Destination America!: I Remember This Place

From Golden we traveled north to a state park called St.Vrain. Ahhhh..... The space of a state park I had missed so much. State parks are my favorite and we had not been to one since our last stop in New Mexico, so I was very excited. The park itself was pretty, had nice lakes for fishing, and a beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains off in the distance. It was quite close to the interstate so you didn't quite feel remote, but it was a pretty nice place. We had a fire pit and put it to good use a few nights. Attempted cooking our veggies and some other things over the flame, but our wood was a little smokey from being in the back of our truck and exposed to all the rain. The veggies were a little smokey :)

We had short relocation drive on Sunday, so after setting up we headed into Boulder to explore a little bit. We headed to Pearl Street Mall first to check out some street performers and other weekend activities that were going on.

hilarious street performer

Luna hula hooping with music in her ears

Pearl Street Mall

The Flatiron's are a popular recreational area in Boulder and after dropping Diego at a nice coffee shop Monday morning we headed up to check it out. Parking was nearly impossible, but after finding a spot we headed up to Chautauqua trailhead.

The trail ahead of us full of outdoor enthusiasts :) Pretty much the entire Boulder population.

It was a warm day so there was some moaning, but we made it with the help of a few cold streams along the way.

Flatiron's in the background

We visited to Boulder library while in town and the nice gentlemen at the front desk gave us a year pass to their online library... Yahoo! We're racking up libraries and it's great because when the girls REALLY want a particular book we have several places to look. Thank you Boulder Library!

The girls were pretty famished after their Flatiron hike, so the other stop I had planned, Boulder Creek bike path, which is a 5.5 mile path that winds through beautiful areas in the city, ended up being more of a "check it out" stop and a little play time at the park by the river.

A section of the path near a city park.

Luna's climbing skills.

Our 14th anniversary was that week, so Diego took most of the day off that Wednesday and we all headed into Este Park and to the Rocky Mountain NP.

We took the Loveland pass into town because that was the way I went in back in 1999 when I drove out for my internship.

I had such fond memories of the drive in through that canyon. It was a beautiful drive, but different than I had remembered this time around. I later found out from a friend that there was a big flood in the canyon in 2013 and maybe that's why it seemed different.

Once in Estes we did the tour, including a stop by Medex of Estes where I had interned.

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Everyone I knew there had either moved on to open their own business or was no longer in the area and the owners were out for the day:( It was neat to see the place again though. Hasn't changed a bit in 16 years. I tried to find the house I stayed in, but I couldn't remember the street name and the houses all stated to look the same.

After some grub we headed into the national park, hiked Bear, Nymph, Dream and Emerald Lakes. I don't have the words to say how beautiful it was. Just breathtaking.

Snow was still on the ground around one side of Bear Lake and on the way up to Emerald Lake the top half of the hike was under snow too. It was fun to navigate the trails in snow.

Happy Anniversary to us!

People love to feed chipmunks and ground squirrels apparently because on almost every trail we are on we have a cute little guy run up to us and look up with longing eyes. We don't feed them, but I will say they are so stinkin cute, it's hard not to.

Our little buddy who has sadly been made into a beggar by human feeders.

Nymph or Dream Lake......can't remember

Emerald Lake

Emerald Lake shore

The ranger at St. Vrain lent us some fishing poles and we bought some worms. Luna decided to let all of her worms go free and use tin foil on her hook instead:). Sofia was done after about an hour. The fishing poles weren't the best and she wasn't up for the patience of it all, but Luna decided to try a different lake and she and I sat out there for over an hour. No luck with the fish, but she had fun and wants a fishing pole now.

We took off for Ft. Collins on Friday to explore a little and hit the trails. We drove to an area called Horsetooth Mountain Park and as a recommendation from the ranger we hiked to Horsetooth Falls.

It was a nice hike and ended at a beautiful waterfall. There were lots of beautiful pit stops along the way with beautiful streams and refreshing water to splash in.

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We went up to the top of the falls and then back down to the bottom to play in the pool area.

Top of Horsetooth Falls

Bottom of Horsetooth Falls

We headed back to downtown Ft.Collins for dinner and "First Friday" entertainment. We went to New Belgium Brewery to try to catch a tour, but had missed them. Grabbed a beer instead :)

On Saturday we returned to the Rocky Mountain NP to see some things we still wanted to explore. Now that it is tourist season, there is a huge difference in the amount of people in the parks, especially on the weekend.