Thursday, July 2, 2009

Vacation Update 2

Okay so as you can see from the previous post I am writing this on the way back from my trip to Colorado. This one was with my family. Last year my mom and dad went out to Estes Park for a week while I was in school and my sister was working. They loved it and we decided to go back this year. We stayed at a friend’s condo in Estes; right behind the condo was fall’s river. If you have ever been to the mountains their rivers are the sizes of our creeks with (depending on the time of year) maybe five times the water flow.
We were set to leave on Saturday afternoon after my sister got off work, well I woke up with a sore throat went to the doctor and was told I probably had strep throat. We decided to not leave until Sunday morning and drove all the way out that day. I had been to the west side of the Rockies before for white water rafting; I fell in love with the Estes area immediately. In case you don’t know Estes Park is right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, needless to say it is an absolutely beautiful area; again if you have never been there GO!
The park has some amazing hikes for any level of fitness, however I do highly suggest going in the morning before the trails get too crowded especially if you love the outdoors and the peacefulness, my dad and I went for hikes three days and were there around 8 and it was perfect. Friday morning my dad and I went fly fishing in the park as well. We hired a guide from a local shop and it was a great experience, he was very helpful and taught us how to properly fly fish. I only caught two fish (a brown, and a greenback cut throat) and my dad caught a cut throat but didn’t know it and it got away. The rivers were quite hard to fish due to the warm weather they have had lately that is rapidly melting the snow melt from higher up in the mountains and glaciers; they have also had an abnormally high amount of rain which raised the rivers even higher and faster. My mom and sister went on a horseback ride Friday morning as well and said it was great.
Downtown Estes Park is an old style with a bunch of different shops and stuff. There are also several great restraunts ranging from American, to Chinese, to Italian. There is also a river walk through downtown along the falls and then the Big Thompson Rivers which meet in downtown. I was able to take a lot of pictures on my phone and parents camera which I will put on facebook when I get the chance.
We left Estes on Friday afternoon and went down to Loveland for the night and stayed with my mom’s aunt and uncle. We went out to dinner to with my mom’s cousins and their family, I didn’t even know these people existed so that was kind of awkward and weird. We are now on our way back (I am writing this on Saturday afternoon the 27th as we get into Iowa).
I will have another update later this week on some rants I have so look for that one. Have a great week! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!