Day 39 – Rocky Mountain National Park Part 2

Megan’s Take

Today we got up by 6 am, hoping that we could get parking at the Bear Lake trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park, but it was full when we arrived before 7:30 am. That worked out best for Emilia and Emmett though, because they love riding the shuttle!

We hiked up to Emerald Lake, which was about 3.2 miles roundtrip up 700 feet.

Along the way, we saw Nymph Lake

and Dream Lake,

and afterwards, we did the 0.7 mile Bear Lake loop.

Both kids hiked ALL of that. I couldn’t believe that Emmett did so well, because that’s the longest hike he has done with us. They were a little whiny (probably tired from an early morning) on the way up, but they hit their stride and continued easily after the first mile. The trail had Alpine lakes, interesting tree roots and rocks to climb on, rivers and streams, steps (our kids love steps!), and even snow!!! Emilia was especially excited about touching snow and making snowballs.

Phil and I have been really proud and impressed with how well Emilia and Emmett hike. They even carry their own hydration packs filled with snacks. They have both gained a lot of confidence with hiking and climbing, and their balance has improved significantly. They are taking more risks, which is sometimes hard for me to not worry about, but most of the risks they’re taking are just important opportunities for them to flex their skills and practice using their bodies in new ways. When Emilia and Emmett want to climb “high”, I make Phil go with them and hold hands or act as a spotter.

We want to build out their play area in the backyard to include stumps and boulders to give them different ways to move and play when we’re back home.

After our hikes, we went to the Moraine Discovery Center and caught a ranger talk about scat. The kids were very attentive and liked seeing various fake animal poops. I thought for sure that they (or at least Emmett) would fall asleep in the truck scenic driving after that, but they both powered through. We ended up at the Viestenz-Smith Mountain Park, which had a beautiful section of river running through it, about a half hour away from our campground,

and it had a play area with just stumps and logs.

Emilia and Emmett had fun playing pretend and “cooking” with the sticks and rocks laying around.

Eventually we pulled them away with the promise of ice cream, but on the way back to Estes Park, we found a section of road with national forest access to the river where we could rock hunt.

The kids wore life jackets for water safety near the river, and we happily picked up as many rocks as Phil would let us (tow weight limits). We found so many rocks with a golden and silver shimmer – I’m assuming pyrite and mica, but we will identify later.

As always, we had fun picking through the rocks, but Phil said we’ve hit our limit for rock hunting.

Phil’s Take

Megan covered things pretty well, so I’ll just be filling in the one thing she forgot to mention.

When getting their Junior Ranger badges today, both kids did their best to recite the oath with the ranger. Emmett was eager to point out that mama could hear his voice this time.