Just got back from our trip to Estes Park, Colorado and the Rocky Mountain National Park. Beautiful place! We hiked the trails, drove up the mountain, (I hated that part), and just enjoyed the cooler weather! The girls were happy as long as there were rocks and water to play around. We found our "favorite" waterfall and went back several times. The weather was perfect. 60's during the day and 40's at night. It usually started out clear and sunny, and by midafternoon clouded up and rained a little. The weather changes quickly in the mountains!
We toured the historic and "haunted" Stanley Hotel, which is the hotel Stephen King based The Shining on. It was pretty creepy. In the picture our tour guide is singing trying to get the "ghost children" to come out and play. She said they liked it when kids sang to them. I offered Maddy and Regan $20 a piece to do it, but they wouldn't. They say that the white "orbs" you get in the pictures are the ghosts. Personally I think they are just reflections of the lights or other peoples flashes, but Regan and I did smell roses when we were upstairs and supposedly that is the head housekeeper that haunts the place. She always wore rose oil.
We took a day and went rafting down a river. We were at the very end of the rafting season so there wasn't a lot of "white water" but it was perfect for the kids and still very fun. Our 24 year old river guide has been doing this for 6 years. What a life. We all even went swimming in the freezing cold water.
Our trip was now complete. It seems we spent the whole week looking for the elusive but plentiful wildlife. Never even saw any driving up the single lane dirt road to the top of the mountain. Finally, on our last night, while we were driving through town, there they were. A whole herd of elk. They just wander into town and eat for awhile before they head back up to the mountains. They really don't care about people at all. We saw another herd right in the middle of downtown this morning as we were leaving. No bears, mountain lions or moose though.
