Vacation: Day 4

Happy 4th of July!  Today was our first day going into Rocky Mountain National Park.  We decided to take it kind of easy yet today adjusting to the elevation.  A few years ago when my parents visited they went up to the top (about 12,000 feet) too early and Dad ended up in the emergency room with altitude sickness.  We didn't want to repeat that this year.  Just to give you an idea of elevation differences, northeast Iowa is around 900 feet, Estes Park Colorado is around 7600 feet, Long's Peak in RMNP is at 14,000 feet but we didn't go up there.  We started off at the alluvial fan.  The fan was formed after a major flood from a lake higher up, this happened in the 1990's.  There are tons of rocks to climb on and you can right to the water.  Jackson absolutely loved this place.

 Jackson decided to take off his shoes and get his feet wet!  It was cold!

 We tried to get a family picture at the fan, "tried" being the word here:

Jackson was not interested in this.  There were too many rocks to climb!

Mike helped us out by lifting this heavy rock out of the way:

Thanks Mike!  : )

 I really like this picture.  Karsten and Tristan looking out over the Endovalley.  Makes ya feel kinda small.

After checking out the Alluvial Fan for a while we drove around the park for a bit.  We tried to stop at Sprague Lake but the parking lot was full, we'll do that again some other day.  We did drive by Sheep Lakes and did see a few big horned sheep!  Trying to explain big horned sheep to Jackson was a bit difficult, he's so used to Papa's suffolk sheep which look a bit different.  Here's some pics of the sheep:

After being in the park for a bit we decided to head back to the cabin for a late lunch of sandwiches, chips and fruit.  Estes Park does have fireworks over the lake but we decided against this, figuring the traffic and crowds would be too much.  So instead, we grilled out steaks and hotdogs, played some baggo and other yard games and ended the night with sparklers.  This was the first time Jackson had played with sparklers and he really enjoyed it.  I think some other adults present enjoyed it as well.

 Tristan and grandma trying out some badminton and croquet, or "hitters" as Jackson called them.

 SPARKLERS!!

 Tristan tried them out as well with Daddy's help.

Barb showing Jackson how you run around the yard with the sparkler.