Rocky Mountain National Park Trip: Bear Lake Corridor Day

Saturday morning I left for the race start around 4:45 and finished the race before 8:00. I took some pictures after the race and then headed back to the campsite. I checked the results and saw I won my age group but the awards ceremony wouldn't start for another 45 minutes and I was excited to get back and head into RMNP for the first time, so I left before awards. I had about a 10 minute walk back to my car so I called my mom and chatted with her and dad about the race. I'll be writing a separate post about the race. It was an absolute blast! I got back to the campsite, ate some breakfast, foam rolled, and changed clothes. I figured with all the hiking we were going to do, I might as well wait to shower. While I was getting ready, the kids were playing in the dirt. They made a rock village with holes. It was so cute. We stopped off on our way to the park to buy more ice for the cooler and a couple other things we needed. We made it to the park entrance right at our 10:00 time. I wrote down specific places I wanted to visit and hikes I thought the kids would like before we left on our trip. While Ty was in the store, I pulled out our park map and highlighted the areas I wanted to visit so we could plan our days out and make sure we hit everything we wanted to. We planned to park and take the shuttle but the shuttle parking lot was full so we went ahead and drove to Sprague Lake which was the first spot I wanted to hike. We were lucky and found a parking spot. The hike around the lake was about a 0.8 mile loop but we added some extra and ended up walking a little over a mile. The kids absolutely loved this one and had so much fun stopping to watch animals and asking me to take pictures of them on rocks. They found a spot at the end of the hike to play in the water so we hung out there for quite a while.

The view from our campsite.

Playing by the water, this is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

It was really amazing to go from over 100* in Tulsa to the 60's in Colorado. It made a huge difference in the kids' ability to hike and enjoy being outside. I was really impressed with them and I think the weather made all the difference! From Sprague Lake we headed on up the road and stopped off at sheep lake, hoping to see some bighorned sheep, but no such luck. We kept going and ended at Bear Lake. The sign said the parking lot was full and the ranger standing there told us to go around to the other side. We lucked out and found a parking spot on the first side! I was really surprised we were able to find parking at both places we wanted to hike. We really lucked out! Ty made sandwiches for a picnic lunch at Bear Lake and then we headed for our hike. The loop around Bear Lake was also less than a mile. The kids had a blast and the views were phenomenal. This was the prettiest hike we had at lower elevation. We saw lots of Wyoming Ground Squirrels and each time the kids asked me to take pictures. I got some gorgeous ones during the hike around Bear Lake. We found a pretty view and sat down on a bench to eat lunch. I was pretty tired from waking up a lot the night before and then being awake since 3:50 and my quads were pretty tired and worn out from the race, but I was having a blast. The kids also loved Bear Lake and obviously Ty did too.

I wore compression socks to help with my recovery after the race.

When we finished the Bear Lake Loop we were at less than a mile. I used my Garmin to track all of our hikes so when the kids asked how much further I could tell them. I also liked adding pictures to the hikes on Strava. It helped me remember which hike was which and has come in very handy as I work on these posts! Ty mentioned he'd love to see the falls. We saw a sign for Alberta Falls which was a mile away. The kids agreed to go and were both doing an amazing job at first. We got close to the turn around and Elise started complaining. We told her we'd take a nice long break at the falls before heading back. We sat and relaxed when we got there. Carter got out his notebook and tried drawing a ground squirrel. He got frustrated it didn't look how he wanted it to. Elise asked for a piece of paper and he let me rip one out for her. She drew the falls on her piece of paper. It was really cute. When it came time to walk back, she was not having it. I carried her a little but my legs were sore enough it was a struggle. Ty decided to loosen the straps of his backpack and use it to secure her to his back. We walked past a family and the dad told us he rented a hiking backpack to carry a kid in for $5 a day at one of the camping stores. We decided that might be worth it the following day. The kids were pooped by the time we made it back to the car. Carter hiked almost 4 miles and Elise hiked almost 3. 

Alberta Falls Trail

Drawing at the falls.

Elise's drawing with the inspiration in the background.

Elise was thrilled to have a ride!

Our last stop of the day was the Moraine Park Discovery Center. I was reading some information about the moraine when I looked over and Ty had put the kids on the roof of the van to take some pictures. They were thrilled with that. There were a couple rangers standing by the entrance and we talked to them for a bit. I told them about our new found love of pikas and how we were hoping to find some on our trip. They said the best place to see them is at Rock Cut so I added that to our map. They told us pikas live above 10,000 feet elevation which explained why we hadn't seen any yet. The discovery center was pretty neat with interactive exhibits to look at. There was an observation room with huge windows overlooking the moraine. They had binoculars out for you to use. We spent some time in there and then I sat in a rocking chair. Elise plopped in my lap and had me read her book after book. We looked through the gift shop and then headed out for the day. We left the park right at 3:00. You can enter the park before 9am without a reservation and after 3pm without a reservation. The line of cars waiting to enter the park at 3 as we were leaving was insane! I was so glad we'd gotten reservations!

When we got back to the campground we headed up to go swimming. The lady in the office told Ty the swimming pool was heated but I was skeptical with temps in the 60's or 70's (I forget what the high was that day). The kids really wanted me to get in again, but again it was very cold! I didn't stay in for very long but the cold water did feel really good on my sore legs! While the kids were swimming I reserved a 9-12 slot for general admission into the park for the following day. Each time I got on and logged in before 5:00 so right when it went live I could snatch up a ticket. There was thunder while the kids were swimming so we had them get out and as we were walking to the car, someone came out of the office to close the pool due to thunder. It started raining again so the kids and I read in the tent for a while as Ty sat under the awning waiting for the rain to die down so he could make a fire. When we came out of the tent, there was a rainbow. We made hot dogs and brats for dinner and got to see a mama mule deer with her baby who walked right along the edge of our campsite. After dinner we played at the playground again. On our way we saw a mama mule deer with 2 fawns which was pretty cute! That night it stormed and the tent was shaking like crazy from the wind. There was some thunder and just a light mist of rain. I woke up during the storm and laid awake trying to fall back to sleep for a while. Carter woke up at one point and asked why the tent was shaking, but fell back to sleep pretty quickly. Ty was awake off and on while I was.

All the other kids were playing freeze tag, but Elise was following this little boy around being a mama.