Rain, rain go away!

Well, we had kind of heard that bad weather was coming for Friday, but I just assumed it would all blow over pretty quickly. That didn't quite happen. It was raining when we woke up, and its still raining now at 9:30pm. It didn't entirely ruin our day, but it did present some challenges, such as STAYING DRY.

So, we woke up around 7am this morning and decided to do a 3.6 mile round-trip hike to Gem Lake. It was only drizzling for most of the hike, but after being in drizzle for 2 hours straight, you're pretty soaked through. I stupidly wore makeup this morning too, so I had a bit of the raccoon effect going on by the time we reached our destination. This hike was also 2-3 times as hard as the hike we did yesterday. The height of some of the rock steps made me quite thankful that I have long legs! I also adopted a walking stick for this hike, and it helped out immensely. As we made our way to Gem Lake, we did not see even one person. So, it was definitely kind of cool to have the trail all to ourselves. The lake was pretty cool, as one side of it was bordered by a sheer cliff. I'm sure it would have been prettier if the sun was out though! On the way back down, we began to pass more people and the most spoken comment was "Wow, you are as crazy as we are!"

When we got back to the SUV, we were pretty wet. Unfortunately, we didn't really prepare our wardrobe for rain during this vacation, so our clothes were soaked through. We stopped back at the cabin to change, and since we were tired and it was still raining, we decided to go grab a nice hot lunch at Village Pizza in Estes Park. Justin had wings and I had a small thin-crust pepperoni pizza.

After lunch, we decided to take a drive and see if we could possibly fit in one more hike during the day. We were on the road for close to an hour and half before we got to our first possible stop at Indian Peaks. A ranger (from the previous day) had recommended we go there because of the beautiful wildflowers that blanket the area. When we got down there, it was about 37 degrees, and it cost 8 bucks to get into the area. The guy working the gate basically told us that it was not worth it. So, we turned around and headed back towards RMNP.

As we neared the Wild Basin Area around the Southeast side of the park, it continued to rain. But, we went ahead and drove to the Ouzel Falls trailhead anyway. With my change of clothes, I was even less prepared to do another rainy hike. Justin ran into the Ranger Information Station, and they had just had some ponchos delivered. So, he bought two of them for $8. The rain had also begun to return to a drizzle, and we were off.

The hike to Ouzel Falls was 5.2 miles roundtrip, so it was definitely our farthest yet. Along the way, we saw some other cool waterfalls such as the Upper and Lower Copeland Falls and the Calypso Cascades. The ranger also warned us before the hike about the fact that both black bears and mountain lions frequented the area. So, it was important that we stay quite aware during the hike. Along we went, and by the time we got to Calypso Cascades with a mile remaining to Ouzel Falls, the rain was picking up again. It was also about quarter to 5 (we started the hike around 3:30), and we decided it would be best to turn around. As we were resting before heading back to the car, three very large horses passed us. You can imagine that it was important to keep our eyes on the trail on the way back, so as not to step in anything repulsive. We made great time on the way back, though, and made it to the car just before 5:30.

We got back to the cabin by about 6:15 and decided to take a little nap before going to dinner. We slept until 7:15, freshened up and went to downtown Estes Park to a restaurant called Grubsteak. We had actually tried to go there the night before, but they had an hour wait. That was not so tonight! With the rainy, cold weather in play, there was almost no one at the restaurant. By the time we got our main course, we practically had the whole place to ourselves. I love that! So, what did we have? Well, tonight's main ingredient was buffalo. Justin had a buffalo strip steak with mashed potatoes and gravy and some veggies. I had buffalo meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy and veggies. I must not be too discriminatory because I couldn't tell the difference between that and regular beef meatloaf. So, all in all, it was delicious. I also had a tasty beer with dinner called Easy Street Wheat brewed in Ft. Collins. I doubt that I can find it in Cincinnati, but I'm sure gonna try when we get home.

We got back to the cabin around 9pm. Shortly thereafter, I decided to start blogging, of course. Before bed, we are going to go ahead and do most of our packing and take showers tonight. We are going to try to get on the road by 7am because we will have a long day of driving ahead of us to get to Jackson, WY.

Other than leaving on time, the only other thing I care about for tomorrow is waking up to the sun shining. I don't want to see any more rain on this vacation!!