Today’s agenda was Rocky Mountain National Park, just 10 minutes away from our vacation cabin.  I was expecting today to be pretty simple from a logistical perspective, but as it turns out it is much more complicated than you’d think. There’s now a timed entry reservation system (thanks to our friend Michelle for tipping me off to this, as otherwise we would have shown up that morning and gotten turned away.)  You have to reserve a two-hour window to enter the park, and if you want to go to the Bear Lake area, there’s a different kind of reservation that’s even harder to get.  Some tickets are released well in advance, and others are released the evening prior.

Our initial ticket times weren’t great, so at 6:59 the night before I was poised on my phone, as though I was trying to get Taylor Swift tickets.  You can’t make more than one reservation for a given day with the same account, and I didn’t want to cancel any existing reservation until the new one was secured. By the end I had created accounts for four different members of our family, and we had tickets to enter the main park at 9am and the Bear Lake area at noon.

On the plus side, the reservation system meant that the park was less crowded than any park we’ve visited in the summer.  We cruised right in and almost immediately saw people looking with binoculars at Sheep Lake, where there was supposedly a moose in the underbrush.  We did not actually see the moose, but a nice ranger showed us some moose antlers (heavy!) and offered the girls Junior Ranger badge workbooks.  (These were extremely popular when we were on our cross country trip in 2012, but not exactly what our 22-, 20-, and 16-year olds were looking for.)

We’d decided to head for the Alpine Visitor Center, way above tree line.  We had quite a debate about which route to take.  The first option was a 9-mile, 15mph one-way dirt road.  It was described by many as more beautiful but terrifying, with tight switchbacks and no guardrails.  The main road, Trail Ridge Road, was 20 miles long and is one of the highest paved roads in the US.  We’ve driven this before — and found its switchbacks and lack of guardrails terrifying enough.  Imagining a road that was MORE narrow, with MORE switchbacks and drop-offs, gaining elevation twice as fast, was enough to put us off that option.  (Nadia, who suffers from both fear of heights and car sickness — and as such was already in for a pretty challenging day — was the strongest vote.)  So back to Trail Ridge Road we went (with me driving this time, since Bob still has traumatic memories of last time).

There were lots of beautiful spots to stop at along the way.  Every overlook seemed more gorgeous than the one before — and more tiring, with the amount of oxygen in the air dropping with each mile.  Luckily we’d had two days to adjust in mile-high Denver, then another couple of days in 7500 foot Estes Park.  Even so, by the time we got to the Alpine Visitor Center at close to 12,000 feet, we were all suffering in one way or another.  Most of us still managed to climb an additional .6 miles on the Alpine Ridge Trail, for broad views of the tundra and distant glaciers.  We rewarded ourselves afterwards with lunch at the nearby cafe (which we had discovered is the only place to buy food within the park).  The food was mediocre but the views were fabulous.

The first lake

This all took quite some time, especially after there was some additional excitement with a temporarily lost wallet, so we found ourselves rushing to get back down the mountain in time to reach Bear Lake within the noon-2:00 window allowed by our reservation.  The top part of the drive down was the most white-knuckle part of the trip, and I was very glad to get back to lower ground.

Bear Lake was a completely different ecosystem, with lush forests, roaring brooks, and high peaks in the distance.  Once we started the trail recommended by our friend Michelle (the Emerald Lake trail), we could instantly see why this is the most popular area of the park.  The trail goes to three alpine lakes.  The first was a small, verdant pool tucked into the woods.  (Lanie, tired from the altitude, elected to stay here and read her book rather than continuing on.)  The second one was much larger, greenish, and opened up to spectacular views of dramatic mountains .  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the third one, as we decided we should be getting back to Lanie and Nadia (who, still not feeling well from all the windy roads, had elected to stay at the visitor center).  This was one of my favorite trails that I’d ever hiked so I was sad to miss the end, but this was tempered by the fact that it started to rain just as we arrived back — so it was probably best that we weren’t still out on the trail with miles to go.  (In general we’ve had amazing luck with the weather this week.  It seems like it reliably starts to run just as we complete some outdoor activity and head inside.)

On the way back we stopped at Sheep Lakes again and this time the moose was right out in the middle of the lake!  We got a decent view through Zoe’s binoculars.

We got back to the cabin right around dinner time, and after a short rest the troops decided they were energetic enough to tackle the Estes Park escape room, the Time Emporium.  I made a reservation before we headed out for dinner, but we hit some kind of time warp where it somehow seemed to take about 40 minutes to make the 10 minute drive into town.  This led to us having to bolt down our (delicious) pizza and race the short distance to the room, but we made it just in time.  Perhaps it was oxygen deprivation or hiking exhaustion, but I proved to be totally useless in solving any of the puzzles that the room had to offer.  Fortunately, the rest of the family stepped up and we were able to escape the Lost City of Atlantis in around 45 minutes with minimal assistance.