Saturday Hike

Saturday was a super fun family day at our house. A few days ago we decided that we would find a new hike in RMNP and spend the rest of the day in Estes. It was a gorgeous day and there were yellow spots all over the mountains where the trees were turning colors.

Halfway up the mountain we thought that the day was going to be spoiled because I had forgotten to grab our park pass. At first we were just going to do a hike that we had done before that you don't have to enter the park for but Trevor thought we should just give it a shot. Apparently, it was National Outdoor weekend and the park entrance was waived all weekend long. Score!






The hike's trail head was at a ranger station that we had never been to before. I had done research the night before and found that we there are very few hikes left that we haven't done that are rated, "easy" or "somewhat easy." I decided on one called Copeland Lake. As we pulled up we realized it was a bust.... I would go more with Copeland puddle. It has been so dry here that there was very little water and not really even a trail around it. I did a quick check of the map and we decided to drive in a little more and try Copeland Falls. I'm so glad we did, it was gorgeous and a really easy hike for Alaire.








The kids were so excited to eat their lunchables that they had picked out that we ate lunch at 10:40 at the top of the falls. It was the perfect spot to eat and watch the fly fisherman in the water below. After lunch we let them climb around on the rocks and touch the water but I don't have any pictures from that part because I was to busy have mini heart attacks.











The goons! I don't think I will have a decent picture of the two of them until they are 16 and 18!














I give Copeland Falls 5 stars. It is very likely that they scored high because of the fact that Alaire walked the entire time and I didn't have to carry anything but her baby doll but it was also beautiful, not much of a climb, had less traffic then the trails along Bear Lake rd.







After our lunch hike we drove into Estes Park to pick up the new patches for the kid's camelbacks. Alaire slept the whole way in so we decided to stay in town a little longer that we would have. I got another bag of pretzels (that I shared with Trevor) and the kids got a scoop of ice cream. Ellis, the shopper that he is wanted to, "walk the shops" so that is what we did, but by "shops" he meant Geppeto's toy store.


The boys napped on the way home and Alaire and I sang to Pandora. It was a great Saturday that reminded us why we love living here!