Impromptu Mini Vacation - Part 1

Matt and I decided we wanted to go camping last weekend, but we weren't sure we'd be able to find an open campsite. So we headed up toward the mountains Saturday morning, unsure of what we would find or what we would do. It ended up turning into a pretty nice little vacation.

We grabbed the last spot available at the first campsite we visited. It wasn't as secluded as we would have liked, but it was still pretty nice.

Our little tent.

Because we found a spot so quickly, we had the entire day to kill. We were up near Estes, so we decided to head over Trail Ridge Road. It's always a pretty drive.

Pretty mountains.

Unfortunately, it's very crowded on the weekend. And some of the visitors don't respect the environment as much as they should. So I took pictures so I could gripe about them on my blog.

You may not be able to read it, but the sign tells all visitors that we were in a "Tundra Restoration Zone." Basically, walking on the Tundra will cause death and destruction, and is not allowed. Sadly, some of the park visitors didn't know how to read.

I had a hard time keeping myself from yelling at the people off the trail. We also saw an awesome teenager who stood off the trail throwing rocks at chipmunks while his entire family (parents, grandparents, etc.) stood around watching. I told Matt that every time the kid threw a rock at the wildlife, I should get to throw one at him. But I didn't. I minded my own business, and tried to not let it ruin my day.

We saw some pretty elk, which helped cheer me up.

Elk.

It was super pretty at the "top" of the drive.

A chipmunk.

Sadly, we did not see any marmots.

We decided to head all the way over the ridge to Grand Lake.

They were having some sort of festival with lots of people.

We walked around town and had a nice dinner before taking a short walk up to see a pretty waterfall.

The lake viewed from the trailhead to the falls.

Matt on the trail.

The pretty waterfall.

When we started the drive back over Trail Ridge Road, the sun was beginning to set. Beautiful. It was much less busy, and all of the wildlife started coming out for the evening.

An elk.

At the top, we tried to spot some marmots again. And right before we left, we saw one! It was very exciting.

A marmot.

Ahh, so pretty.

Back at the campsite, we had s'mores and hot dogs before heading to bed. We had to be up early for our hike the next morning.

Which I will post about later. I wouldn't want to overload you with the millions of pictures I took!