Book End Goes to Colorado!

Colorado is, hands down, one of the most beautiful places I've ever been and I just love it there.  This was our second trip to Estes Park, CO and our first with the Hobbit Hole.  900 miles there and no problems at all with the trailer, which was impressive.  Even more impressive, April drove the entire 15 hours by herself in one straight shot.  

We arrived on the morning of the 4th of July and found a great campsite at the Olive Creek campground near the Longs Peak and Twin Sisters trailheads.  We spent the first day loading up on supplies for the week and setting up camp.  We had many curious fellow campers visit us to check out the camper (and had lots of fans on the drive there as well).

The next day we did a hike to Ouzel Falls to warm up our muscles.  It was the perfect day for hiking.  The next day things got a little foggy and rainy as we made our way to the Alpine Visitor Center.  Too bad the fog got in the way of some truly excellent views to be had up there.  The following day brought our big hike to the summit of the Twin Sisters.  Still a bit foggy, but cool, the ascent was fairly pleasant and spending time at the top provided some nice (albeit foggy) views.  On the descent, however, the heavens opened and we had to tredge down in rain and hail; not ideal hiking conditions.  We celebrated with hot showers and a meal in town.

  Rain plagued us for a few days in the middle of our trip and we even considered heading north, but the radar didn't leave us very optimistic that the weather would improve so we hunkered down to make the best of it.

The skies cleared on our last couple days there and we had some more good hiking in and were able to get most of our stuff fairly dry before packing up to head back home.