Colorado!!

For the past few days, C and I enjoyed all things Colorado!  It was absolutely beautiful as the aspens were showing off all their color!  We fished, hiked, went horseback riding and sat by the firepit every night!

C has a week off for fall break(of course, S is on a different schedule so she is not off!) and I have been wanting to take a non-winter trip to Colorado for a long time!  So.... we went!!

We flew in on Sunday, 9/28 and with time difference and by the time we got our rental car and a quick dinner and made the drive to Estes Park, we were coming in at dark!  It was a tough, curvy drive and threatened to rain as we drove!  I'm so thankful it did not rain because it was stressful enough as it was!  We finally arrived and were just in time to grab some of the s'mores ingredients they had sitting out and C took off to make himself one at the firepit by the river!  A great start;)

Monday, 9/29 we woke up early, walked to breakfast across the river and then found our way downtown to meet up with our fly fishing guide!  We spent the next four hours fishing the dam area first and then fished inside Rocky Mountain National Park!  C caught so many fish!  I managed three... haha!  We were bouldering our way up the rivers and C was catching them left and right!  When we finished fishing, we were both starving and went back into town to Smokin' Dave's BBQ!  It was really good and quick service!  Afterwards C was able to fish in the river by our hotel to his heart's content while I shopped in the shops downtown.  I was finally able to get him to take a break from fishing to grab dinner at Claire's where I had some delicious tacos.  Then back to the hotel for MORE fishing and fire pit sitting:)  

Sunrise by the river at the hotel

Our hotel could not have been more perfect for
this trip!

Fishing before our fishing trip!  Check out those
beautiful trees!

Early morning in Downtown Estes Park

First stop - fishing by the dam

2nd stop - fishing in Rocky Mountain
National Park

Bouldering was wearing me out at this point;)
C was actually sore for the next couple of
days from it, so it wasn't just me!  And the 
altitude was making it extra rough on us!

Saw this guy just chilling as we left RMNP!

Dinner at Claire's!

I really enjoyed our nightly fire pit time!

Tuesday, 9/30(my 45th birthday!!) we were up early again!  We ate breakfast at a different(better!) place on the other side of town and then got an early start into the park before we had to have a timed entry pass to enter!  Success!  We were there really early and drove the Old Fall River Road, the dirt road that leads up to Alpine Visitor Center.  We met some people that were also driving up and kinda befriended them as we made stops along the way! C ended up seeing them again while he was fishing in town - he had connected with one of the men because that man was a big fisherman too:)  We made it to the top and then walked up a LOT of stairs at a very high altitude to get above the 12000ft mark!  Whew!  And it was soooo cold up there!  Amazing the difference from there, which was considered the tundra with snow still on the mountains, and back down at Estes Park.  On the way back into town, we went back Trail Ridge Road which is the main road in and out and is paved.  When we got back to town, C fished some more(of course!) and I got a hot chocolate from Coffee on the Rocks!  After a while, we were both hungry and went to Notchtop for lunch(and also picked up lunch to go for tomorrow!) and after that I took a short walk and then headed up to the room for a quick little nap while C did was C did the whole trip - fished!  We then went to National Park Gateway Stables for a two hour horseback riding excursion through RMNP!  Oh my!  The aspens were so amazing and as we rode we were in the middle of the elk rut and there was bugling all around us!  We even ended up having to pass right by a HUGE buck which was very unnerving as our guide told us that horses were perceived as threats by elk!  Gulp!!  But, we made it back! By now, we are ready for dinner and took a recommendation from our fishing guide and went to the Rock Inn Mountain Tavern where C made sure the waitress knew it was my birthday and brought me(and C who ate most of it!) a dessert!  We made it an early night as this had been a very busy day and we had to get up the next morning extra early!

Morning sunrise over RMNP... so pretty!

Greeted by an elk...

and a mule deer!

Chasm Falls

Some places on the road made me a bit nervous,
I'm thankful it was a dry drive!

SNOW!

The altitude change caused the trail mix
bag to completely puff up!

They highest point of our trip - 12,005ft!

The terrain changed dramatically as we
descended back down to Estes Park!

Coffee on the Rocks

Downtown Estes Park

Spotted this kid while on my walk

So many fish were caught this trip!

Wednesday, 10/1 we were up extra early with our lunch packed for the park!  We had our timed entry ticket to the most popular part of the park and then found out the government was shut down and they would not be checking passes so everyone could go in!  Oh great!  We opted to get McDonald's for breakfast since it was the fastest thing we could do and then joined a long line of cars going into RMNP's Bear Lake area.  Ugh!  I was so thankful when we got to the parking lot at Bear Lake and were able to get a parking spot!  Our whole day was planned around having our car to come back and forth to for lunch!  We watched the sunrise over Bear Lake(so absolutely breathtaking!) and C was able to fish as we hiked around the lake!  Then, even though the trail up to Emerald Lake was supposed to be having work done to it, the government wasn't working, so who was going to stop us;)  We hiked to Nymph Lake then to Dream Lake and on to Emerald Lake!  It was so stunning to see these lakes!  C fished each of the lakes(unfortunately not catching anything as these trout were well fed with lots of natural bugs to eat so they were very picky!) as we hiked!  We came back down to the car and had a quick lunch that we'd packed and then hiked to Alberta Falls which also had an option to start at the same parking lot so we didn't have to find another parking spot!  C kinda gave out at this point and was done with hiking, but I sure did enjoy it!  We then got our car and drove to Sprague Lake where the brook trout were spawning and C caught tons of those while I hiked around the lake!  Both of us were happy this way;)  We finally chose to leave the park and catch our breaths back at the hotel before heading out to dinner.  But first, a couple of more lakes to try and fish!  My favorite reflection lake ended up being Lily Lake with is part of RMNP but in a completely different area and right off the main highway.  We ended up staying there longer than we'd thought, so I ordered a dinner from Smokin' Dave's BBQ to go and we took it back and ate it while sitting at the fire pits at the hotel to enjoy a relaxing last night in Colorado!

Sunrise fishing at Bear Lake

The sun coming up over the rocks was so pretty

After fishing around Bear Lake we started the
hike up to the other lakes

First up, Nymph Lake.  This one was hard
to fish because of all the lily pads!

Dream Lake

The other side of Dream Lake where there were
 so many trout!  Just picky trout!

Emerald Lake

I love Colorado!

C tried fishing Dream Lake on our way back 
to the car, but they just would swim up and
look at the bait and mock us!

The hike to Alberta Falls

Aspens were showing off on this trail!

Fishing Sprague Lake

Lily Lake reflections!

Today we were up extra early again to drive back down to Denver to fly home!  It's always good to get home, but this was a great trip and I wasn't quite ready to leave!!