Rocky Mountain National Park

On Saturday we took Melanie, Christine, and Ian to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was actually the first time that we had gone as well. We have contemplated it several times, but decided against it, because it is about a 90-120 minute drive. Having visitors inspired us to make the trip though, and it was quite fun. We first stopped in Estes Park at the visitors center to get some maps. Then we had some lunch in the park on Riverside Drive. It will forever be remembered as the saltiest lunch ever. Friday night I had dumped the remaining ice and salt from making ice cream into the cooler to keep the food cold for our lunch. I put everything in plastic containers, but some of the icy, salty, water got into some of the containers. The garbanzo bean salad was the worst, and Clare ate a bunch before she realized what I had done with the salt. The cherries also got salty, which we decided actually tasted pretty good. Fortunately some of the pasta salad was still good, as was the cheese and hummus.

After lunch we wet to Bear Lake Meadows, and did some hiking. We hiked about 1 mile to Alberta Falls, which was very beautiful, though a bit more crowded than we had expected. We then hiked back to Glacier Gorge and took the shuttle bus back to the Bear Lake parking lot. On our way home we stopped at the Southern Sun brewpub in Boulder, where the beers were all tasty, and the sweet potato chips were endless, because when the waiter asked how they were, we mentioned that the guacamole that came with them was barely mashed at all, and they had yet to give us any silverware with which we could have mashed it ourselves. I think we ended up with 3 or 4 baskets of chips. As usual, Spencer was very happy while hiking, and we all had a very nice day.