Estes Park, CO (Day 1)

Wednesday, September 9

Brrr! It was a chilly 36 degrees when we woke up this morning in Gering, Nebraska. Temperatures in the 30’s aren’t unusual for Nebraska winters, but this isn’t winter! It’s early September and technically the calendar still reads summer. Can’t say I imagined there being a few inches of snow on the ground as we kicked off our fall RV trip.

RVing as a family is one of my favorite activities, but there isn’t much personal time unless you purposefully schedule it into the day. I guess you could say, that’s not much different than being at home either. For me, that means getting up in the morning before the rest of the family to have some quiet time to myself. I couldn’t sleep last night anyway, so I got out of bed around 4:00am, tip-toed over to the cab of the RV to sit in the dark and blog, and then I decided to exercise outside. Yes— in the snow. Fortunately, our RV site was on a dry cement pad which made things a little more pleasant.

Our winter-loving Tory Girl was so excited to see snow on the ground when she woke up this morning that she promptly pulled on her boots and booked it outside to play. There was only a dusting of snow left on the warm grass and a few inches still sitting on the picnic table, so she built a miniature snowman on the table top.

We had full hook-ups at Robidoux RV Park so the four of us took turns taking long, hot showers in the RV this morning. Boy, was this a treat! We don’t usually stay in places with full access to water, sewer and electric. Staying in a campground with full hook-ups meant we had access to as much water as we needed and could let it run into the RV drain without worrying about filling up our tanks. After showers, we ate breakfast and did school in the RV before setting off for Colorado — the 20th state we’ve visited with our RV!

It’s a 3 hour drive from Gering, Nebraska to Estes Park, our first destination in Colorado. We’ve been watching the weather closely and talking with several friends who live in Colorado to make sure we’re not driving into a bad situation with snow or the wildfires roaring in parts of the state. Estes Park got 6.5 inches of snow in yesterday’s September storm, but some cities saw upwards of 14 inches! The last thing Andi and I want to be doing is driving our 25’ RV on icy roadways.

Fortunately, our drive from Nebraska to Colorado was uneventful. We passed through Cheyenne, Wyoming along the way and finally reached Estes Park, CO before making our way into Rocky Mountain National Park. Thanks to a last-minute cancellation, Andi scored us a campsite for two nights inside the national park. Those camping spots typically book out a year in advance. Plus, this year it’s even more of a challenge to snag a camping spot in the park as the National Park Service is only allowing 50% occupancy of campsites due to COVID. Luck was on our side today!

Our family’s admittance into Rocky Mountain National Park was free, thanks to the National Park Service’s “Every Kid in a Park” program. The program gives all 4th graders and their family (up to 3 adults and 4 children) free admittance to federal land and waters in the United States for an entire calendar year. How cool is that?! Tory and I printed a copy of her free pass at everykidinapark.gov before we left on our trip. At the entrance gate of Rocky Mountain National Park, the park ranger traded Tory’s paper voucher for a more official plastic park pass and gave her very friendly, specific instructions to keep track of HER pass and to be sure to take her family to several of our nation’s parks this year. To say Tory was proud would be an understatement!

The first thing we did once inside Rocky Mountain National Park was find our campsite at Moraine Park Campground. Due to COVID, the park now requires visitors to reserve an entrance time into the park so they can control the number of people visiting. Fortunately for us, camping inside the park gives us free reign to come and go as we please. Not only for that reason, Andi and I like camping in national parks when we visit them. It really does add to the overall park experience, makes it easier to avoid crowds and allows us to see the animals when they’re most active during dawn and dusk.

After we located our campsite, we decided to go for a short hike to stretch our legs. Andi drove our RV to the Cub Lake trailhead and found a parking spot alongside the road. There are many perks to having a Class C RV, but navigating a large 25’ ft. vehicle along narrow roads with traffic jams of cars pulled over on the side of the road peeping animals is not one of them. That is likely the most stressful part of our RV lifestyle — working together to safely find a parking spot.

The hike to Cub Lake is 2.4 miles long (one way), but Andi and I didn’t think Tory and Aden would make it that far. We decided to walk as far along the trail as the kids cooperated. Despite being 33 degrees outside, the air was pleasant. The trail was muddy in spots, but clear of snow. We walked about a mile, talking and looking for animal tracks, before the kids complained loudly enough that we turned around. We set a family goal to hike 12 miles every week during this fall trip. Since Tory and Aden are motivated by earning money right now, Andi and I agreed to give them each $2/week if we successfully meet our family goal. We’re hoping this encourages the kids to be more active and complain less about hiking because the adults (Andi and I) sure do enjoy it!

It was 5:30pm when we finished our Cub Lake hike. Since the national park wasn’t very busy this time of day, Andi and I decided to take the RV for a spin to get a better lay of the land. No doubt, we’d probably also see some animals as evening set in. Right away, we saw a large cluster of elk in the meadow not far from the road. We saw one huge male bugling and about 20 female elk grazing around him. Further along the road, we saw turkeys, mule deer and Tory said she saw a big horn sheep in the distance.

The road led us by Sprague Lake Nature Trail, and Andi and I decided to stop since the parking lot was fairly empty. With quite a bit of arm twisting, we convinced Tory and Aden to go for another .75 mile walk around Sprague Lake. We said we’d record an even 3 miles of hiking for the day if they agreed. Blue skies began to emerge and the sun shined down on Sprague Lake for the first time all day. A thin layer of ice sparkled on the lake surface. The trail around the lake was much icier than the Cub Lake trail had been — probably due to snow compaction from more foot traffic around this relatively short, flat loop.

Three-quarters of the way around the lake, Aden turned just plain silly, pulling his stocking hat over his eyes and wandering around aimlessly. Meanwhile, Tory started to cry. She said her legs were so cold she couldn’t feel them anymore. Obviously, we’re reached our hiking time limit for the day. We hurried to the RV, cranked up the heat, and drove back to our campsite in Moraine Park. The sunset on the drive there was incredible!

Andi cooked chicken teriyaki stir-fry with rice for dinner while Tory took some quiet time in her bed and Aden and I worked on his Junior Ranger packet. This is the first time he’s actually completed the workbook himself, not copied from Tory’s booklet. As his mom and teacher, it’s fun to see him take a more focused interest in learning!

We were all tired from a busy day of travel and walking around in Rocky Mountain National Park, so the four of us snuggled up to watch a downloaded movie. We dressed warmly and put extra blankets on the beds for tonight. Temperatures are suppose to drop down to 19 degrees with light snow in the forecast. September in Colorado, folks!