Camping in Estes Park

This past weekend, I was able to take a day off from work to go on a camping trip with my dad, my brother-in-law Byron, and his 3 kids.  My mom and sister were going to hang out and have a girl’s weekend in Berthoud, CO, and I wanted to tag along and go camping instead!  Originally it was going to be camping in tents, but my dad has always had a dream of camping in an RV, so he decided to just go ahead and rent one!

The camper we stayed in!

Thursday night, my parents and I carpooled up to my sister’s house and stayed overnight, to avoid having to drive really early on Friday.  Friday we all slept in and then snuck out to pick up the camper – the kids had NO idea that “Grandpa” had rented the camper!  When we finally arrived back at the house, we loaded up the camper and stopped for a quick lunch at the A&W in town, before hitting the road to Estes Park.

The girls loved climbing onto my "bed" for the weekend, over the 2 front seats.

My sister and mom joined us for the trip up there and helped us set up the camper.  We all enjoyed dinner outside and then Mom and Susan left, leaving the Byron, Dad and I with the kids!  Well, it wouldn’t be camping without a campfire and s’mores, so we broke into those pretty quickly!!  It wasn’t the traditional camping trip with tents and using the woods as our bathroom, but it was still nice to be out in a scenic area of the state, and just get some fresh air with no real agenda or things to get done!

Some things in life will never be as great to watch and smell than a real campfire!

Saturday morning we slept in until about 8 am (usually a feat unheard of while camping!) and enjoyed some bacon and egg burritos.  We took our time getting ready and headed a little bit into town to enjoy some fishing.  I’m not a huge fan of fishing, so Byron and Dad helped the kids set up their fishing poles and got started!  The kids each “caught” a fish of their own (Grandpa did actually catch 2 of them, letting the 2 younger kids reel them in, and the oldest, Emma, was able to catch and reel in a huge fish all by herself!)

Great shot of the geese in the lake swimming over to "check us out".

Emma with the fish she caught all by herself!

Owen was so excited - look at the size of that fish!

Sophia was pretty happy that she caught one too!

Towards the end of the fishing trip, the clouds started to move in and the weather didn’t look so great, so we packed up and enjoyed lunch in downtown Estes Park.  We walked around a little bit and enjoyed some of the shops before deciding to head over to the Rocky Mountain National Park and do some hiking!  We made our way to Bear Lake and took the trail leading up to Alberta Falls.  It was a beautiful, scenic hike with very little snow on the ground and a lot of tree cover, which made for great shade and amazing pictures. 

Great shot of the falls with the sign

 I don't carve on trees, but I found this one and thought it was very sweet!

I love shots of trails that wide around a corner; it's like nature saying "what's next"???

Selfie in font of a creek and some Aspens (my FAVORITE tree)!

The day didn’t end there!  As we were driving back into town, Byron remembered that I had mentioned to him that while I’ve driven past The Stanley (where most of the movie The Shining was filmed), I had never actually visited or been inside!  We were able to take a quick detour to the hotel so I could visit and get some pictures, and it was just a great time!!  A big fog moved in to town, so we headed back to the campsite to let the kids run around some more and enjoyed another campfire.

Wide shot in front of The Stanley - didn't see any ghosts this time!

Back shot of the main building from their interior outdoor patio

The lobby piano that sometimes plays by itself!

Iconic stairs in the front lobby

We were able to sleep in until 8 again on Sunday and rather than worry about cooking any breakfast or cleaning any dishes, we decided to go to the pancake breakfast being offered by the campgrounds – it was amazing!!!  After packing up the car and the camper, we headed into town with the goal to squeeze it at least one more hike before heading back home.

We drove back through the Rocky Mountain National Park again, but ended up driving to the top and parking at the visitor center.  It ended up being pretty cold up at the top, so we didn’t stay long, but we stopped inside the gift shop to get some souvenirs and gifts for Mom and Susan.

We were all a little surprised to see how much snow was still left!!!

It was beautiful up there!

Whew!!!  We finally made it home in one piece, and it was nice to finally sleep in my own bed again!  It was a great weekend that seemed to be such a LONG weekend, but then felt like it ended too soon!  I would definitely go camping with them again, and if not, then I would definitely love to go camping again for sure this summer alone or with Zach!