A Day of "Moderate" Hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park

Nymph Lake
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Today was spent most of the day in the great outdoors. I had envisioned a full-day hike, but with my still slightly sore foot and my overabundance of ambition in the planning phase of our trip, we decided to take it easy (okay, moderate). We took the free shuttle up Bear Lake Road, which was very convenient. Had we actually hit the road at an early hour, we probably would have driven ourselves, but that wasn’t actually an option with all the people in the park today.

We first took the short and very easy hike around Bear Lake to warm up, and then made our way to three other lakes: Nymph, Dream and Emerald. In total, we hiked 1.8 miles each way and increased elevation almost 650 feet to slightly over 10,000 feet in altitude. The total mileage doesn’t sound like much, but we’re both tired this evening! The first 0.5 mile to Nymph Lake was the worst – the altitude really got to us both. My favorite spot was Dream Lake, but Chap liked Emerald Lake the best. I’ve included one picture of each. There was only one photo of either of us on the digital camera from today – we were wrapped up in the beauty of nature around us.

In total, we hiked 1.8 miles each way and increased elevation almost 650 feet to slightly over 10,000 feet in altitude.

View from Emerald Lake
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In other news, the microbrew tour/tasting of Colorado continues, and Chap and I each have a positive review to add to the list. I had a fabulous pale ale with dinner, Dave’s Pale Ale out of Lyons, Colorado. Very hoppy and nice – almost like an IPA...and it came in a red, white and blue can with the description “A Huge Voluminously Hopped Mutha of a Pale Ale! You can check out the brewery’s web site at www.dalespaleale.com. Chap had New Belgium’s 1554, a black lager that I would describe as tasting “burned” but Chap says has “a clean open, smoky through the taste, with a nice malty finish.” Evidently, it complimented his steak very well because it was so “hearty”. I remain unimpressed.

Ahhh, mountains!
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After a dinner of steak and brews, we walked along the shops of Estes Park to purchase our souvenir sweat shirts and enjoy ice cream one last time. After today’s hike, we are certain we deserve it! Tomorrow morning we head out bright and early (for us) back to Boulder to start our adventure at culinary school!