Jamey called a couple weeks ago and asked if we wanted to make a trip north with them. Brother Dustin was flying into Denver early on Monday morning and thought since they were going to be so close they’d go on up. We’ve been talking about making this trip for about a year now and it all just worked out to go this time.
I’ve been mentally trying to prepare to write this for a couple days and I’m still not sure where to begin. Guess I’ll just jump in…
We decided to split up into guys and girls vans. Somehow I ended up driving the girl van which was considerably less occupied than the boy van. And smelled better too, I’m sure. 
We took I-70 to Idaho Springs and headed headed north through Granby and Grand Lake. It was beautiful! Everything is green and gorgeous right now.
I’m not sure which town it was that we were driving through (maybe Grand Lake?) when we saw a sign that read “Moose Crossing”. I laughed and told Jamey there was no way we’d actually see a moose. (That’s been one of my dreams for a few years now.) No sooner had we passed the sign than we saw a moose go running down a hill between some trees. The guys were quite a ways ahead of us when we finally got their attention. We all turned around and went on a little “wild moose chase”. Unfortunately it was unsuccessful and Jamey was unable to get a picture of our moose sighting. My husband told Brother Dustin, “I’m glad Emilee thinks she saw a moose.” Creep! Jamey and I are both sure we saw it and we don’t care what anyone else thinks! Oh, Abbie says she saw it too.
We tried to drive around Grand Lake a little bit, but ended up getting separated from the guys. We stopped to take a picture of a bird on the lake and the guys never noticed that we weren’t behind them. We came to a fork in the road and had no idea which direction to go. When we couldn’t find them we headed back toward the highway. This was only the first of many times that we got separated on this trip. My husband drove entirely too fast to really enjoy the scenery and the various photo ops.
After several hours of driving (and multiple declarations of “We’re starving!!!”) we finally arrived at Rocky Mountain National Park.
**Yes, Mom…that is Flat Stanley. I kept forgetting to get the kids’ pictures with him, but I put him in my purse the night before this trip so we would remember to do it. When we got out of the van for this picture Abbie reminded me. Of course the guys were nowhere-to-be-found so it’s just Abbie…well, Aleah and Lillie were there too, but Abbie was the only Smith there.**
We finally made it to the the toll booth and shortly afterward stopped for lunch. The kids were SOOOOO happy to get out of the vans. When we pulled into the parking lot we immediately saw a herd of about 20 head of elk. It was funny because we couldn’t see them as we drove in but as soon as we got around a clump of trees there they were. The guys and the kids took off to explore a little while Jamey and I got lunch ready.
Here’s the view from our picnic spot.
We loaded back up and took off up Trail Ridge Road. It’d been closed all winter and just opened the day we were there. Little did Jamey and I know what we were in for.
But first we stopped at Farview Curve (no, I didn’t take notes…I’m looking at the map now).
Isn’t it pretty?!
They did so good that I only had to try one time to get a good shot of them all together.
Seems like this is the next time that we lost the guys. We wanted to get some pictures of the girls in front of the snow, but couldn’t get a hold of the guys to tell them we were stopping.
Some more scenery.
Look at that snow!
Moving right along up Trail Ridge Road the scenery was starting to change. There were less trees and more jagged mountains. Looking at the map now we were only about a 1/4 of the way up the road when we decided we couldn’t handle this anymore. We nearly pulled off at the Alpine Visitor’s Center…unfortunately it was on the other side of the road and it was closed. So we just plowed on ahead. I did my best to take it slow and stay as close to the center yellow line as I possibly could. There were several times when it appeared that the road just dropped off and we’d run into a mountain or the sky. It was like taking Skyline Drive into Canon City, only about a million times scarier!!! Jamey did a lot of praying and Abbie kept holding her stomach saying she was going to throw up. HA! We did manage to make it to the “top of the world” or the highest point on the road at 12,183 feet. There weren’t any trees, just some “delicate environment” plants. Jamey and I tried to just sit in the van, but the guys would NOT let us. They literally dragged us out.
It wasn’t nearly as scary as being in the car. There was a grassy ledge before the drop-off at least.
And there was snow for throwing.
Our next stop was the Lava Cliffs.
The next place we stopped was the very best for the kids. It was called Tundra Communities Trailhead. We hiked the trail all the way to the top and let the kids climb all over the rocks.
Here’s Abbie at the bottom.
This is about 3/4 of the way up the trail.
The kids ran ahead of us or were able to hike faster than us anyway.
Abbie…yes, she’s just as daring as the boys!
Nathan
Caleb, Zeke & Luke
You can just barely see the icicles in the rocks…and the moss was really neat colors.
Here’s a cute couple.
Nathan took this picture…it was on the top of one of the rocks they were climbing.
They begged me to go up and see it, but…uhm…well…no!
Here’s one more shot of Nathan climbing the rocks.
From here on down, the drive was great…especially after what we’d already been through. Jon told us that if we didn’t stop again it was only about a half hour into Estes Park. We saw a small herd of elk on our way out of the park and naturally had to stop for some pictures.
In town we stopped and had dinner at Tulum’s. It’s a restaurant Jon and I ate at when we were there for our anniversary a year and a half ago. It’s a local version of Chipotle or Qdoba. The adults all enjoyed their meals…most of the kids were less than thrilled. Brother Dustin had hoped to get ice cream at a little shop he and Jamey had seen when they were there, but things close early in Estes Park so we missed it. After walking up the street to the ice cream shop we all turned around and went back to Dairy Queen.
We discovered this vehicle in the parking lot next to Dairy Queen.
We’d passed it on Trail Ridge Road. Jamey and I declared there was NO WAY we’d be able to ride in that thing. Those wide open sides were just too much for us. Jon wouldn’t let me have my picture taken with it (because of my declaration) so I had to sneak out and take a picture of it alone.
We walked across the parking lot to a little playground so the kids could burn off all the sugar they’d consumed.
Here are Isaac and Luke enjoying their cherry Dilly Bars.
One last photo op by the river.
We all wandered back to the vans and prepared to head our separate ways.
We took Highway 34 to Loveland through Big Thompson Canyon.
I know that everything we do can be counted as school because we homeschool but the places we saw were things that we’ve learned about just recently in our Colorado History class. A few months ago we read a book by Enos Abijah Mills, the man who is considered to be the “father of Rocky Mountain National Park” because he was an advocate for it to become a national park. The kids saw a plaque about him while we wandered around Estes Park. Just last week, we read about the Big Thompson Canyon flood. While driving through the canyon we talked a lot about what we’d read. It was neat to be able to see some of what we’re learning. So now you see why we can call this a field trip for our school records.
Whew! This is a very Becki-esque post.
Hope you enjoyed it…if you made it all the way through. If you just looked at pictures, I don’t blame you at all! Ha! Ha! Ha!
