Today we drove from Golden, CO to Rocky Mountain National Park. This park was way better than Yellowstone in regards to hiking. They had so many trails...Mike did his research last night and figured out the best places to hike if you only have one day in the park. We got to the entrance about 11:00 or so and it was packed! We waited a while to pay & get through...then we drove to the trail head where we were going to start hiking, but it was full! We had to park in another lot and ride a shuttle bus. It took us a while to load our back packs with lunch, water, Gatorade, snacks, sweat towel, etc. By 12:00 we started our hike at Glacier Point (I think that was the name). From there we hiked straight up to a lake...it was beautiful & worth the 2 miles up. The views were absolutely amazing...not to mention on the way up there was a huge waterfall. You really had to hike up a bunch of rocks to get to the top of it! On the hike towards the lake, it started to get a little cooler & the sky darker...then the rain came. Lucky for us, we bought $1 ponchos at Wal-Mart! Best $1 we spent & glad we remembered to pack them. BUT then as the rain stopped & we were taking pictures, Mike decided I should run over to the other side of the lake on the rocks & he'll take my picture from where he was. So I go truckin over to the other side, pose, and here "you got to be kidding me"....I yell back "what's wrong", he says, "what do you think"...I assume the card is just full & he's mad he'll have to go through & delete pics before taking more. Sadly that was not the case....the batteries in the camera died!! That was the one thing we did not put in our back-packs! We had them in the car, but that was over 5 miles away & a shuttle bus. He turned it off & back on & it actually had just enough juice to take my picture from across the lake...then it died.
After the lake, we hiked towards another one...this trail was much less marked...it was rough. I kept blaming my wheezing on the elevation, but I think we all know what's happened in the last 3 weeks.......out-of-shape!!! This lake was just as beautiful as the first one, but no way to take pictures......except for a family of 4 on a nearby rock - I asked them if they had extra AA batteries, they did not have any, but then I got smart & asked if I could just borrow theirs to take a couple pictures & they let me! Nice folks.
Next we had to walk to Bear Lake where we can catch a shuttle bus back to our car. On our way there were a couple more great views...one of them I just had to ask this couple passing us if they had batteries we could borrow, but they're camera didn't take the same one's ours did....but they were nice enough to take a couple pictures of us with their camera and promised to email them to us. So far no pics yet, but they were from Buffalo, NY & staying at the park for a week so maybe they don't have internet where they're staying....looking forward to seeing if they send it!
So after a total of 7.9 miles & 4 hours later our hiking excursion in the Rockies were complete. Sadly, its time to head East.
We hoped to make it to Nebraska, but we were so tired from all the hiking we only made it to Sterling, CO...AKA, don't ever stay there...we found a campground (Buffalo Bill RV Park) - arrived about 7:30...got out of the car to go into the office & it was about 92 degrees outside with 30 mph winds. We promptly got back in the car to discuss. Neither of us wanted another night like the one in Buena Vista, CO but then add sweltering heat...so we decided to stay at one of 3 hotels in town. Our choices, Super 8, Travel Lodge & Comfort Inn....I said I would only stay at the Comfort Inn...I know, you're thinking I'm spoiled, but you didn't see the other 2! Yikes!
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