Granite Falls

Success! Jo and I made it to Granite Falls!  We decided that the only way to get to the trailhead in a decent amount of time was to get up super early because off all the construction work going on in RMNP.  I was so proud of us!  We got up at 4:00, left at 4:30, and were in the park in time to watch the sunrise.

The good thing about being up so early is that dawn and dusk are the best times to spot wildlife.  Jo and I were so excited to see these moose hanging out in a meadow as we drove by.  We flipped a U-turn to take some pics.  Jo and I see tons of deer and elk, but we hardly ever see moose, so it's exciting for us.

We made it to the trailhead at about 7:00.  It was chilly in the morning, but it was suppossed to be a hot day, so we went without jackets.

It was a very moist trail, with lots of little streams and marshes along the way.  It was a peaceful morning, with all the soft light and morning bird songs.

The sun was still rising as we walked along, allowing us to get have some unique lighting for pics.  Jo got this awesome shot of a spider web just outside one of the many meadows we passed.

We couldn't resist stopping and sunning ourselves in the meadows, because it was quite chilly in the shadowy forest without jackets.  The warm sun felt so good!

Eventually we came to a big meadow.  The big meadow, actually.  This is called, appropriately enough, Big Meadows.

As we followed the trail, the meadow peeked out at us through the trees.

The lodgepole pine forest was lovely.

We walked along a river, which made since since we were on our way to a waterfall.

The foam on the water was making some pretty patterns.

We passed several little mountain streams along the way.

We knew we were getting close to the falls when we heard that deep-rumbly-thundery sound that goes hand in hand with a large volume of water, well, falling.  A little sign off the trail indicated that Jo and I had reached our destination.  We hurriedley scrambled off the trail and towards the river, where the majestic Granite Falls was roaring and crashing its heart out.  It was GORGEOUS!  And HUGE!

As always with waterfalls, the pictures don't do it justice.  But in real life the falls were gigantic, with tons of water- literally- crashing into the rocks.  It was loud and spectacular.

Here's a shot downstream.  We had the whole place to ourselves.  It was so cool!

After taking it all in, we found a nice flat rock to sit on while we munched on gorp and continued to admire the falls.

We didn't want to leave!  After half an hour or so, we had to start back.  But before we left, Jo made sure to take one of his famous "feet shots."

Remember how I said that Jo and I hardly ever see moose?  Well, not only did we see the two moose on the drive over, but we were also lucky enough to spot this mama moose with her gangly baby grazing in a meadow as we hiked back.

I think that witnessing such beauty inspired Jo to stop and perform some Joga on the trail.  He can't help it; sometimes he just needs to feel his Life Force flow through his supple limbs.

We spotted some sort of wild orchid on the trail, which thrilled me to death.  I lovelovelove orchids, so this is possibly my favorite wildflower find to date.

We also spotted this beauty.

And another variety of orchid, not quite in bloom.  Score!

Jo took some time to say goodbye to Big Meadows....

...before we hit the trail again.

We made it back to the car, dipped our feet in the ice cold stream, and hit the road.  I've decided that the west side of RMNP is my favorite.  It's a shame it's so far away, but I'm sososo glad we came back to visit Granite Falls, the coolest falls I've seen in the park.

And, as a parting shot, check out this amazing dirty-car artwork.  So nice!

Minis

The other day, when Jo and I were in Estes to go hiking in RMNP, we passed a sign advertising the Estes Park Miniature Horse Show at the Estes fairgrounds.  I am completely in love with the idea of miniature anything, but especially miniature horses.  So, of course, we had to come back to see those little minis.  We rushed up after I got off at work and unfortunately the show was over, but we were determined to see some minis, so we walked around the stable area.

We found these two little minis at the hitching rack.  We went over to say hi.

They were so cute!!!  So...miniaturized.

I want one!

This is where those little minis were staying.  They were very accomplished for being so small; check out all the ribbons.

The stalls were built for regular size horses.  I wonder if the minis felt inadequate in such oversized accomadations.  I hope not.

When we were walking back to the car, the two minis we originally made friends with were having bathtime.

And that was our experience with minis.

However, our day was not over.  Not only was Estes hosting the Miniature Horse Show, but the Scandanavian Festival as well.  Since we were already there, we decided to check it out.  The tourists were out in force, so we parked and walked in.  On the way, we found Jo's long lost twin.

Estes works hard to maintain its image for all the tourists who come to visit it, so the flower beds were bursting with color.

We saw this little cutie as we walked to the festival.  I want one!

These were the tourists I mentioned earlier, in case you didn't believe me when I said there were a lot of them in Estes.

Jo took some time to do some window shopping.  I think this picture is so funny because whatever he's looking at is clearly amusing him; look at that big smile on his face.

And finally, we made it!  The dance stage was one of the first things we encountered, so we sat and watched the dancers for a bit.  Don't worry.  That man is not really yelling at that little girl; it's part of the performance.

After watching the dancers, we walked around a little bit but didn't really find anything too exciting.  We were going to eat some Scandanavian food, but didn't feel like eating sourkraut or bratwurst, so we skipped it.  We did find some awfully cute pups we couldn't resist meeting.  They were so cute!

And that was our experience with Scandanavian festivals.

We decided to get some grub at a little restaurant not too far away.  After resisting temptation...

We made it to Ed's.

It's a casual little place that's not too terribly over priced.

We sat on the patio, where we had a nice view of the river.

Jo had the black bean burger and I had the veggie burrito.  I liked Jo's better.

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The last part of our day was dessert.  We wanted to fit in with all the tourists in Estes, so we found a good ice cream shop and Jo got a vanilla malt.  It was delicious.  A sweet end to a good day.