We both woke up shortly after 6 AM, checking our bodies to see how exhausted we were from yesterday’s long hike. Both agreed, we could feel it a little, but mostly we were pretty proud that we made it through 6 miles of hiking and lived to tell the tale. So, time to pack up the car, check out of the Airbnb, and head off for one more morning at Rocky Mountain National Park.
We were getting pretty good at checking in to the park at the right entry time. This morning we would take two shorter walks: one at Sprague Lake, And one on the trail leading to Cub Lake. Both were short and relatively flat. And both gave us opportunities to enjoy the day, take pictures of many, many, beautiful wildflowers, and just reflect on how lovely it is to spend time in nature.
Partway through our second hike of the day, we ran into some National Park Service and Civilian Conservation Corps workers, working on building and improving the trail with carefully crafted ways for the water to run off downhill. Both of us feel so grateful for the many, many, many, thousands of workers who work so hard to keep our National Parks such wonderful places to visit.
Today wasn’t such an ideal day: there was some smoke in the air from some fires off to the west. And we ran into the first mosquitoes that we had seen on the trip. But, even with a less than ideal deal day at Rocky Mountain national Park is still lovely.
Following our hikes, we had a lovely picnic lunch and then headed back out of the park. Today we were going to drive about an hour and a half east out of the mountains to Fort Collins, Colorado. The drive included going through the amazing Big Thompson River canyon. We were able to check into our hotel with enough time to take a little nap before heading off for dinner with our dear friends Heather and Erin and their two children, Leissi and Ian. Patti and Heather worked together at the Escondido Public Library many years ago. It is such a pleasure to stay in touch with friends even when we live far apart. And, their kids are growing and growing. We had such a fun time at their house greeting their chickens which they have been raising for four years. Then, we all headed off to a funky downtown restaurant for a lovely evening meal. Patti was happy to explore the treehouse with the kids. And cute photos ensued.
After dinner we went over to the Churn, a wonderful ice cream place. We all had delicious ice cream and then, too quickly, our time together was done. We so enjoyed seeing them again and will see each other in the future when the opportunity comes up.
Then, after a couple of errands we were back to the hotel. We need to get a good nights sleep because tomorrow we have a long, long ride. But, it was another great day.
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