Welcome to Leg 7 of #ptparadsummer2019.  We left you in Leg 6 in Laramie, WY (catch up on Leg 5, Leg 4, Leg 3, Leg 2, and Leg 1).  In this post we explored Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park, CO.

Day 10 – 07 July 2019 – Laramie, WY to Estes Park, CO

We got moving pretty early.  Everyone choked down some breakfast and helped pack up and hook up Patty.  Our giddiness to get moving didn’t quite pay off.  We arrived at our campsite for the next few nights, Estes Park Campground at Mary’s Lake, a bit before check-in time and our spot wasn’t open yet.  So we had to kill about 45 minutes waiting for our spot to open.

Lazy Day in Estes Park

After our short wait, we got set up at the campsite.  After 10 days on the road we wanted a low key day and we were running out of clean undies.  So Erin jumped on the grenade to do laundry and Jack took up kid entertaining duties.  We dropped Erin off at a laundromat a few minutes away from the campground and the rest of us went back to the campground.

The kids went to the playground for awhile and then swam in the pool.  Then we got cleaned up and went back to help Erin finish up the laundry.  With clean and folded clothes, we loaded back in the truck and drove back to the campground.

Cooking didn’t feel like something we wanted to do.  So we loaded up and found a BBQ joint in town.  After dinner, we loaded up to cruise Elkhorn Avenue.  We parked the truck and walked around.  A shirt shop grabbed our eye and all of us found a Rocky Mountain National Park shirt or two.  Later, we found an ice cream shop that looked good, so we enjoyed some treats on the sidewalk.

We finished up our treats and walked back to the truck.  We got back to Patty and we all turned in early for the night.  It was nice to have a slow day after going hard for nine in a row.

Day 11 – 08 July 2019 – Rocky Mountain National Park

In the morning, we headed for Rocky Mountain National Park.  As usual, we stopped at a visitor center first to get junior ranger books.  After mapping out our day we were off to the park.

Driving Trail Ridge Road

We spent the morning working our way over Trail Ridge Road.  We stopped along the way several times for a ranger program, pull offs for small trails, etc on our way up.  Once we got to the upper elevations the traffic was fairly heavy.  That dampened our experience some, but we still enjoyed the views of still snow covered peaks, elk, and wildflowers.

We found a picnic area for lunch on the western end of Trail Ridge Road.  We packed in provisions and started making sandwiches and passing out drinks when (what else could it be on this trip?!) a storm blew in.  The sky started thundering and the winds picked up.  We finished our lunch in the truck as the rain fell.

The rain didn’t last too long as we started back east on Trail Ridge Road.  The storm brought in a significant temperature drop at the high elevations.  We were all in shorts and t-shirts and the thermometer fell about 40 degrees in about 10 minutes of driving.  Needless to say, we didn’t jump out at a many pull offs on the way down.

Alluvial Fan

Once off Trail Ridge Road, we headed for the Alluvial Fan.  The kids enjoyed bouldering and jumping around a bit while the adults enjoyed watching their fun and watching the water rush down the hill.  This area was quite crowded with visitors and construction of a bridge on the trail.  We could have stayed here the rest of the day, but we had a few more items on our list to do in our short visit to Rocky Mountain National Park.

From the Alluvial Fan, we stopped at a visitor center and got badges for the kids.  We then drove to the Wild Basin area of the park to hike towards the Calypso Cascades.

Wild Basin Trailhead

The Wild Basin area is one that the visitor centers say gets very crowded during peak times.  However, there was no shuttle service to the area.  So we purposely planned this hike towards the end of the day.  When we arrived to the trailhead parking lot, we could see how the area could get crowded quickly.  The lot is small and not marked so people parked nice and comfortable.

Copeland Falls

Our goal for the hike was the Calypso Cascades.  A waterfall created by Cony Creek.  The trail starts out along St. Vrain Creek and just about .3 miles you get to Copeland Falls.  These are a series of falls on St. Vrain Creek and they were really moving with all the snow melt from the mountains.  The sights, smells, and sounds of the falls were incredible.

After Copeland Falls, the trail started to gain elevation fairly quickly.  Though the trail never became too steep, the kids started to lose their enthusiasm.

Calypso Cascades

Close to 2 miles total down the trail is the Calypso Cascades.  These falls are huge.  We thought the Copeland Falls were impressive, but these were worth the walk.  There is a wooden bridge that carries the trail across the Cascades, which made for some nice pictures for us.

Back at Camp

At the campground we ate dinner.  The kids got their energy back and we went to the pool again to put a cap on a big day.  We left a lot of Rocky Mountain National Park unexplored, but we had a great time and enjoyed ourselves.  I guess we’ll just have to come back!

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Next time we’ll head down to Colorado Springs.  Thanks for reading

 

-See you out there,

Part-Time Paradise