This Is 40...

No, not 40 years old.  I passed that milestone what seems like a lifetime ago.  This is 40 years married to my Mary, still the prettiest girl at the party no matter where we go.  And they said it wouldn't last!   

We headed up north to Estes Park for a few days to celebrate the big occasion.  We stayed at the Stanley Hotel, a big, beautiful old resort (first opened in 1909) known for it's connection to Stephen King's "The Shining."  The hotel is actually said to be haunted.  We'd stayed there before and remembered it to be pretty fancy, and I thought it would be great to toast my bride with a glass of 23 year old Pappy Van Winkle bourbon at the Stanley's well-stocked whiskey bar.  The hotel was, in a word, disappointing.  I guess Covid took its toll on the place.  A year or so of low revenues have left it in a bit of disrepair.  It's still really nice, but it's clear that the owners had to prioritize where to allocate limited funds.  The landscaping needed a lot of work, there was no maid service (rooms are cleaned and refreshed at check out), no ghosts, and they were out of Pappy.

We spent two days hiking Rocky Mountain National Park.

On Wednesday, we took the trail to Ouzel Falls (pronounced oo-zle) from the Wild Basin Trailhead.  Ouzel Peak, Ouzel Lake, Ouzel Creek and Ouzel Falls are named after the Water Ouzel (aka the American Dipper), a small, stout bird that makes its living in and around fast moving mountain streams.  The hike was about a six mile round trip (the trail plus the walk to the remote parking spot we were lucky enough to find), a fairly easy hike and the scenery was spectacular.  The trail was more crowded than we would have liked, but that's ok.  We really enjoyed seeing so many people getting out of the car and into the fresh air.  

On Thursday, we made the drive to the Bear Lake Trailhead (reservations required) and attempted to hike to Lake Haiyaha.  The trail is pretty easy all the way to Dream Lake (photo above on the right), but the trail from Dream Lake to Lake Haiyaha was a little bit scary.  I kept turning around to check on Mary and she was not having fun at all.  I was getting a little jittery, too.  The trail was too narrow, too rocky, too wet, too slippery and too high.  When we hit the part where we had to hug the granite face on the uphill side to avoid the very long fall on the downhill side (something not mentioned in the trail description, which shows it as "moderate" and "kid friendly"), we took some time to reconsider.  We decided that scary can be fun, but when scary becomes not fun, it's time to turn around.  So we did.  Headed back to Dream Lake, had a snack and some water and then made our way to the trailhead.  It was a shorter day than Wednesday (only about 5 miles), but the gloomy skies and occasional rain motivated us to get back to town for margaritas and an early dinner.

Overall, it was a good week.  Rocky Mountain National Park is incredible, and I'd like to go back and hike some more.  I think it would be a great place to bring the grandkids, too.  I think they'd love it.  Except that trail to Lake Haiyaha...