Rocky Mountain National Park

When we left Idaho and Wyoming we headed back to Colorado because we were flying out of Denver. We left very early in the morning!

 We decided to try to do a re-do of our Rocky Mountain National Park attempt last year. Last year we drove in on a beautiful day, but then woke up to 8 inches of snow and had to bail on our park plans. This year cooperated much better!

Chris had gotten us timed entry passes to the Bear Lake corridor the night before so that was our plan. We realized very soon after we started that it was going to be pretty snowy despite being practically June. 

We started out heading to Nymph Lake and were surprised that it was still quite frozen over. 

We decided to persevere though and kept going until we made it to Dream Lake. It was so worth it! The hike up was beautiful.

And it was slightly less frozen over than Nymph Lake despite the increased elevation.

From there we "hiked" or slid back down.

We went to Bear Lake from there.

And then went over to Sprague Lake (a much easier flat trail with no snow!). It was so beautiful. I can only imagine the other lakes we saw in peak summer season - they must be incredible!

We saw so much wildlife at Sprague Lake. A moose! Very close up! I think this was the 5th or 6th moose we saw this trip.

I'm glad we made the stop here - it was so pretty.

That night we stayed again at the Estes Park YMCA and the kids were thrilled. They loved it last year so were very excited. Of course we went roller skating again. The kids shut the place down. Jane was particularly sad when skating ended.

And then bright and early the next morning it was time to head back to Virginia! Goodbye Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana! Until next time...

Thankfully our travel home was uneventful. We were very tired and glad to be back in our own beds after a really fun trip!