RMNP

Saturday, September 24th in Rocky Mountain National Park.

I did a gorgeous hike yesterday and thought I'd share some pictures. I love this place.

Route: Sprague Lake > Boulder Brook Trail > North Longs Peak Trail toward Granite Pass
Elevation: 8710 ft - 10,400 ft, approximately

Tale of the Superamazing Epicfantastic Sister Visit

I'm getting flack from a certain set of 3 for not blogging about a certain visit to a certain Colorado.

Sooooo WITHOUTFURTHERADO, I present:

plus Francis!!!!!!!!!!!!

They descended on us at the end of July, and we indulged in all the quintessential CO fare: downtown Denver, Pearl St. mall, tubing the creek, and a night backpacking in the mountains. Never a dull moment with these guys. Unfortunately, in all the bustle of trying to be a decent host I neglected my camera. So I have included a few pictures from other cameras (thanks Chris and Francis) and will refer you to Christina's blog for the rest.


Now for the main event.

Day 1: Downtown Denver and creek time! (See Christina's blog) 

Days 2, 3: Backpacking!

We did a lovely hike up to Heart Lake along the South Boulder Creek Trail, starting from the East Portal trailhead at Moffat Tunnel. (I had just hiked this trail one month prior to their visit and hit deep snow about 1/2 way up, so I was happy to see a dry trail.)

Snowy trail in June

Soggy trail in July

Meadow about 1 mile in

One of my favorite parts about this hike: the wildflowers.

Shooting Star

Bluemist Penstemon

Fairy Slipper, aka Calypso Orchid

Western Wallflower

Colorado Columbine

Elephant Flower

mmm...not sure...

Purple Fringe

and Fungi!

The lake is a little over 4 miles from the trailhead and took us a couple of hours. We gave the wee little sister, Phoebe, the lightest pack but she later proved her brawn by carrying Carl's "manpack" (including snowboard) for longer than seemed reasonable. We're a competitive lot. 

We hit our destination at 11,310 feet with plenty of light left and took some time to catch our breath, set up camp, and explore the area. 2 brave souls went swimming.

Tada! (from C&F)

Carl, clouds

 Heart Lake, Alpine Primrose

 water filter time (from C&F)

sun, snow field

more clouds and flowers

Mountain House

Happy Campers

 Exposing ourselves (C&F)

 G'night (C&F)

The next morning before hiking out we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and camp break-down as we all watched Carl hike up to a nearby peak and snowboard down.

Snowboarding in late July

We let him eat a snack before hustling him down the mountain.

down down

down we go

We took it easy the rest of that day and indulged in Snarf's sandwiches for a second time in 3 days. In our remaining time together we explored Boulder and went tubing in the creek (thankfully, there were no casualties - despite raging waters and a bitty thunderstorm). 

Before I knew it we were back in the car, on our way to the airport.

All in all it was memorable trip, and for more than just the adventures. Some of my favorite times with these goobers are the un-blog-able times - lying around the house doing nothing at all. As always, can't wait for the next one!

Superamazing Epicfantastics