We awoke this morning to a home-cooked breakfast. Everyone on Air BnB raved about our host Wendell’s waffles and they certainly did not disappoint.
We doubled back over Trail Ridge Road to the east side of the park to do the hike that everyone does – Bear, Nymph and Emerald Lakes. Despite being crowded, the hike was still enjoyable. The pristine lakes reflecting the mountains was truly a special sight. At 3.5 miles, it was an easy hike, but we’re all about bang for our hiking buck; why climb 1,000’s of feet at 10,000 feet elevation if we don’t need to? We would have hiked more, but dark storm clouds started rolling in and sure enough, it was sprinkling by the time we got back to our car.
We decided to head back “down” to Grand Lake (we hit 12,000+ feet elevation on Trail Ridge Road, Grand Lake sits at 8,800 or so) to go fishing in the pond behind our cabin. Unfortunately it was raining and cold, but this gave us a chance to do some laundry (we don’t own enough hiking gear for 2+ weeks), pick up dinner at Dairy King (not Dairy Queen), and spot a big bull moose on the way home. The neighbors also had a bear sighting, but we didn’t see him. (The best kind of bear sighting is one out your house or car window and not on the hiking trail.)
We hope the skies will clear tomorrow and we’ll go for another small hike on the west side of the park, fish in the pond out back and make our way to Grand Junction, CO to break up our drive to AZ (and give ourselves some time to see Arches NP along the way).
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