Days 9 & 10: One More Hike

Day 8: The weekend was full of friends and fun. Up at Sol Vista with two women I have known for eight years and our seven kids in a two bedroom condo makes for interesting sleeping and awaking. I lucked out and took the absent husband's side of the king bed with the hostess. I could have slept forever in the quiet, dark room. Yet, wouldn't you know my body clock is ringing at 7:30. I am not sure exactly what happened to the morning hours. But, we left for a hike just before lunch time. Adams Falls, just north of Grand Lake, is a simple hike gaining some easy elevation for a half mile. The falls are gorgeous. However, the trail architect didn't really get it right. The safety wall is too high or too close. You can't get a decent photo and have to lift our kids to see the falls. They really should have had the fall viewing area approached at a lower elevation so one could take in the entire falls. The saving grace is the nice "play" area above the falls. There are wonderful eddies to put your toes in the icy water. And, the boulders make excellent king throwns for ruling over royal subjects. Just as we ascended onto the parking lot, the rain came. Great timing. The afternoon was wasted away gracefully with play for the kids and book reading and naps for the moms. In the evening, we had a potluck at the club house and sometime to swim. Daughter was sort of in the "middle." The kids her age are boys and the girls are older. So she felt out of sorts much of the time. However, Son blended right in to a group of pirate boys. The day was settled with a campfire and s'mores. Day 9: Today, we had to clean the condo. It is amazing the amount of stuff one brings for a weekend. There are coats, boots, sandals, swim gear, cold food, dry food, hats, clothes, extra clothes, toothbrushes, games, videos, and the list goes on. With kids, all of these said items are sure to be strung across the place no matter the efforts of poor ol'mum to tiddy up along the away. So needless to say after sleeping in a bit from our big night around the campfire, it took a grose amount of morning to clean and sort. Yet again, just before lunch time, the other guest family and mine take off for RMNP. Our goals is to hike somewhere on the western slope we usually don't have time for. Alas, rain and hungry tummies threatened to thunder so we found a short meadow hike with picnic tables, Coyote Valley. It was a nice manicured ramble near a river and beaver ponds. There were dandillions everywhere and the moose, elk, and coyote scat was plentiful. After lunch, we leave at our own pace. My car heads on over the "hill" stopping at a few pull outs that I have never took the time to visit in the twenty years I have lived in Colorado. Since the skies were still a bit stormy, I decided to start a new series focussing on clouds in my studio. The sun came out and, even though we were expected home soon, we went up to Alluvial Fan Falls. I felt a little pride in the fact that my kids walked around like the owned the place. One can definately say we are raising two explorers and experiencers. Yeah! Four hikes in four days is great scout training. Or, at least training for my little sprouts to keep up with their mountain runner, climber, Fourteener conquer father.