Over the Hills to Adam's Falls

Today we're off to yet another waterfall, this time a lot further away so we've got a lovely drive across some of the mountains in Estes Park. On the way we pass by the Stanley Hotel, the inspiration for the hotel in The Shining.

Spectacular drive over the mountains




Pausing only for some much needed hot chocolate

Quick picnic by the lake. Why quick you may well ask
And here would be why, it looked a lot worse than the picture makes out in real life with the wind whipping in
Adam's Falls

On the way back we saw a fantastic double rainbow

Day 3 - Another Hike

This time we're heading to Bridal Veil Falls which is quite near the cottage. Very limited parking so we had to wait for a space, the high rainfall is great for the waterfalls but it means that everyone is out going for hikes. This was going to be a shorter hike but it turns out that we have further to go today, about 6 and a bit miles total with another decent elevation. Really pretty trail, lots of alpine flowers and meadows.


Discovered Clif Bars on this walk -mmm, Clif Bars. Not sure however if they are named after the rock formation or some bloke called Clif who came up with the recipe. Thanks to the wonders of the internet I decided to save anyone the trouble to looking this up and it turns out that it was named after the father (Clifford) of the guy who started the company.
Here's the kids at the top of another pretty long hike



Having a quiet read by the falls



Off to Estes Park town center in the evening, primarily to buy fudge.
Also had a pretty good meal out in the town, basic food but well done

Colorado - Estes Park

Day 2 and we have to leave Boulder, already a little sad about that as we could certainly have hung around for a while longer. Off to Estes Park though and our most indulgent part of the trip where we've booked a cabin rather than a hotel room. Hoping it is going to be larger than the shed we had in South Dakota a couple of years back.

On the way we did a hike to Ouzel Falls (not a typo) which was a good stretch for the kids on their second day at some altitude, over 5 miles and 1,000ft of elevation. The river was really swollen too so it made for some interesting hiking at times.

Here's one of the crossings, the park ranger who had been in the park for 25 years said she'd never seen it so high.

Andy certainly got her feet wetMade it though - well done kids

Reached the cabins in the early evening and really happy with them, not at all cheap but even a room in a cheap hotel is expensive at this time of year in Estes so well worth the extra. The cabin had a high altitude recipe book letting you know that cakes expand really quickly at altitude but can then collapse so cook them for longer at a lower temperature - or that water boils more quickly etc...

Anyway settled down nicely and preparing for another hike tomorrow.