Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Girls Camping Trip

This may just become tradition as Eric went camping and hiking with his guy friends back at the beginning of August so I took the girls up to Rocky Mountain National Park (it's great to still have a 4th Grade Free National Parks Pass).  We got one of the last available campsites in Moraine campground but it was one of the best!  We had trees shade our tent and hold our hammocks with a nice meadow where we could see deer.  It rained lightly off and on until Friday when it didn't want to let up so we came home after a quick jaunt but we got out and saw nature for our two and a half days and two nights in RMNP.

Our Campsite
 On Thursday we went for a hike starting at the Alberta Falls trailhead and going up to lake Haiyaha before coming back down by Dream Lake, Nymph Lake, and Bear Lake.  Here are the girls at Alberta Falls.
 I don't know what it is about cascading waterfalls but I just can't can get enough of them.
 Loved these two converging waterfalls.
 I had the bright idea to say girls, go over and dangle your feet over that rock ledge.  Then my heart started palpitating like crazy!
 This was a fabulous view on the way up to Lake Haiyaha, and of course who doesn't love climbing rocks?
 We didn't think this was the lake, just a nice pond so I snapped a picture.
 Now this was Lake Haiyaha and our very own rock to sit on.

 A gnarly old tree in front of the lake.
 We call this Rachel's playground as she could climb all over the rocks all day long and be in 7th heaven.
 Dream Lake
Nymph Lake

Bear Lake, yes it was drizzling and getting colder, a lot colder than when we started out.
 This was probably the only weekend all summer long where it was chilly and rainy so here we are at our fun wading spot from last year but it was too cold to really go in.
Friday we took a quick trip to "hike" Sprague Lake (3/4 mile around) and we took a side path and saw a moose!


We had smores and campfire, even if we had to put the EZ up over it to keep the rain off.  The girls scrambled all over the rocks near our campsite and hung out in the hammock.  All in all a great adventure.

On the way out of the park but we will be back!