll probably never know. One of the kids joked that maybe it's a marten/marmot hybrid that we discovered and we could name it the Martmot or the Marmoten.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

DAY Something...6 maybe?

The sun woke me up again around 5:30am. I was initially planning on running down by the lake in Estes Park, but after hearing about a mountain lion and a bear frequenting that area, I decided I didn't need to be running from a predator. So, I skipped it.

Everyone else eventually got up...maybe 7:30ish...and we headed out. I took some pics on our way out of Estes Park...

...and then on our way through the canyons up to the interstate. At some point in our trip, I remember them talking about this area on the Denver news and how the river cutting through here flooded badly about 20 years ago. It definitely put the thought of flash flooding concerns in my mind as we drove through.

Another sad note...along the way, we spotted a dead fox on the side of the road. Just like my dead porcupine in YNP last summer, I've never seen a fox in the wild...and now the only one I've seen was killed by a car.

After going through the ski town of Loveland, we hit I25and headed north. The kids got all excited when they saw these, but after closer inspection...they realized they were way too big to be living animals.

OK...so, why did we head north? To go to more states, of course!

Yes, I know we've already been to Wyoming, but there's a little more to this journey that's coming up. Although, this would give us some valuable perspective on just how close we were to Cheyenne that would come into play on the last day of the trip.

And while those bison weren't real, these guys sure were...

Obviously, not wild camels...but still a less than common animal to see roaming the fields on the side of the road.

I felt a little sad seeing these signs. It's hard knowing that you're close enough to make it there before the end of the day, but too far for it to be a day trip.

We drove into Cheyenne to take a look around. It was Sunday morning, so things were REALLY quiet.

(We were there during Frontier Days, but would not be attending)

I know it's a city and the state capital, but it had more of that cute little small town feel. I don't know if that sounds awful to people who are from that area, but it reminds me of some of the states ...where the state capital is more sort of cute vs. big city intimidating. Yeah...I know, WY has the smallest population in the US and Cheyenne is their city with the largest population...i.e. I shouldn't expect a big city vibe.

I did have fun showing David the Jackelopes...since we have a running joke about them.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

There wasn't much open, and the one place that seemed like it might work in the middle of the city was getting quite the after-church influx of patrons, so we went back up to the interstate and just went to a Denny's...well, after driving around a bit more..

Now we're at Denny's...

After brunch, we decided to drive east...

...but this one says it all...

My plan was to drive into Nebraska...which we did...but we couldn't get out and there was nothing for miles. The area where I intended to exit and turn around was closed for construction, which wasn't showing on Google Maps. In fact, the next few exits were also closed for the same reason. I remember turning to David and saying that Nebraska has us and she is never going to let us leave!

But, this sign is proof we were in Nebraska (since there was no state sign and my phone didn't register it when we entered).

And when we finally found a turn around point, all of these other arrows are proof that others are all turned around as well...at least that's what I was thinking...

We got back into Wyoming and it was very clear that we had crossed state lines.

(and now we can see that my phone case needs a cleaning!)

Got a better pic of this statue on our way back in...

I was also reminded again of what was too far.

And now I suddenly wanted steak!

After that, we headed back to Estes Park. I took a few pics on the way. I drove from about Cheyenee to Loveland, so nothing pic wise between those points minus some really random pics from Sam. I'll spare you those and just go with mine.

Weather is also an issue again in the mountains...

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Estes Park is still crazy busy...

We had plans for the evening, but we needed dinner first. David wanted something cheaper, so I found a pizza place that seemed pretty popular. Obviously, I couldn't eat any of it.

While not close to the city, I loved the couple of Syracuse nods.

Although, I question the distances. I'm not sure if it was between there and Estes Park, but considering Syracuse is upstate and Amityville and Massapequa are NYC area, it would seem that they should be closer.

This pizza warmer for pick up orders is also pretty sweet.

Oh well, it's time to head out...

After they ate, we drove over to the Safeway...which is near the pie place where we ate the other day.

We picked up a small feast for me so I could have dinner...along with some snacks for the road. I had hummus and chips, hard boiled eggs, salami and flax seed brownie muffins with cherries. I also picked up a flax seed vegan carrot cake for me for the road.

All in all, it was a really pleasant spot for dinner al fresco.

The kids were a bit spooked (especially Kendall), but our next stop was The Stanley.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

...and just a couple more before we head in...

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Coming up...Drinking some redrum and touring The Stanley!

On a side note, we're still debating if we should have made the drive to add Nebraska to our list of states. We did something like this when we were in Branson, MO back in 2014. We took a little drive like this to cross the border into Arkansas on that one. Last summer, we debated about doing something similar on one of our YNP days, and taking a drive into Idaho. We never did that since the kids were more into looking for animals. Still torn on which was a better plan. Driving to NE wasn't very exciting, but I do love that we all got a new state.