We aligned a house sitter (my lovely younger sister stepping in to make sure our fur babies were well taken care of), we got packed up with all that we needed, swung by to grab some road snacks and off we went, grateful that where we were headed did not include use of I-25! We used the drive time to talk, and I felt myself relaxing more and more the further we got from the city. I had been happy and excited all morning leading up to our getaway, recognizing how stressful my current work is and the stress of balancing that with a near full-time school schedule, getting out of town seemed to relieve me of some of the strain. We checked into the Sunnyside Knoll Resort in Estes Park, our room included a small patio area, a fireplace, a spa tub, and we did not have any neighboring guests which made it all the quieter. We were able to settle in before going to dinner at Wapiti just in town and walked a very quiet Elkhorn Avenue, normally a busy and touristy old town in Estes. Very little was open, it's still very early in the season, but it was lovely to walk, the evening air cool, the stars visible. I have to plug the off-season here... Considering how much Colorado has boomed with people, there seems to be congestion and traffic and noise and people just everywhere all the time, that to reach Estes Park where we are very early in the season was remarkable and so refreshing! No crowds, no traffic, and everything running on "Estes time" where things just slow down. You have nowhere else to be. You can sit and enjoy a beer or a cup of coffee without having a jumble of thoughts running on and on about where you have to be next. This is something I will have to figure out how to create in the daily shuffle of city life!
Saturday morning we enjoyed a leisurely start to the day, eventually getting up for brunch at Notchtop Bakery and Cafe. My partner decided to stay healthy with a veggie omelet and side of fruit, I indulged in a "Country Benedict" which was pretty much a biscuits and gravy with eggs (I would later discover the error of my ways as I am still adapting to a system that does not have a gall bladder - apparently rich fatty delicious meals like this are of the past for this chick!). Then we made our way to the trail head for the Bridal Veil Falls Trail.
So I use the AllTrails app on my phone to track down trails for us to try. What I have discovered however is that my app on my phone tends to lie a little... like telling me a trail is "Easy", the friendly little green banner under the name of the hike, when it is actually considered a moderate trail. In reading the description I can sometimes catch the correct info, but my partner's app doesn't seem to have this trouble. His will show the more appropriately listed difficulty rating. Not sure why my phone is against me in this way, but we determined that despite the mention of this as a potentially moderate trail, it was worth a go. 6.1 mile total was listed (though according to the signage when we got there is was 3.2 miles to the falls, so it was actually 6.4 round trip), an out and back hike featuring a waterfall. Given that there was still snow on the ground around where we were, we opted to fasten our new snowshoes to the back of our packs just in case, and off we went.
At the Bridal Veil Falls trail head
The area around was very quiet, no other individuals around, no noise. Just us, some snow, and the trail. As we walked, I felt the crunch of the snow beneath me, my trekking poles making a little "schrunch" noise as it connected and released the snowy ground with each step. We ended up using our snowshoes for a very short period on the trail, but determined that it wasn't really necessary because the snow wasn't very deep. The air was chilled, brushing our cheeks, it was so calm and quiet. It snowed a bit, though the sun was out for the majority of the hike. On the entire hike I believe we saw a total of 7 other hikers, maybe 8. The trail had a couple moments of being a little steep, but for the most part wasn't too intense.
There was a moment as we were moving, we were a little over two miles through when suddenly, as I'm struggling with my sunglasses repeatedly fogging as I huffed and shuffled, there was a bill I forgot to pay before we left! I felt the immediate stress of financial torment run through my, my enjoyment zapped away in that moment. Chris asked me what was wrong and I let him know what happened and how it just got me stressed, he responded, "Do we need to go back?" I was shocked. No! Of course we don't, we've come this far I didn't want to stop, and I realized quickly that even if we did go back I didn't have all the info I'd need with me in order to make these payments, so no!
In that moment I made the most gratifying realization. If you can't do anything about it in the moment, there's no reason to let it bother you since it is out of your control. Our options were to turn around, or to keep going to finish the hike. And I was not ready to leave!
The last mile of the hike to get to the falls was the hardest, it was the steepest, there were some switchbacks, the trail wasn't as defined and there wasn't any signage. We even questioned if we were on the right trail! But when we saw a horse hitch with a sign saying "no horses beyond this point", we knew that we were close to the falls. Just a few feet later the imprints in the snow stopped. There weren't any signs, but this must be where we would have seen the falls if there weren't still a bunch of snow!
Bridal Veil Falls is under there somewhere...
A kiss and a high five to celebrate the victory, we then turned around to get back to the car. The 3.2 miles back actually seemed much easier. We were in good spirits and chatted as we made our way back, discussing goals of purchasing a someday cabin on a nice plot of land to have weekends in the mountains with our someday children, and we talked about steps that we would like to take to lose weight including weekly hiking adventures. This hike left me so grateful in so many ways.
On our way back to the resort we went to Via Bicycle Cafe, thank you Google Maps App for the recommendation! Enjoyed the best cup of coffee I think I've ever had! Plus the gentleman working there was super nice. (Seriously, if you are in Estes, this is a place everyone must experience!)
We got back to the resort, peeled off our layers from our trek, showered off in the tiny lukewarm shower, and rested a bit before going to the Rock Inn Mountain Tavern for dinner. Very fun little place, nice wait staff, quaint and a little eclectic - a perfect cap to the day.
Sunday morning we packed up, grabbed a cup of coffee from the Kind Coffee Shop, got a bag of salt water taffy (you can't go to Estes without getting some!) and returned to home. As we were unpacking and greeting our animals, I started giggling, a warm feeling coming over me. Chris asked me what was so funny, and all I could say in response was, "I just love our life together."
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| Taffy - a staple of Estes Park! |
#love #EstesPark
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