Rocky Mountain Hi-igh, Colorado

When we lived in Fort Collins seven years ago, we loved going to Rocky Mountain Nat'l park as a family, but RD and I always talked about how fun it'd be to go there alone sometime.
Gramp  made our dream come true by watchineg the kids while we went! We were so excited, though a little sad the kids wouldn't get to experience RMNP this time...Grace doesn't remember it.  Gramp offered to take them to a wildlife refuge or come to RMNP with us for a while, and the kids picked the animals over the hikes. They still had to walk a mile, but they loved their time with Gramp.

Since we didn't have kids, we decided to take a longer loop from the Moraine, one of our favorite spots, to an area new to us. We started at the Cub lake trailhead, going through the familiar and beautiful fields, aspens, and rocks, and went up the mountain, where it turned rocky but forested pine.

We made it to Cub Lake, covered in lily pads, and took a break eating the snack of champions, brownie crisps and mango JoJo's from Trader Joes. It was awesome.

 I love how flowers are all over, it reminds me of Sitka.
We were feeling good, and headed off towards the Fern Lake trail. We went up over the top, and started going back down the mountain, where it was still burned and bare, with a view down the canyon down to the river we could hear.

We passed a little waterfall, the water refreshingly cool, and RD just HAD to take the psuedo-bridge.

We had a great time walking together, talking of anything and everything, and also just relishing being alone together (haha, you know what I mean). We could feast on the companionable peace and quiet, the only sounds our footfalls, wind in the quakies, the river, and the occasional exclamation at a beautiful sight.
We came to the Pool, on the Big Thompson river, where a bunch of people had their fly rods out, and the trail went along the river the rest of the way.

 We were passed by horses, and passed by some wild turkeys with babies, walking between the river and the towering jagged cliffs. The rest of the way was pretty flat, which was nice :) The last part of our hike was from the Fern Lake trailhead to our car at the Cub lake trailhead, but the walk was still on a dirt road, which was way nicer than asphalt; it still felt like a hike, with only two cars going by us. The road was edged in the dense aspen trees, and I totally wanted to get a pic of us on the road with the aspens on wither side, but the mosquitos were chasing us the whole time, and after swatting three off RD's head, decided it wasn't worth facing those blood-suckers.
We were fairly worn out from our 6.6 mile hike, the longest we've ever done together, but still had time, so we decided to drive the Trail Ridge road along the tops of the mountains and visit the alpine. It had been overcast much of the day, and as we got out at the alpine ridge it looked like a storm was coming. At the bottom of the (steep) hill, there was a sign saying not to ascend in a thunderstorm, so I protested several times to RD, but he kept saying it'd be fine, and we should go. SO up we went, when it started to sprinkle. We decided to hurry, and I got the bright idea of running up the mountain, the trail a staircase. That didn't last long, huffing and puffing for breath at such a high altitude. I felt winded even when we got to the top. As soon as we reached the end of the trail, at the signpost, the rain became heavier. We took a quick pic, and then the rain turned into piercing hail driving at us with the fierce wind, biting any exposed skin.

RD was my hero and gave me his heavy sweatshirt, with protected my neck and face, but left him in a short sleeve shirt and shorts. We hurried as quickly as we could down the trail, almost blinded by the torrent around us. Almost all the way down,  the hail suddenly stopped and a half rainbow appeared, as we surveyed the damage. We were both soaked on one side, the wind having driven the rain and hail sideways, and RD's neck and arm were covered in red welts from the hail hitting him. He saved me!

let's get off this mountain now, you got the pic!

We made it to our car, trying to find some dry clothes to change into, but RD had no other pants. We were just driving away when the rain/hail hit again, and we pulled off to not die. We waited for about 20 minutes, the hail collecting at the bottom of the windshield, till we saw a break in the clouds and drove down.
We left the park and had a delicious dinner next to a lake, that gifted us a beautiful double rainbow for a long time. It was a delightful dinner, but I also wasn't the one wearing wet clothes.