Rocky mountain Nat'l Park

Greeley, Colorado

When our older kids were little and we lived in Greeley we used to take them to Rocky Mountain National Park. Since we are visiting Greeley now it seemed appropriate to begin our national park tours with an old favorite. The last time we visited we probably had five children. Maybe six. Our memories of those sleepless years are a little dim sometimes. Either way, they were all six or under. Visiting with children who all walk on their own is a lot easier. I highly recommend it. Kudos to all those people out there hiking with toddlers and wearing babies on their backs! When we first drove into the park I told the kids to look out for wildlife: "elk, moose and big horn sheep," I said, but Fionn was sure I said "big orange sheep" and we all got a good laugh out of that. Also, I am not at all sure there are even moose IN Rocky, it doesn't seem impossible, but also I have never seen one.

I had a plan laid out to see as much of the park as possible in just one day. My plan didn't quite take into account that when we got there at 9 am, the parking lot at Bear Lake would already be full and we would need to park at the park n' ride and wait in line for a shuttle. But that was exactly what happened and that is exactly what we did, so we didn't actually get to Bear Lake until about 10 am, after a relatively harrowing journey in a packed shuttle around narrow, curving mountain roads, courtesy of a park ranger who probably never thought his career would include driving a shuttle bus. 

Bear Lake is the hike we used to take our little kids on. The little kids who are now all grown up. Its a very easy, nice path all the way around the lake and we could do it with toddlers then. So that is where we started this time too. We even had our grown niece with us who used to come here too when we all lived closer. There was still snow in some of the shadier spots along the trail. What you can't see in my pictures is that we were far from alone on these trails, these were very popular trails, hence the necessity of a shuttle.



What we didn't used to do was take the other hike that begins at the same trail head as Bear Lake, but to the left instead of to the right where Bear Lake is. This trail goes up past three more lakes. And even though the park's website also classifies this hike as 'easy,' it is definitely a tad more strenuous than the walk around Bear Lake and though I recall always being a little disappointed that we didn't try for the longer hikes, I can't imagine walking these with little people. The first lake along this trail is Nymph Lake.

When we had left the house that morning, I had decided to wear sandals because Fionnula only had sandals to wear. I thought that if I too wore sandals I would have a good idea if the hiking was becoming too strenuous for her footwear. Well, by the time we reached Dream Lake we were already traversing across some pretty serious snow pack in areas, and in a few spots the trail had been mostly submerged under snow melt too. So we didn't make it to Emerald Lake this time, Dream was as far as we went. I am not real keen on publicly slipping and falling on ice as I did witness at least one other hiker do. I am also not anxious to fall into ice cold water, and at one spot on the trail we could look back at where we had come and see that some of the 'shoreline' we had come across was nothing but snow overhanging the river with a good current rushing under it. My children were much less bothered by this than was I, and were happily launching snowballs into the lake, but still we headed back down.



After our possibly even more harrowing shuttle ride back to our car, a bathroom stop where one little boy loudly informed his mother that he "could see the SEWERS in there!" and our lunch of chips and sandwiches consumed seated on the ground at one of the pull outs along the road, we began part two of our visit: the drive over Trail Ridge Road. There are lots of places along the road to pull off and take in the views, and spot chipmunks, and watch the melting snow pour down the hillside in waterfalls.

But mostly, we headed to the top and the Alpine Visitor's Center, where we were grateful to find bathrooms with actual flushing toilets and sinks. The Alpine Ridge trail ascends up the mountain from the visitor center parking lot. It looks friendly enough, and it is only about a 1/4 mile up, but it was harder on me than I would really like to admit. Thank goodness I at least already live in Colorado and so the altitude change was less for me than for many visitors, or I think I may have passed out cold. In fact I am surprised that people weren't dropping like flies and just rolling, unconscious down the hill. At the top I was amused to hear people who had moments before been huffing and puffing up the hill now gesturing boldly towards peaks in the distance that didn't "look too bad," they were sure they "could probably do that one." Ha! The trip is more than worth the view though. Not to mention the opportunity to take a photo proving the elevation you have obtained!

We drove on a little further after the visitors center and the Alpine Ridge Trail to reach the continental divide, where Liam expressed mild disappointment that there was not a river right there dramatically splitting in two and draining to the west on one side and to the east on the other. I can't quite picture what he was expecting. At the continental divide we turned around and went back over and down trail ridge road, someday I hope we can continue on to Grand Lake, and the west side of the park. Instead of going right back out the entrance we came through that morning, we turned left at Deer Ridge Junction towards Horseshoe Park. It was getting late but I still had one more place I really wanted to visit!

The alluvial fan was amazing! My favorite place we saw in the park that day, so I am really glad we took the little extra time to go around this way. I am pretty partial to water features on my hiking trails, and this did not disappoint. There was no real 'hike' involved. We parked in a parking area and walked across boulder strewn sands, sometimes having to climb right over said boulders, to reach the water which is roaring around a corner and over the side of the mountain. There are, or were, hiking trails in the area but my understanding is that they are currently being reconstructed because of the flood in 2013. But we were content to just sit by the water anyway, dipping feet in a few still areas and listening to the sound of rushing water.

The way out of the park from here passes through meadows full of flowers and prairie dogs and we finally spotted one, single, big horn sheep posing on the mountain for us! I think everyone was suitably impressed, but Fionnula did say "He's not orange, which is sort of disappointing."

Making Plans

Greeley, Colorado

We are in full on planning mode for our epic summer/ early fall road trip. Starting in November, we hope to travel fairly slowly, staying in place for weeks and even months at a time, but the next few months aren't going to play out that way. Between now and October, we will be visiting 8 states and at least as many national parks, attending one family reunion, picking up two returning missionaries, and dropping off two students at college.

We started the planning process months ago, discussing with the kids where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do. The overwhelming opinion was that they wanted to visit National Parks. A few specifically: Redwoods, Sequoia and Yosemite. We also knew we needed to start from Idaho where we would be spending July 4th with our big kids. So, working from eastern Idaho, we began to plot our trip.

While we have planned many shorter family trips over the years, this trip is way more extensive than we have previously done. Still the process is similar. Typically Kris and I work through our plans using google maps, google calendar, and airbnb.

First we plotted a trip that would take us through the places we wanted to go. There was a lot of tweaking involved as we checked mileage and hours of driving between destinations. We have to balance our desire to not drive more than about 5 hours in a day with a certain amount of urgency to get to everywhere we want to be in what is a fairly limited amount of time. We also are not crazy about too many one night stays, because that means a hotel, and, especially since with six people that requires two rooms, that is the most expensive way we can stay. So, most days have 5 hours or less of driving. Some do not.

Next step was the calendar. We started by putting in the places we had to be at certain times: family reunion, picking up RM #1, dropping kids at college, picking up RM #2. Then we could fill in the time in between with our other stops. We had to make lots of decisions about where we would stay longer and where we would essentially drive through. Sometimes we had to sacrifice a few places or things because we just would not have enough time to see it all right now. That is when we remind ourselves that this isn't our one and only chance ever to see the state of Oregon. Which is good, because Oregon is getting seriously short changed on this initial trip.

Then it was time for airbnb. In our enthusiasm we went to airbnb too early with our first destination and planned a week long stay before we really had all our dates right and had to re configure after looking more closely at our calendar. Oops. Kris is primarily the airbnb guy. He finds houses in the locations we are looking at, we review them together, he contacts the renters and secures the location. Airbnb is pretty user friendly. Type in where you want to go, when you want to be there, and how many people you need room for and it will produce a list of available properties. You can sort further by number of bedrooms or bathrooms, internet, swimming pools, price, etc. While airbnb does not give you addresses of the properties, it does give you an approximate area on google maps, so it is at least fun to head to google earth and see if you can find the house, plus it gives you a good idea of the neighborhood.

After several evenings of working through this we now have a pretty good idea where we will be sleeping through about October 15th, which is really good because as of last week we really did not and that was weighing pretty heavily on our minds. Our car is just not adequate for all of us to sleep in, especially when three of us are teenage boys.

St Elmo CO, The Iron City Cemetery, and Another Orthodontist Appointment!

Greeley, Colorado

Wednesday was my birthday. Fionnula had an appointment at 9:20 Wednesday morning back in Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs is 2 1/2 hours from Grandma's house where we are currently staying. Sometimes orthodontist appointments happen, even on birthdays, and in this case we decided that it made sense to schedule an activity that was in yet another town in Colorado. So here is what our quick trip to St Elmo, Colorado, chosen because it fit my requirements of being a ghost town, accessible by car, that was only another 2 ish hours of driving to get there.

6:45 ish: We pile in the car. We had planned to leave at 6:30, but, well, we just didn't. Truthfully, I am just happy we are all there and all brushed our teeth.

8:45: Thanks to an alternative route and amazing traffic, we are already at the orthodontist. I leave Kris there with Fionn and take the boys with me to Safeway. The boys have lots of opinions about lunch. After a lengthy discussion of whether it is worthwhile to buy lettuce for sandwiches without tomatoes, and a vain search for pre-sliced tomatoes, we buy the lettuce but decide that hummus and or cream cheese with no knife to spread them on sandwiches is not happening. In the cookie aisle each boy has different ideas about which cookies are essential, so we get way more cookies than is really necessary and Ronan is criticized excessively for his choice, not because of the kind of cookie but because of the low quantity in the package. When I turn around after picking up meat at the deli counter, Noah and Liam have filled the cart with armfuls of cheeses. They re-stock the cheese display.

9:30: We pick up Kris and Fionn, but not until we have completed a fairly regular ritual in which Kris, trying to get a hold of me, calls all the cell phones in the car in quick succession. None of us answers, either because, as he claims, we never answer our phones or, as we all claim, he hangs up before it even rings twice just so he can say he called a half dozen times. Ronan sees the call as we pull into the parking lot though, we call him back and are able to schedule an August appointment for Fionnula.

We buy gas. We stop at the mall for Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory toffee for Father's Day. And we head to St Elmo.

1:00: We arrive in St Elmo. We park just outside of town, open our trunk and eat our lunch mostly standing around our car. There is a river running by and lots of mountain scenery to take in even just standing in the dusty pullout parking area. It is actually a little chilly standing in the wind listening to the water and it feels pretty great after the heat of the northern Colorado plains. Ronan is fiercely protective of the Garden Salsa chips that he thought we should buy two bags of but which we only ended up buying one of so that the second bag would be a flavor Fionn likes. Turns out most of us like the garden salsa variety.

We walk through the town's main street. Most of the buildings are marked with a date, a family name and sometimes with the occupation of the home's owner: "shoemaker." Except for the reconstructed courthouse (the original burned) and the general store, which is an operating souvenir shop, you cannot go inside the buildings as they are now privately owned. They are mostly vacant though, so we still did a lot of peering through windows, and Ronan still tried many doorknobs. At the end of the street there is a grove of aspen trees, that must be gorgeous in the fall and a short path down to the riverbank.

Back in town, we turn off the main road towards Tin Cup pass. Back in the trees are more houses, some of these are modern homes with people sitting on their porches observing the flow of tourists, but there are also several more from the late 1800s, and there are fewer people making their way back here to see them. The schoolhouse is up this road too. You can only go into the schools' entry, from there you can see into the main room but not enter. It is fully furnished with desks and blackboards, a huge stove in the center, readers on the shelves, even glasses resting on the teacher's desk as though everyone has just stepped out.

On our way back to the car we stop to watch other people feeding the town's somewhat famous 'tame' chipmunks who will eat seeds right out of the hands of tourists. Hummingbirds are also abundant and we stop to watch them gathering at feeders near the store. Ronan reaches out and pets one as it feeds!

Driving back out of town we turn towards Iron City. I know there is a cemetery up this road somewhere. We nearly turn around twice because it seems too far from town and my memory of seeing a cemetery here thirty years ago is possibly not all that reliable. However, past the campground we find it, and bonus the campground we determinedly drive through has a bathroom.  We explore the cemetery briefly. Fionnula is particularly struck by the grave of two toddler sisters. Many graves are marked only by pain wooden headstones with no engraving at all, but a list posted at the entrance to the cemetery informs you of names, dates, and usually even cause of death: fell 75 feet down a mine shaft, gas in the mine, miner's lung, found frozen to death two months after he disappeared, died in an explosion when he was thawing his dynamite by the fire.

3:30: We head home. I napped during the morning drive, so it is only fair that I take over for at least a portion of the return drive and let Kris have a rest. The drive home over the mountains and through Fairplay is pretty great all on its own. The kids continue to eat from the leftover foods from lunch making a dinner stop unnecessary in my opinion and I start focusing on finding an ice cream place.

6:00: We finally find ice cream in Conifer after resorting to asking google maps and google maps totally came through for us. After asking the nice ice cream lady to describe in detail every chocolate flavors they have, I choose blueberry cheesecake and peach melba. I regret nothing.

7:30 We arrive back at Grandma's in time for Kris and I to still take an evening walk.

We could easily have spent more time in the area. The Mount Princeton hot springs are close by, there are hiking trails everywhere, including some to more remote ghost towns and another to an old railroad tunnel. The mountains all around are full of old mining ruins. But sometimes all you get is an afternoon after a less than convenient orthodontist appointment.

Medieval Festival

Greeley, Colorado

We are in Northern Colorado for one month. Kris is still working and Fionnula has a few more orthodontist appointments, so we can't quite leave the state, but we are enjoying time with family, continuing to test our ideas of life and school without a true home-base, and trying to have a few adventures along the way. Our mini adventure this week was the Colorado Medieval Festival in Loveland, Colorado. Unless you want to count the trip back to the Springs for a couple orthodontist appointments, one planned, one not so much. We did get to go out for the best burgers ever at a restaurant we sadly only discovered about a month before our move. And we did get to visit with friends who we already miss lots. But I am going to have to count Loveland as our actual 'field-trip' this week.

This is only year three for this festival and it was small. Parking was an adventure as it was just in a big grassy, bumpy field outside the festival, and because we arrived ever so slightly before 10 am opening time, they didn't charge us to park either. They said they weren't going to start charging until 10. I suspect they just weren't quite set up yet to take money. Whatever. Once inside the gates, two different people suggested to us that we might want maps, then when we asked for one we were told that there were none. Haha! They have gone paperless. Good for them, except..... if you are going to refer people to your Facebook page for a schedule of events, you may want to make sure there is a cell signal in your remote location. We really didn't need a map in the end though, once we had wandered through we had a good idea of what was where.

Right away we were greeted by a magician whose vague understanding of when and where his own show was going to be guaranteed that we never did get to see said show, but he did perform a trick just for us with Fionn as his assistant.  He gave Fionnula a little foam bunny to hold in her hand, instructed her to squeeze her hand closed and make a wish. When she opened her hand--ta da!--two bunnies! He kept this up for awhile until he produced a whole litter of mini foam bunnies in her palm. Later Fionnula told me that she was impressed but that she had actually wished for fishy crackers because "it was all I could think of!"

 We got to see a few different sword fighting displays. These ranged from an almost slap-stick humorous version with the crowd cheering and booing to a pretty serious looking duel between opponents sweating in what must have been at least 100 pounds of armor and passing out baseball card-like pics of themselves complete with teams, statistics and awards listed. And then there were the two guys who took turns swinging their swords at full water bottles that the other would chuck into the air, attempting to slice said water bottles in half. By this point in the day, Noah was so thirsty that he was openly mourning each destroyed water bottle. One place let us actually hold a rapier as someone explained in an extremely enthusiastic manner all the details of his beloved sport.

At the back of the festival, behind the vendors and belly dancers and sword fighters and kids game tables, they were holding a Scottish games competition. A few of these games I have never witnessed before. Like when they stood beneath what looked a little like a football goal post and tossed an iron ball directly over their heads trying to get it to go back over the cross bar. Didn't know that was a thing. And I don't know how they avoided whacking themselves on the head either. Then basically the same thing only with a bag of straw that they tossed from the end of a pitchfork. Really. And there was the spinning hammer toss thing and the throwing a big heavy rock thing and, best of all, heaving basically an entire tree trunk and flipping it end over end. One giant of a kilted man with long, dark, curly hair, kept not quite getting his tree trunk to flip over and each time he would throw a small temper tantrum, stomping his feet and yelling like an angry three year old. An angry three year old who can throw tree trunks. Just not always accurately.

Other highlights included: curly fries, corn dogs and funnel cakes, Fionnula shooting arrows for the first time ever, and numerous attendees dressed in costumes including many fairies, lots of kilts, and one man who sported a half vest (no shirt) with what looked like chicken bones arranged along the tops of his shoulders that then ended in rabbit fur shoulder pads. Classic.

Returning 'home'

Greeley, Colorado

Our first stop on our travels was to return to Greeley, where I grew up and where Kris and I went to college, got married, and where seven of our kids were born. The oldest of the children who are currently traveling with us was the last to be born here, and we moved before he was one, so none of them remember living here. Their grandparents are still here though, in fact we are staying at Grandma's house, so they are not completely unfamiliar with the area. Still we took an afternoon this week to take them on a 'tour' of significant places from our pasts. 

We didn't stick to chronological order, as that would have required too much back and forth across the city, even so, our first stop was the house I grew up in. We just drove by, pausing briefly across the street to take a picture. But when we took them to the homes we actually lived in as a family, we made them get out of the car and pose in front of the houses ever so briefly. We tried to be pretty stealthy, but even so we got some weird looks from neighbors at at least one of the houses. 

House number one. It's back there, I swear. Behind the tiny pine tree we planted.

House number 2. Noah was a baby in this house.

We also went by our first apartment together, and Kris and I did get out and do a quick walk by the front door. The sketchiness of the neighborhood seemed decidedly more pronounced than it did when we were college students.

We took them by most of the schools I attended growing up, beginning with my junior high because it was only a few blocks from my house. I was explaining how I had walked to school as we drove my basic route. We turned up the road I walked every school day through eighth and ninth grades, the football field and track were to our right just like I remembered, and then we turned left into what I thought was definitely the parking lot of John Evans Jr High (probably middle school by now). It still looked like a parking lot, a very badly kept one, but where the school should have been was a big, empty field. Well that was a surprise. My kids are probably all worried about my state of mind now, so sure I had attended school where plainly there was none. So later we drove by my high school and elementary school too, just to verify they still existed.

Central HS, looking very intact, thank goodness.

When we got to the university, we parked and got out to walk the campus. I think I heard the kids issue an audible sigh of relief when Kris returned from checking the doors to his old freshman residence hall to report that the building was locked. Unlike the dorms though (and every other building on campus), the music hall was open, and dedicated music students were actually spending their Memorial Day in a few of the practice rooms. The kids plainly expected to be arrested at any moment, but still dutifully followed their dad into the building. They became braver the longer we were there with no sign of a SWAT team swooping in and soon were comfortably wandering and wondering if they could try out the freight elevator. 

We took them from one side of campus to the other. When we passed this: 

Fionnula read "Presented by the class of 1910," and asked,"was that your class, Mom?" Umm, no, but considering that once her older brothers, reading about an extinct volcano that was thought to have last erupted 60,000 years ago, asked me if I remembered it happening, well, I take this as an improvement. Its the right century at least.

And of course we had to demonstrate the famous diagonal cross walk that connects the old part of campus to the new. When someone pushes the crosswalk button, the traffic lights turn red in all directions so pedestrians can just cross diagonally right through the intersection. Its a fabulous innovation. If you are a pedestrian anyway.

It was a fun afternoon reminiscing.

The new-ish bear statue on campus.