“You let your feet run wild” – Kaleo
Today we left Rocky Mountain National Park. The good news, though, is that despite my post a day or two ago about not knowing when I’d return to a place, I feel very confident that I’ll be back here again next June. We talked a bit today about our favorite part of the trip. While that is an exceedingly hard question to answer since there were so many amazing people, places, and hikes, my favorite place is still RMNP. This year we got to discover two awesome corners of the park that we hadn’t been to before: Mt. Ida and Lake Odessa.
This morning I woke up way too early (3:30) and couldn’t find my way back to sleep, which was kind of a bummer. Eventually (6:45) everyone else woke up and we started packing up camp. I went out of the tent to take care of some morning business, and looked up to see a doe standing about 5 feet away from me watching said business. After I finished she went about chewing on some plant. I went back to start packing up camp with the girls, but she stayed all morning long. The entire time we were packing, dressing, and having breakfast, she stayed nearby munching on the vegetation.
After an hour or so the time came for us to say goodbye to her as we shouldered our packs. (Author’s Note: This is where the the #KimptonLove kicked in last night, so it’s now the next morning) The hike back down from Lake Odessa flew by, as we covered the four miles in well under two hours. We took in our last mountain views of the hike as we passed people coming up for their day hikes.
Last year we started a tradition of running the last part of particularly long or challenging hikes. Although today’s wasn’t either of those things, it seemed right to run since it was the last hike of the summer. As soon as we got into the car Wllie broke into tears, not wanting the trip to be over. I knew exactly how she felt since I had the same emotions. We reassured her, and ourselves, that we’d be back soon.
We made a stop in Boulder at Avery brewery for lunch, then pushed on to downtown Denver and Kimpton number 3 of the trip. We took turns lingering in the best shower of the trip before heading down to wine hour where we played games, caught up on the journal, and reminisced just a bit.
Molly and I managed to sneak away for dinner at the Hotel Born’s restaurant, Citizen Rail. Since our 16th anniversary last week included the girls we decided to treat this as our celebration. All the courses we had, from the short rib amuse bouche to the chocolate cake with mint ice cream were delectable. My favorite though, was the mussels. The thick toasty sourdough soaked in the buttery slightly spicy sauce was out of this world.
