Wednesday 26th rest day

Wednesday 26th... Rest Day

Wednesday we took another day off from hiking. Monday’s hike up to Sky Pond was pretty strenuous, and we figured we’d better get at least one day of rest in before our big hike up flat top mountain, which is the same distance - 9 miles round trop - but required going up twice the elevation… from 1,500 feet to 3,000 feet. The top of Flat top is at about 12,300 feet.

In the town of Estes Park, they have a dam on the Big Thomson river that provides hydro electric power. So vicki found a little beach on it around 11:00 am - we were definitely in a hurry to get up to Estes park that day - and I went to the library to draw.

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but  we camped just outside of Loveland, which is NOT in the mountains. Extes Park IS in the Rocky Mountains, about 25 miles up a dramatic gorge that follows the Big Thompson river. We camped right next to the river, about 10 feet away from it. Best sleep camping We’ve ever had. The sound of the river drowned out any noise the other campers made.

So every day we drove the 25 miles up this twisty-turny road to Estes Park, which took about 40 minutes, depending on whether all the cars in front of you were from Colorado or not.

We met up around 3:00 and I dragged Vicki into Loveland to see Monsters University, - which we LOVED - instead of sipping cocktails at a picnic table next to the rushing river at camp.

Tomorrow: Gem Lake.