Conor and I chose to hike to the reservoir this day, in our continued effort to follow the spring-time bloom up the mountain. Although we are clearly still a week too early, just as we were at Picture Rock last week just down the mountain 1000 ft, the scenery was still spectacular. The trail itself winds down the mountain with heavy pine shading us from the sun. After more than 2 miles we get our first peak of the meadow which was just past our half-way mark to Button Rock Reservoir. It was here that nature told us of our early arrival; most of the bushes were just beginning to sprout some small leaves. All the larger flowering plants were still brown with only the smallest of flowers beginning to bloom. Only the grass itself was half-awake to give us a healthy green. It was extremely peaceful here with no other sounds but the wind running through the trees. I plan to come back out here (real soon) to do some camping and exploring.

We stopped only long enough to snap some photos before continuing on the remaining 1.5 miles to the Reservoir, which happens to be about 800 ft lower down the mountainside. 800 ft over a mile doesn’t sound like much but that is a 15% grade… non-stop for 1 full mile of the remaining 1.5… most mountain highways never exceed 8% and cars with 100+ horsepower struggle to maintain speed at that incline. Obviously, it is easier going down, but the knees take a beating. It was much tougher coming back up the trail, which Conor made me do in a a single shot as he had my water bottle and was leading me by 30 feet… also refusing to stop so I could drink. I surely built up some butt-muscles this day!

After a total of 4 miles, down 1400 ft in altitude, we reached the Button Rock Reservoir where we hung out for 20 minutes before turning about to repeat the entire trail in reverse. This was the first time we had taken a trail that was downhill first, with the exit going up. Even with the increased difficulty, we made it back up to the car (4 miles away) in 1.5 hours although my body will be suffering for a few days after.

I’m happy we finally came out to this area of the forest. It will certainly be revisited soon, when the flowers begin to bloom. And since it is only 20 minutes from Longmont, Timmy and I can come out here for some overnight backpacking with ease.

We began our hike just as the sun was rising to make sure there was ample time before I had to work. This gave us some spectacular lighting in the early part of the trail. After a very mildly paced stroll of 2 hours we reached the hold homestead where we hung out for another hour taking pictures.

We got pretty lucky this time around, spotting a fair share of wildlife an getting many of them photographed. A flock of wild turkey, a small group of deer, and a coyote being chased by a Jay bird (they were both fighting over the carcass of an animal) is a pretty good days hike.

Along came Jr… a 1972 Compact Jr with a whopping 60 sq ft of space (the Nomad was 100 sq ft, while the van is 72 sq ft) and weighing in at under 1000 pounds making this the lightest camping trailer known to man (I made that up). The van doesn’t even know it is there and I suspect even my Datsun could pull this thing with little problem.

Another great little feature is the pop-up top; When up, even I can stand up straight. When down, the trailer just fits into a normal size garage, and you can still get in there and move about.

Now, it is time to gut it and do a complete rebuild with the knowledge gained from building up the van over the past year…

After a half-morning here, we planned to BBQ at the nearest rest stop for lunch before continuing on back over the Rocky’s towards Interstate 25… however, the rest stop did not allow any form of fire (not even propane stoves) so we had to move out. We quickly arrived at a regional park where we BBQ some late-lunch before settling into another hotel.  300 miles separate us from home all of which would be knocked out before afternoon the next day.

We had a 1100 mile, 5 day adventure as a family. Tim napped more then I have ever seen, and Imelda got to visit her first 3 National Parks ever. You know me, I’m just happy driving around in the van :-)

Before entering the park we came across “newspaper rock”. This slab or hillside was covered with drawings from well back in history. We came to the agreement that the natives spotted many aliens and had a thing for feet :-)

Tim and I went out for a short exploratory hike towards Elephant Hill where we ran into a small scorpion (exciting for us both) but the wind chased us back to the van before venturing too far out. After a quick lunch, Imelda and I explored another half-mile trail around the only source of fresh-water in the area. This trail, known as Cave Spring, took us along an old cowboy camp and up on top of the sandstone before bringing us back to the waiting van and Timmy.

While the Needles section of Canyon’s may not have the views as the Island in the Sky section, it is much more suited for hiking and biking. If I had a few days, I’d love to have stayed here and hiked many of the 6-10 mile trails that bring you up into the “needles” of sandstone formations. With mid-afternoon approaching, we wanted to make it into Cortez, CO to get a hotel (fingers crossed) and a good night’s sleep before Mese Verde Ntnl Park in the monring.

We departed Saturday afternoon with the aim to make it all the way into Moab, UT before 11pm where we would get a hotel room for the night. This didn’t work out so well with all hotels full when we arrived, and the 3 of us camping out in the van at the local visitor’s center.  Imelda was not pleased, but we made it work.

We woke and paid visit to the Denny’s in town for a breakfast and bathroom run before heading straight to the hotel to book a room for the upcoming night. This night, Sunday, we were actually going to stay at a campground, but the night before ruined that plan…

With the hotel room reserved, we entered Arches National Park. This was Timmy’s 2nd trip (my 4th or so) and more importantly, Imelda’s first. Timmy was very excited to show his mom all the sights that amazed him two years prior starting with what we have named ‘echo-rock’. This large formation was our first introduction to Arches in 2010. When Timmy and I stopped here back then, we woot’d an holler’d at the rock only to be answered back by ourselves. Timmy made sure to illustrate for Imelda before we were back on our way…

A little further down the road was the famous Balanced Rock (named for obvious reasons) where we stopped for another bathroom break and to hike out to the nearby ‘Window’ arches and Turrent Arch. Imelda was so anxious to get out of the van after a full day and most of the morning in it, she bolted off for a morning jog up the trail. We eventually caught up to her to walk the short trail together.

Our grand-finale to Arches Ntnl Park was to hike the 1.5 mile trail out to Delicate Arch. I hiked this a few months prior and it (the arch) absolutely amazed me and I really wanted to show Timmy and Imelda this feat of nature. Although the weather report expected 85 degrees, it was much cooler than that thankfully. Even with the cooler temps, it was a taxing hike. It is not a long trail, or an especially difficult one by the standards of trails, but for some reason this one always feels more difficult then it really is… maybe because I have done it first thing in the morning both times? It did not take long before we were at the Arch, where we spent a fair amount of time gawking and taking pictures; Tim and Imelda posed under the arch and I lost a lens-cap to the pit below.

Now, with mid-afternoon approaching, we decided to head back into Moab to shower and eat before heading back up for the sunset in the ‘Island in the sky’. In some respects this was a mistake. The shower tired us all, and the meal (uber-fantastic mexican food) made us all bloated and ready for sleep. By the time we got back up to Canyonlands Timmy had fallen asleep in the back of the van, and both Imelda and I were near coma-toast ourselves. We did make it in time to get the view an the sunset before slowly making our way back to the hotel for the night.

Across Poudre Canyon, looking North

Our time-window to complete this hike was pretty limited thanks to my work schedule. With only 2.5 hours we set a pretty quick pace up the first half mile or so before the trail began to get very tight. It was hard to keep track of and the trees and rocks slowed our speed dramatically. We hiked another half mile, much of it down hill, before seriously questioning where this trail was leading us. We stopped to compare Conor’s GPS with our map and it became apparent that we lost the trail and were likely on some game-trail.

The view East, down Poudre Canyon

We re-traced our steps to a point we were 100% sure that we were on the proper trail, but by this time we lost too much time to go for the peak of the mountain. Instead we settled on the 2-mile, Kreutzer Nature Trail (we were already on it) by not taking the turn to head up to the peak. While still a nice trail, the wind had been taken out of our sails to go all the way to the top.

Next time we will pay more attention to where we are and the trail we are too follow. Bah!

Very little snow in the park this year

Conor and I ran up to Rocky Mtn Ntnl Park on Monday to get in our first hike of the year. Our last hike together was in the snow, late last year, so it is fitting that we start this year with a snow-hike as well. Sadly, I left my snow-shoes in California so we had to choose a trail that was not deep powder snow, but that still left us many options in the park as most of the trails are well traveled enough that the trails are well packed.

Looking across frozen Bear Lake (alt 9500ft)

Our first choice was to go to Chasm Falls, but the park road turned out to be closed so we shot across the park to Alberta Falls but the snow level (and wind) was too high for my non-water-proof boots. Since we were so close to Bear Lake, we drove up there just to snap a picture before heading into the Moraine Park area of RMNP.

The 'Pool'

Being the lowest part of the park, the trails here were not as heavily snow-packed. Our choice was a fairly level trail that led to the “pool” (a large pool of water with a bridge over the stream). Although the trail is only 1.7 miles one way, we were forced to park 1 mile away and hike in to the trail head as once again, the road was closed.

The frozen stream leading into the forest away from the 'pool'

The hike itself was fairly straight forward… in fact I’d say it was slightly easier than usual with the layer of hard packed snow on the trail making for a level surface to hike on as opposed to the rocks that your ankles normally have to deal with. It was so much warmer in this section of the park, we were quickly down to just a T-shirt to complete the hike.

An hour and a half out and one hour back is all it took. It felt good to be back in RMNP. I have, once again, promised myself to spend this season exploring the park that I have neglected for 3 years. It is only 40 minutes up the road but I rarely go up there. Not this time… I’m ready to spend less money on gas and more time in RMNP and the surrounding National Forests.

Off picture, the untold story: For every show still hanging on the tree, another has fallen off and is sitting in the creek bed below the tree. There is literally a dam of shoes blocking and contaminating the creek. If the tree is “romantic” the creek is very much it’s opposite.