Estes Park and The Pollacks!

Perhaps the best thing about arriving in Colorado was that our dear friends, the Pollacks, came to meet us for a long weekend. They stayed in a cabin in the same campground where we set up shop and we immediately clicked into vacation mode.

We kicked things off with a pancake breakfast (Alison Roman’s recipe, pre-mixed and carried all the way from Evanston) on the new grill that I bought for the trip. It was festive and delicious.

Our first day in Estes Park, we decided to hike the Kruger Rock Trail, which is adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park and has the bonus of offering sweeping views of the National Park and the National Forest, while also allowing dogs on the trail (which most National Park trails do not).

 It was on this hike that I realized that we weren’t going to just spring into Switzerland Super-Hiker mode, as we had in 2019. It turns out that 16 months of living through a pandemic – and for the kids that meant doing school, socializing, and much of daily life from bed – has made us more like the characters in Wall-E floating around space in their hover chairs, than Wile E. Coyote or the Road Runner on a 9000-foot peak.

So, these pictures don’t tell the whole story: There was a lot of complaining, heavy breathing, stops to rest and hydrate, and skittle bribes on this one. Toby was the hiking hero and helped to propel Ben up the steeper inclines. We ended up turning back before the end of the hike and everyone was just fine with that. It was a good moment to recalibrate expectations a little bit and also realize we need to work up to the bigger hikes planned later on the trip, if we want it to be a good time.

Our second day, we headed into Rocky Mountain National Park and did a short, but beautiful hike around Sprague Lake. This hike was flatter and shorter than Kruger Rock and we spotted three moose along the trail.

When I say we spotted them, I mean that I was lecturing Jack about how I didn’t think we’d get to see any animals because our group was so noisy, when he cut me off to say, “Shut UP! There is a MOOSE.” And, sure enough, just ahead was a mother and her calf. A little further up the trail was another moose happily munching breakfast while we stood nearby admiring.

That afternoon, the Pollacks took Ben fishing for the very first time. He had a blast! He is now a total fishing convert and has been asking how soon we can go fishing again. They brought home their loot, which we cooked on the grill for dinner. It was delicious!

Our last day in Estes Park, we bid farewell to the Pollacks and returned to Rocky Mountain National Park to explore Bear Lake and Alberta Falls. Luck was on our side that day because we managed to score the very last parking spot in the area.

The hike was beautiful and there was still a fair bit of snow on the ground which made it extra fun for Ben and Norah. It’s in these pictures that you can see our most genuine smiles – and it was on this outing that I started to feel like it really was a good idea to break us out of our routines, get away from home for a little while, and get into the outdoors.