Getting Caught Up Part II

Alright,
That first post seemed pretty crappy, but the crap had just started.
July 4th-  We left the Estes Park hotel and we were making our way to Vedauwoo.  We were driving along and I looked at Brad and said something along the lines of "You know, yesterday sucked but at least we are healthy, happy and continuing on our journey!  Karma will come around for those people that stole our site."  I shouldn't have said anything.  We pulled into a gas station right outside Loveland, CO to fill up.  We filled up and then the van would start.  The fuel pump had bit the dust.  We were about 6 miles away from anything, so Brad called O'Rielly's and found a fuel pump and called AAA for a tow.  It would not be a trip without a tow.  Luckily, the tow truck came quick and we headed to O'Rielly's.  We were at the parts store for about 2 hours and Brad had fixed the van!  My hero!  We left the store, got some lunch and then finally made it to Vedauwoo.  We snagged a great spot and spent a little bit of time just unwinding after the past few days.

The next morning, we went on a nice 1/2 mile hike around Vedauwoo.  It was a really cool place.  Upon finishing the trail, we spotted a mama moose with her two babies.   This was so cool!  I had never seen a moose before.  We watched them for quite awhile and snapped a lot of photos.   What a great start to the day!

After leaving Vedauwoo, we stopped by Chimney Rock, Scotts Bluff and Agate Fossil Beds.  Neat, quick stops.  One of the rangers suggested we stop by Fort Robinson on our way out to Wind Cave.  This was a great suggestion that saved us some time.  We ended up getting a great campsite at the Fort all by ourselves.  Well, kind of all by ourselves.  It was right next to the cemetery of the fort :)
It rained all night, but we had a nice spot in a cool place.

No ghosts found  

Chelsea

Getting Caught Up Part I

Wow!  We have had a crazy week!  I will try and sum it up as quickly as I can.

We had a few days in Rocky Mountain National Park.  The first day we hiked like Brad had mentioned in the previous post and I somehow pulled my groin muscle.  Super painful and I have no clue how I did it.  We were hiking at a pretty steep incline, but nothing too crazy.  Anyways, we hiked back down and returned to our campsite for the night inside the park.  The next morning, we drove to the Long's Peak campground and found an amazing spot!  We were very surprised by this because we were convinced we would not find a spot there.  The campsite was also free, so that was cool!  We claimed our spot and then headed back to the park.  Brad went and did the Bear Lake hike and I sat in the van trying not to move my leg too much.  This sucked!  Brad enjoyed his hike though, so that was great.  When leaving the park, we saw the Stanley Hotel and drove up there to take our chances on getting a tour.  We lucked out and got the last two spots on one of the last tours for the day.  Awesome tour!  We enjoyed hearing about the history, the Steven King of it and the ghost stories.  The beautiful stairs in the place were a little difficult, but well worth it.  After that we headed back to our Long's Peak site and hung out for the night.

The next morning we woke up, had some breakfast and then headed out for a hike down in the Wild Basin Area.  We left a sign on our site post and both of our chairs out in the parking spot to make sure everyone knew that our spot was taken.  REMEMBER THIS!  We headed back into the park and I was anxious to see how the 1/2 mile hike was going to feel on my healing muscle.  I was hoping that it was better and I could get back to it.  We made our way to Wild Basin and the parking lots were full!  Every single spot was taken except for the spots that were 2.5 miles away from the trail head.  For my first day out hiking again, Brad did not want to push it, so we headed out of the park.  We decided to hit up a couple of breweries.  We first went to Left Hand Brewery which we were both very excited about.  We enjoyed a few beers and the awesome atmosphere and then headed to Oskar Blues.  We were not too impressed with this place or the beer.  Meh. Last stop was Boulder Brewing Company.  On the way to Boulder, I was not feeling too great, but we headed in and got some beers and lunch.  About 15 mins into our lovely lunch, I had such a bad head ache that I could not keep my eyes open.  I had to leave and lay down in the van.  Brad was very sweet and got the tab and drove me back to the campsite while I tried not to puke in the van.  I awoke to Brad slamming on the breaks and jumping out of the van.  We had made it back to our campsite to find a large family camping there.  Brad lost it.  They had ripped down our sign and threw our chairs into the trees.   I was so dazed that it took me a min to figure out what was going on.  Brad got back in the van and we went around the loop again.  No sites in sight.  We pulled back up and my anger then took over and I had to give them a piece of my mind.  Let's just say that the lady I was "talking"to was very lucky that she had small children present...
Brad was fuming, I was ready to hurl.  Brad admitted defeat and took me to a hotel.  It was Fourth of July weekend and he knew better than to think that we would ever find a campsite.  Thank goodness he made this choice.  Arriving at the hotel in Estes Park, I got extremely sick and was grateful for a bathroom of my own.  The rest of the night was terrible with a pounding headache, chills and bad cable shows.

The next morning, Brad had calmed down, I was holding down food and we were ready to hit the road.  Our next stop was Vedauwoo on the Fourth of July.
Chelsea

Dream lake

found a friend 

Stanley Hotel

Had to get a drink at the hotel.

Rocky Mountain National Park

We had a reservation in the park at the moraine campground for two days. With it being the week of the Fourth of July camping was hard to find. So we were happy to have half of our stay here be reserved and in a great spot. 

The first day we went on a really nice hike. Followed a river up a canyon to a wroaring waterfall.  It was a really nice hike. But unfortunately chelsea pulled her groin muscle somehow, so she had to walk the whole way back in pain.

The next day I went up to the bear lake area. I had to take the shuttle from a huge parking lot. I personally love when parks do this. Zion has it so you have to use the shuttle, after seeing how many people were in Rocky Mountain I think they should do the same. 

The shuttle took only 15 minutes to get to the trailhead. I walked up to bear lake and took some photos of the huge mountain lake. I then headed up on another trail. I decided to go up to dream lake. This is a really accurate name. It was a bit of a hike to get there but it was one of the most beautiful lakes I've been to. 

I will upload some photos when I get a chance.

The last 3 days we had some issues and we will cover them soon.

Brad

Denver

We continued to be spoiled for two more days after leaving Colorado Springs. We headed to Denver to stay with our Uncle Tim and Aunt Marylee.  It was a decent two hour drive. When we arrived in mid morning Tim and Marylee decided to take us on a little brewery tour!  We stopped by 38 State Brewing, Grist Brewing, and Lacavore BeerWorks. We enjoyed several great beers with our great hosts. We concluded the evening at the new Farm House Brekenridge.  There we had a few more beers and a delicious dinner.  After our long tour, we all went home and crashed. 

The next morning, we woke up and went to Toast for breakfast. What a yummy place!  Tim and Marylee had to do some work so Brad and I watched car shows on the couch. This was actually quite enjoyable. Nice and relaxing. 

Later that night, we enjoyed steaks and some great laughs while playing cards against humanity.

What a nice visit we had. Brad and I are very lucky to have such great families in one of our favorite states. 

Chelsea

❤️