Hike to Emerald Lake

Yesterday, Uncle Paul and Aunt Megan took our family on an afternoon hike to Emerald Lake up in Rocky Mountain National Park. We drove up to Boulder after church and squashed into our '95 Regal for an hour long drive up into the mountains. We parked in the overflow lot, loaded up our packs, took a shuttle to the trailhead, and got hiking.

It wasn't a bad hike at all - Elijah managed just fine, holding Aunt Megan's hand most of the way - and we saw two lakes on our way to the destination of Emerald Lake at the crux of the mountains. There were thunderclouds all around us, but luckily the rain missed us entirely.

It was Kirsa's first hike in the red backpack, and she did wonderfully, with only about 2 seconds of crying on the first 2 steps of the hike. She fell asleep on the way down in a terribly uncomfortable-looking position, but it did make all the other passing hikers chuckle to see her passed out so completely. She even stayed asleep on the shuttle ride back to the car, safe on Daddy's lap, still in the backpack!

We wrapped up the night with some delicious pizza at Backcountry Pizza in Boulder, then drove home with our exhausted kiddos and took baths and went straight to bed - except Chris, who went straight to work for a night shift. (Yes, the man is made of steel. He's still awake now, Monday afternoon. He hasn't slept since we got up for church yesterday morning. Can you imagine?) It was a wonderful hike and even nicer to have Paul and Megan plan and direct the whole thing with us! So nice to get in what was probably the last hike of summer!

And now, enjoy our hike as if you were there with us!