Estes Park Trip: June 8, 2009; Day 3

This morning was another early morning (6:00). My plan was to wake up early to head into town to this great little bakery for their delicious cinnamon bread. You have to get there really early, otherwise they sell out fast. Tyler woke up at the same time, so he and I went together and got a couple of doughnuts as well as the last loaf of cinnamon bread.

Once we got back and at breakfast, my mom, Tyler and I walked to the little general store on campus and then went to the Sweet Memorial Building. It’s where all of the children’s activities are done. I signed Tyler up for an Animal Detectives activity that started a few minutes after we got there. It wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped and it didn’t hold his attention for long, but it was something to do.

Around lunchtime today we a few visitors. About 6 elk decided to hang out around our cabin. Dave and Tyler even got within about 10 feet of one. I wasn’t thrilled about that, but I didn’t know about it until after the fact. We got some good pictures of them and then they just went and hung out under the trees about 20 or 30 feet from the cabin.

After the kids took their naps, we went on a short hike to Alberta falls. It was pretty cold outside, the temperature was around 50 and it was also pretty cloudy. We weren’t sure how far we would make it on the hike given the sketchy weather, but we managed to get up and down with only a few drizzles. It was our first test to see how far Tyler could make it on a hike. The hike is 1.8 miles round trip with a 165 foot elevation gain. He did great the entire time, although a little slow given the fact that he’s still small. He loved seeing the big waterfall and climbing on all of the rocks. Garrett, on the other hand, was not happy to be in the carrier. Once we got to the waterfall I let him out, but being mister independent wanted absolutely no help trying to walk around on the trail and over the rocks. Given that we were on the side of a cliff next to a waterfall, he didn’t exactly get his way and walk by himself. He threw some pretty good tantrums, but once he had a snack in front of him he was fine. At least until we got up to leave. He screamed and kicked me in the back in his carrier for a few minutes on the way down and then finally calmed down. As long as we just keep moving, he’s pretty much okay.