Backpacks, Rain & Hikes...Oh My!

It is starting to be a tradition to go backpacking with Nancy and her family during the summer. This year we went to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. We camped for a couple of days in the tent trainer and then did a couple of days of backpacking. While we backpacked Race stayed with Grandma and Grandpa back at the main camp site.

The first full day there we did some small hikes and saw some places. We hiked to the head waters of the Colorado river. I had to stay in the car because Race was sleeping but Ron got some great pictures on their hike.


The next day we started the backpacking part of our trip. Here is a picture of Nancy, Gwen {family friend}, Chloe and Phoebe and all the packs. Here we are out on the trail. It was a little hot and the packs were heavy. But we made it to the camp site.


The next day started real early for part of our group. Darrell, Nancy, Kyle, Jared and Gwen headed out to summit Longs Peak at 4:30 am. We started out at 8 am to hike to a glacier lake. We made it to the turn off and found out that it wouldn't be the best for the kids so we rested and headed back to camp. The girls did about 6 miles that day. They are great hikers.After we got back we had lunch and then our other group joined us about an hour later. We all agreed that we didn't want to spend another 1/2 day and full night in the tents due to rain again so we quickly packed up our site and packed out of there that day. More miles for the girls. My parents were happy to see that we were off the mountain and Race was even more happy to see his family again. The next day we did a couple more little hikes around the park and walked the streets of Estes Park, CO.


We headed home on I-70, much prettier but much longer than the I-80 way. We were all happy to get home and get clean. Now is when I start thinking....where are we going next year?