Thursday, July 21, 2016

Day 36: Sun, 7/17: State Forest State Park, CO, then Breckenridge, CO

Day 36:  Sun, 7/17:  State Forest State Park, CO, then Breckenridge, CO


Andrea woke up early and walked around Ranger lakes enjoying the great views and looking for wildlife.  Sam got up an hour later and took 1 regular fishing pole and his fly fishing gear and coffee and went fishing at the lakes.  He had fun at the scenic lakes relaxing and catching 6 fish with the regular rod and reel first.  When Sarah woke up, her first question was, “Where’s dad?  Fishing or looking for moose”?  Andrea told her I was fishing.  She asked not so happily why we didn’t wake her up early to do that too? He wanted some alone time fishing.  When Sarah got to the lake, Sam just set up the flyfishing rod. So Sarah got the regular pole caught 5 fish!  Sam is really getting the hang of fly fishing.  He caught 6 more fish using flies!  Andrea rode her mountain bike down the trail we rode yesterday looking for moose and then brought Ryan up to Sarah and Sam, telling them they had about 20 minutes before we had to leave camp.  So Ryan got to fish briefly and also caught 1 fish.  We then finished packing up and headed off to Breckenridge, CO.  After a three hour drive, we got to Tiger Run RV Resort.  The peaks and rivers (streams) around here are gorgeous.  We had a relaxing evening riding our bikes around the campsite, eating dinner, and spending time together.   Our family has really come together this trip.




Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Day 35: State Forest State Park, CO--EPIC!!!

Day 35:  Sat, 7/16:  State Forest State Park, CO


Today was epic!  We all agree today was probably the best day of the trip.  We ate breakfast and then walked 5 minutes to Ranger Lakes and all four of us fished.  We were on fire—catching a total of 45 fish between the four of us (all rainbow trout—Sarah 17, Ryan 14, Sam and Andrea 7 each!).  It was fun watching everyone catch so many fish.  We used barbless hooks and powerbait.  Most of the fish were easy catch and release but we did end up keeping 7 of them to eat tomorrow night.  We then wanted to go looking for moose and a geocache along a single track trail leading away from our camp along meadows.   So we got on our bikes with our GPS and as we neared where the geocache was, Sam looked the other way out in the meadow and spotted a female moose about 75 yards away.  She was so cute wiggling her ears, looking at us and eating in the small river.   After signing the geocache log and enjoying the moose, we then got in our car and drove to Walden to find more moose.  We saw a pronghorn along the way and many deer.  We ate a good dinner in Walden and then drove back looking for more moose.  We stopped at Beaver Meadow Trail and hiked 1 mile looking at beaver dams and lodges.  We didn’t see any beavers but we loved how many beautiful wildflowers that were blossoming.  Reds, yellows, indigos, blues, purples, orange, white, and pink.  It was a nice stop but then we got back to moose searching.  Sam spotted two moose down in a meadow so we turned down that road and watched them briefly from about 50 yards away.  We then drove up the highway and Sam saw a moose sitting in the tall grasses.  We could just see her head and cute big ears above the grass.  Then we continued driving towards Cameron Pass at around 830 pm and Sarah yelled “moose with baby!”  So we pulled to the side of the road and enjoyed watching the adorable baby and her mother eat and look at us from about 50 yards away.  We continued driving up to Cameron Pass and Ryan spotted a good sized male moose 30 yards from our car.  We watched him eat and watch us.  Then he walked parallel to the road and into the forest.  I saw him and was walking on the side of the road tracking him when I saw he was going to enter a meadow on the side of the road.  So we drove to that meadow and all got out of the car and saw the large male moose about 20 yards from us.  Incredible!  We turned around to head back and Sam jokingly taunted Andrea saying, “we all spotted moose except you!”  Sure enough, less than one minute later as we were driving, Andrea spotted a HUGE male moose right on the side of the road next to us.  We pulled up next to him and he was about 5 feet away!  He was walking slowly next to us and then he crossed the road in front of us.  He stopped in the middle of the road and we admired his size.  After he crossed, we saw another large male moose in another meadow about 25 yards away.  He also crossed the road in front of us.  We were so excited to encounter so many moose.  We also saw about 20 deer at various spots right along the side of the road.  We had to drive slowly to avoid hitting any moose or deer.  Today, we had set out to fish, mountain bike, and search for animals.  We hit the jackpot.  Incredible!

Sarah with 12 inch rainbow trout 
Ryan reeling in a fish!

3 of us fishing at Ranger Lakes, State Forest State Park, CO

Ryan fishing some more.

Momma and baby MOOSE!



Day 34: State Forest State Park, CO

Day 34:  Fri, 7/15:  Drive to State Forest State Park, CO (Near Walden, CO in the north)

Today, we had a pancake breakfast and a leisurely morning.  Sam fished briefly in the river in our RV park.  Then we showered, went to the grocery store and picked up our new spare tire for the RV.  Let’s hope we have no more flat tires during this trip—3 is enough!  We then drove to Ranger Lakes in State Forest State Park, near Walden, CO.  Walden is the “moose capital of Colorado,” with almost 600 of them living in the state park.  We drove along some steep, windy roads along the Poudre River.  We stopped the RV and watched some advanced kayakers shoot class IV rapids on the river right by the side of the road.  We saw some deer and great vistas and arrived to Ranger Lakes.  We looked in the meadows bordering the campground where we were told a mother moose and her calf were seen in the morning.  They were not there so we rode our mountain bikes about ½ mile to beautiful Ranger lakes next to our campground.  We looked for moose there too but didn’t see any.  So after riding back to our RV, Sam kept riding along the Gould Trail 2.5 miles to the Moose Visitor Center in order to find moose.  After stopping there and turning back around to head back to camp, it started to rain.  Then, while riding his bike, he saw a moose calf in a small meadow about 20 yards away.  The beautiful calf started trotting through the meadow as he was riding along the trail.  Then while riding another 100 yards on the trail, Sam saw the mother moose standing on the trail about 30 yards in front of him.  As Sam kept riding on along the trail, the mother moose trotted the same direction on the same trail.  Sam slowed down his riding but kept going forward as did the moose.  It was a great moose encounter for him and he was really happy and excited.  When back in camp, he shared his moose news so we all drove in the car about 10 miles to Cameron Pass—the best place to see moose in the area.  Instead of seeing moose, we saw three beautiful, large bucks and one female deer along the road.  We went back to camp, ate dinner and then walked to the meadow at the edge of our camp.  Sarah spotted a female moose about 100 yards away!!!  We enjoyed watching her with our three pairs of binoculars.  Sarah was excited to have found the moose we all got to see.  Then, Sarah and Sam walked up to the upper Ranger Lake and fished, each catching one fish.  It was incredible how many fish were jumping out of the water eating flies.  They were doing full body breaches!  There are so many mosquitos here so we both wore long sleeve shirts and pants (it’s not cold during the evening here!), hats, and serious mosquito spray.  Andrea and Ryan walked up to meet us at the lake after an hour of fishing and they too were impressed with how many fish were jumping on the lake for food.   We came to the moose capital and we saw moose today!   We look forward to moose sightings and fishing tomorrow. 


Ranger Lakes in State Forest State Park near Walden, CO

Sarah fishing wearing her mom's long sleeve shirt.  Look at the fish jumping in the background!



Day 33 and 32: Estes Park and Water World, CO


Day 33:  Thurs, 7/14:  Estes Park, CO


We decided to check out Mary’s Lake to either fish or paddle board.  When we got there, we saw signs saying no swimming or boating in the lake, so Sam and Sarah fished while Andrea and Ryan did a little scrambling on the nearby rocks.  Then we headed to Estes Lake again, and found out that we had to pay for a boating permit and for parking if we wanted to paddle board there.  The funny thing is the water level in the lake was quite a bit lower than 2 days earlier.  We asked about this and were told that the electric plant that uses the water in the lake uses different amounts each day, so you never know if the water level will be low or high until you get there.  Seeing the low water level, and the restrictions on where we could paddle board, we decided that paddle boarding wasn’t in the cards today.  Instead, we went into town to see the owls again and have ice cream.  We then headed back to the campground to do laundry, clean up, relax, and fish in the stream.  Sam and Sarah fished in the river about 30 yards from our RV.  It ended up being a quiet and relaxing day.

Mother daughter enjoying nature at Alluvial Falls, RMNP, CO

Sarah fishing at the river in our Spruce RV Park, Estes Park, CO

Day 32:  Wed, 7/13:  Estes Park, Water Slides near Denver, CO


We drove over an hour to Water World to enjoy water slides on a hot day.  Ryan's favorite thing on these road trips--except Las Vegas--is going to the watermark!  We first went on a slide that was a pitch black tube that had small drops that you couldn’t see coming.  Sam and Andrea loved it, but the kids were not amused.  So we walked to another area of the water park where there were slides that were a little less intimidating.  The kids had a lot of fun and Sam and Andrea did too. Then we split up and the kids played in a fun house area where they could spray and drop water on other kids, as they were getting sprayed by others.  They had so much fun.  Sam and Andrea went on a ride we call the toilet plunge, where you go down a slide into this cylinder that you then slide around before dropping into an 8 foot deep pool.  We were soaking wet and cold, so we sat in the sun to dry off for a while.  When the kids were finally done at the fun house, they were both shivering and Sarah said she had a headache and felt nauseous. We had her sit for a while, but she felt worse and we ended up taking her to the first aid station where they took her vitals and let her rest and drink fluids for a while.  While she was there, Ryan rode on boogie boards on a wave machine and he loved it.  He said he can’t wait to go to the beach when we get back home so he can ride the waves. We decided to call it a day early to get Sarah back to the motorhome to rest, and the only tough thing was that we had over an hour to drive home.  Luckily, Sarah felt better after finally throwing up, she was able to sleep a little in the car, and by evening she was feeling much better.  We ended the day playing cards and everyone had a good time.