Colorado Trip: Part 3

If you'll recall, I left you (looooong ago) wondering if we gathered everybody up and made it to Sprague Lake in time for a picnic before dark on our second day in Estes Park.


Turns out, most everybody made it for dinner at the last minute, and we even got to the lake, cooked, and ate before dark.

Except for the s'mores. Which we toasted over a propane-powered grill on coat hangers by the light of flashlights. It was quite satisfying. And quite remarkable that with only 15 minutes to gather supplies we managed to remember to load up supplies for s'mores! (And by "we" I mean John's mom because John, his sister, and I had to run to the corner grocery store in those 15 minutes to buy more ground beef and hamburger buns.)

By the way, we also had plenty-o-food with lots to spare!

The whole ordeal event was sealed as the perfect idea when we arrived at the lake and saw a beautiful rainbow in the sky.

(Sorry I do not have a picture of the rainbow. We were a little busy carting the grill and picnic supplies to the lake in order to start cooking ASAP while there was still light.)

But, more importantly, we DO have a picture of this:


This photo was captured by John's cousin because our little pocket-sized camera does not quite have the capability of capturing good photos at dusk.

Or maybe I do not have the capability of taking good pictures in low light. Whatever.

I could hardly believe my eyes when we first caught a glimpse of the lake. I thought what I was seeing standing in the water was a horse. But no. It had antlers...like a moose. I have never seen a moose on the Estes Park side of the national park. We've seen them way up high on the other side of the great divide, but never down at Sprague Lake!

I have to say, watching the moose was a highlight of the evening. Or maybe the rainbow. Or the fellowship. Or the gorgeous weather. OK. The entire evening was a blast.

The next day John, his parents, and I drove up Fall River Road to the Alpine Visitor Center. Again, the four-wheel-drive came in handy driving up this one-way dirt road in Rocky Mountain National Park with great views. We got back down to Estes Park (no thanks to the extensive construction happening on Trail Ridge Road - the route back down to town) just in time to join more family and those who couldn't make the previous night's picnic for lunch at The Baldpate Inn. We had a large party, but if you ever eat there with less than 12 people, try and get a table on the enclosed porch to enjoy awesome views of the mountains along with your soup, salad, bread, and chocolate pie.

And you must try the chocolate pie..and the cornbread if they have it.

That evening we spent time with family and friends playing Bananagrams (I won! Once.), Hand-and-Foot, and putting together a puzzle of Frosty the Snowman (still not sure why we were putting together Frosty in July...but it was fun).

Unfortunately at this point in the week we were over the halfway mark of the vacation, and everything is a downhill slide toward having to go home. It's a little sad, but we still had some great times ahead of us the next two days...which I will write about later. Right now my tummy is telling me we should be eating dinner soon.