We got a slow start this morning after being out so late partying with our friends last night! As soon as we pulled into our RV park yesterday afternoon, the boys spotted the miniature golf course and had been begging to play. This morning offered the perfect opportunity.
After golf, we got ready for the day and made plans to meet up with our friends (see yesterday’s post) for a hike. The boys could not have been more excited!
We met up at Lumpy Ridge Trailhead which is actually outside of the gates of Rocky Mountain National Park. That didn’t prevent it from being any less crowded than the rest of the Park; the parking lot was full and there were tons of hikers!
Side note: we found Rocky Mountain National Park to be one of the least “RV Friendly” Parks we visited. It was difficult to find parking at trailheads and overlooks and many roads were off-limits to oversized vehicles. Just FYI in case you plan on traveling there in an RV.
We reached the trailhead, found our friends, found parking, and got hiking! The plan was to hike Lumpy Ridge Trail up to Gem Lake. The hike is listed as 3.2 miles round-trip and moderately difficult with 1,000 feet of elevation. We were ready!
Not only are these four hikers adorable, they are tough! They jumped and climbed, ran and played the whole way up!
We took a couple little breaks on the hike up, but otherwise, these kiddos charged up the mountain in record time. The views along the way were gorgeous!
We got to the top and found Gem Lake! How fun to see this pretty little lake at the top of the mountain!
Of course the kids wanted to take their shoes off and put their feet in the water. Sure, why not, we know there aren’t any alligators lurking beneath the surface! As Floridians, that’s pretty much our biggest worry when we see a lake.
We directed the kids to the other side of the lake where there was a nice little sandy beach.
Not surprisingly, they ended up deeper in the lake than we authorized. Somehow Trent was in up to his waist! No big deal, except that soon after, I heard the word…
LEECHES!!!
Oh my gosh, pretty much one of my worst nightmares! I’m not a fan of insects as is, but ones that grab hold and suck your blood?! That’s just too much for me!
Luckily, they weren’t the “Stand By Me” thick, fat, worst-thing-in-the-world type leeches. (Could it be that movie that is responsible for my over-the-top fear of leeches? Quite possibly!) These were tiny, ant-sized leeches that stuck themselves onto the kids’ feet and between their toes. Dax wore his shoes into the water and even gathered some leeches in there.
Apparently the leeches were pretty easy to remove (I wouldn’t actually know; Brian did the de-leeching for our family), and we unanimously decided we were done with the lake and started our hike down.
We trail ran/raced our way back down and reached the trailhead before any of the kids were ready – tears ensued, whining began (at least for my kids!). We were going our separate ways at this point, and that was more than Dax could handle. He was so sad to leave his friends, he cried for over an hour!
Despite the tears of sadness, we are so thankful we got the chance to hike with this awesome family! What a fun day!
Our plan was to stay one night at a campground inside Rocky Mountain National Park. I had made a reservation months ago and was able to get a spot for just one night. However, we had a 6+ hour drive ahead of us and reservations for an activity at 1:30pm the following day. Based on prior experience (almost missing our float trip through the Tetons), we realized it would be better to get a few hours of driving done tonight. We found a Harvest Hosts location and unfortunately arrived after it had closed. It was called The Winery at Holy Cross Abbey and it looked so charming! We were disappointed that we didn’t get a chance to taste some of their wines.
After a good night of sleep, we made a quick pit stop to grab some things at the nearby Walmart and we were on our way to the next adventure!
