Mountains, Snow and Elk

Our cabin in Estes Park has a family of fox that lives nearby.  Sunday morning I was able to get pretty close to one of them and get some pictures.  He seemed pretty comfortable with me and only ran off when a dog came up and sniffed it back into a hole.

We are staying in McGregor Mountain Lodge, just outside an entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.  The grounds surrounding our cabin are beautiful with lots of trees, birds, flowers and wildlife.  My mom told us that after seeing all the beautiful birds here, she can understand why people get into bird watching. 

After breakfast in the cabin, we rounded everyone up and drove into RMNP.  It was very crowded.  Lots of cars, people and slow moving traffic.  We stopped first at Alluvial Fan, the site of a flood in 1982, with splendid waterfalls.  A truly majestic and beautiful spot. 

The kids all had to touch the water to feel how cold that melted snow was coming off the mountain.  We took so many pictures at this nice spot in the mountains.  

It started to rain, which chased us all back to our cars and off to find a potty stop for the kids. (That is the trouble with consuming large quantities of water to ward off altitude sickness). 

We decided our next drive should be to take Trail Ridge Drive up to the Alpine Visitor's Center over 12,000 feet above sea level.  To get there, we drove up and up, winding around the sides of the mountains on a road with severe drop offs.  It was slow moving due to congestion.  At some point, it started hailing and our drive became a crawl.  All through this time, Dad was busy on the walkie talkie with David’s car behind us.  Mom started to get scared of the heights and the hail slowing us down.  She was determined that we needed to stop and turn around (where, I’m not sure).  Dad passed her the walkie talkie so she could convince David and Leah we needed to turn around.  It was actually just a tactic to distract her.  I think Cameron was on the other end of the walkie talkie, not a grown up.  The hail cleared up and on and up we went. 

As it turns out, David’s car was having a bit of drama of their own.  Ashley decided she HAD to use the restroom during this winding drive.  Unfortunately, all of the pull offs with restrooms were jam packed with cars.  She was crying and offering to go squat in the snow when David managed to get her into a rest stop. 

As we came to the highest point in the drive (12,183 ft) and onto the tundra, Dad was inspired to begin singing The Sound of Music.  Drivers all over the mountain with walkie talkies got to listen to Dad warble, “The hills are alive, with the sound of music, ah –ah –ah-ah…” not once, but twice.  It was a huge hit in our car as the kids were laughing and cackling hysterically.

Elk sitting by the roadside

The tundra was so beautiful and not what I’d expected.  I was expecting the top of the mountain to be rock, covered with parts of snow.  Instead, it had grass, flowers and lots of elk.  We saw several herds of elk at various points in the tundra.  Some were so tame, they just stood and posed for pictures while cars stopped. 

 

When we made it to the top, we realized we’d left all our jackets back at the cabin.  Oops.  It was a little chilly, but the wind was blowing so hard, we didn’t spend much time outside anyway.  There was a nice visitors center with a café where we had lunch.  While up there, several of us started having problems with altitude sickness.  Mine started upon arriving in Denver, but was made worse during our drive.  Lots of dizziness, headaches, fatigue and queasy stomachs.   After buying a few souvenirs, we started the drive back down, hoping our symptoms would subside a little.

Daniel had been so excited to see all the snow on the way up, so we made a point to stop on the way down to play in a big patch of snow.   Brenna didn’t stay out long, her head was still hurting, and Alex and Megan were not thrilled with it.  But the other four kids had a ball throwing snow balls at each other.  It wasn’t quite long enough for them and protested as we went back to the car to continue our descent down the mountain.

At the end of the day it was really nice to have the cabin to come back to and relax.  A good storm rolled in and kept us all inside for a couple of hours before dinner.  Would you believe we built a fire in the fireplace in July?  It was fun and really nice.  

David and Dad grilled steaks after the storm passed so we could all sit outside and eat.

It has been a great vacation so far.  We miss Brian a great deal, but I have gotten to video chat with him via Skype a couple of times.  The kids love the opportunity to see and talk to him while he is in Alaska.

It is really really late, so I must get myself to bed.  It is too easy for me to stay up late with the kids all sleeping in the bedroom.  I've put myself on the sleeper sofa just so I can get some "alone" time on this trip. What that actually means is I stay up late watching tv or reading, then throughout the night, the kids come out and get in bed with me.  Maybe tonight I'll go sleep in the bedroom when they get up and come in here.