Bear Lake

Older grandson, Corbin, stayed home with dad for a rest day, after an evening in the ER getting re-hydrated from an infection of some sort. He perplexed the doctor, because he tested negative for everything they could think of to test for.

We managed to snag timed entry passes for the Bear Lake corridor for today. Even with timed entry, our vehicles sat in line for awhile to get through the gate. And the parking lot at Bear Lake was already full before 9 a.m. But we could park at a "park and ride" lot and take a bus to the trailhead. It was a very efficient system.

Bear Lake is pretty, but it's a flat, accessible trail. So, it was quite crowded. It was a little less so as we hiked up the hill toward the next lake in the chain, Nymph Lake. Nevertheless, we met a lot of people coming back down, and were passed by some going up faster.

Youngest grandson, Mac, age 5, has a lot of energy and not a lot of experience watching where he walked on a rough and rocky trail. It became the Trail of Tears for him, as skinned knees got skinned again and again. He was a slow learner when it came to no running on the trail.

It was a fairly strenuous uphill hike for the younger kids, but their energy was great. From Nymph Lake we continued on to Dream Lake. Again, the trail and lakefront were crowded, but we still found a good spot to eat our lunch sandwiches.

Downhill was easier, but that encouraged running, which led to more skinned knees. But we made it to the bottom and got the bus right away back to the parking lot. We had some tired kids and sleepy adults, as well.

As Matt backed his Tesla into the driveway, he was startled to see an elk, standing under the deck, looking into the driver's side window. The elk was pretty comfortable there, and it took some encouragement to get him or her to move on.

After nap time, we drove into Estes Park and walked the river trail a bit. There was a Scandinavian Midsummer Festival over the weekend, that was just wrapping up, but it didn't have a lot to offer for kids. We returned to the VRBO for dinner, and a game night.