The Wild Outdoors

 

For those of us who live in Colorado, you don't think of Rocky Mountain National Park as being a wild place. The Rockies beckon me often and I love RMNP; it refreshes my spirit. For the last two years, we have had a camping weekend planned; last year it was cancelled due to the fires happening and restrictions on camp stoves and fires(even in the fire pit).  This year we were so excited to be spending a weekend in the high places; unfortunately several  of our oldest daughter's kiddos got the stomach flu, so that left our other daughter's family, hubby and I going.  We are now in the wet season here in Colorado, locals call it the Monsoon Season for good reason.  Hubby and I headed up on Friday and arrived at the campsite check-in just as the sky was darkening and rain was lightly misting.  We knew our campsite but didn't verify our absent daughter's site; when we looked at ours and then what we thought was hers, we decided to switch.  Big booboo.  We set up our 12x12 screen room and then our tent.  By now the rain was falling heavily.  Shortly thereafter, our youngest daughter & her family arrived, so we helped them set up too.  Hubby ran back to the check in to tell the ranger which site we were going to be in.  He came back to us, unhappy, and said that wasn't the right site.  By now, it is coming down pretty hard and instead of tearing down the tents and screen room, we did what every resourceful group would do-we simply lifted up the tents & screen room and carried them down the road to our first site. By the time we got to the two sites we knew were ours, we were drenched.  Our daughter & her hubby decided that it would be better to be next to each other.  Let's just say that it was quite a sight to see four adults carrying tents down the road.  It did work though.  We thoroughly enjoyed Friday night and eventually the rain stopped, so we roasted marshmallows over our campfire.  Stay tuned for more of our adventure tomorrow.

Saturday morning this deer was across the street from our campsite, I couldn't resist getting up close and personal. The photo above it pretty small but you can see how close I was to the deer; at one point I even got closer.

 

 

Our grand daughters had a wonderful time creating with nature.

 

The biggest Pollen "fairy" I've ever seen.

 

 

Love the purple color!

 

For once, I decided to play with my camera and try some different settings; this wasn't the photos that I experimented with, but I couldn't resist the chance to take a picture of some of my favorite flowers-Black Eyed Susans.

 

This was a trip that will go down in our family history as being one that we won't repeat. I will go up to the Park again to camp, just don't know if I'll do it in a tent. I hope you had a wonderful weekend!
Have a joy filled day!
Noreen & Hunter