Gem Lake Trail at RCNP

Our National Parks Pass expires at the end of May, so we wanted to get one more trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park. If you aren't familiar with the National Park Pass, for $80 a year you can get a pass that is good at any of the National Park sites. The one pass is good for everyone in a vehicle, or if it is a "per person" location it is good for 4 adults + all children under 16. For our Seniors (age 62 and older), you can get a lifetime pass that is only $10! Pretty good deal,huh?

We had gone up to RCNP this same weekend, last year, and could pretty much do any of the trails on the East side of the park, except those at the Bear Lake Trailhead. This year, with our crazy weather, several of the trails that were accessible last year, are still under several feet of snow. So we had to focus on trails at lower elevation. Which ended up meaning that we never entered the fee area, and thus never needed to show our pass.

Our first stop was the Gem Lake Trail. It is in an area known as "Lumpy Ridge." This area features a "Rock Garden" with many large, interesting boulders. The trail to Gem Lake is considered "medium" difficulty. It is 1.7 miles, one way, with an elevation game of almost 1200 feet. Because of the route we took back, our total distance was about 4 miles. The kicker, with any of the trails in RCNP, is you start at an elevation of around 8000 feet or more before you even begin to climb.

Here are a few pictures on the way up. They should all be clickable to get larger images. In the third picture, you can see our car. It's the blue one with a person walking in front of it.



The guidebooks say that the trail starts out steep, but "flattens considerably after .75 miles." I keep waiting for the flat section, but didn't really find one. However, after about .75 miles it does open up to a nice panorama of the town of Estes Park down below.


Still a lot of runoff. Some of it in the middle of the trail. The last picture in the previous section was the only time it was really covering the trail. It was soggy in several places, and the start of the trail the water was running in a channel down the middle.


This boulder has been named "Paul Bunyon's Boot." One of the guidebooks said it was "about halfway up." I howled when I heard that, because it felt like we had gotten a lot farther than halfway. When we got home, we found out it was about 2/3rds of the way. I also severely questioned the idea that we were in the flatter section. The last third included a long granite staircase. The steps were probably 15" in sections, which my short legs didn't really appreciate without a warning.



And here is our destination, Gem Lake. It's not really a lake at all. There is no inlet or outlet. Just a rock bowl that fills with snow melt.



On the way back down, we had to stop at the Boot again so Jason could play with his new toy...Convertible pants! So he had to take his legs off.


A couple more pictures...The first is a side view of a formation called Twin Owls. The second, is just a niew view from the parking lot. We arrived at the trailhead about 8:30, and the lot was already nearing half full. When we left a couple hours later, it was jam packed and 3 or 4 cars were circling like vultures. Yes, spring has finally arrived in the mountains.

More Gardening...

Another Sunday, another day working outside. First bit of news was of the sad type. We have had a bird nest above the door into the garage. Today, I found four dead baby birds on the patio. Two were close to the nest, two were farther away. I don't know if something got them, or if they failed to thrive and the parents got them. Jason got the pleasure of cleaning them up, because I don't do dead birds.

Looking in on the vegetable garden...the lettuce seeds have sprouted, yay! And the onions I was worried about, the stalks are much greener, double yay! Everything else appears to be doing well. I planted the "tender" vegetables today. Six corn stalks, 4 zucchinni squash, and two types of cucumber. One of them has been doing really well, and there are 4 of those. The other pack of cucumbers looked half dead about the 3rd day I had them. I kept watering them, and putting them out in the sun, and while one definitely died, one looks to be recovering. The other two are inbetween. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't make it, but we'll see.

A few weeks ago, I also planted seed packets of parsley and basil into little pots on the front porch. The basil sprouted last week, and I thought the parsley was a goner. But while I was watering yesterday, I noticed a few little sprouts. So, so so far I am winning the growing battle, but the weather and the wind are trying to make it difficult. 86 and wind gusts of 40 mph yesterday.

So why just a picture of lilacs? After learning about the blog, my Mom declared, "You better have some in the house. I bet they smell so good." So, "Yes, Mom...we do have lilacs in the house."

This won't be the only blog post today. We went to Rocky Mountain National Park yesterday. So I have a bunch of pictures to post.

The Lilacs...

So what about the lilacs that started this whole blogging thing? Well, here they are...

The Vegetable Garden...

So with all the delays the vegetable garden didn't get planted until today. Like the flower garden on the front deck, the vegetable garden is a bit haphazard in its design. I bought a pack of peas and lettuce seeds when I thought I would get the garden started at the beginning of April. I bought another packet of carrot seeds, and a bunch of onion bulbs when I thought I would get it started at the end of April. Finally, I bought a few seedlings to transplant last week, when I realized how late in the season it had gotten. And I really wanted something to grow, and I thought the seedlings would be the best option.

The garden holds a bit of all of it. The front right, are the carrots from seed. The front left are the onion bulbs. I am really afraid that I waited to long to plant these, and they were looking a lot of the unhealthy side. Behind the carrots, are the lettuce seedlings. There are two different types. Behind the onions, are a mixture of lettuce varieties from the seed packet. It may be too late for them, depending on how fast it decides to get hot in June. And at the very back, on the right side, are 2 pea plants, because I really wanted peas!


There is room in the garden, for a few cucumber plants, zucchini plants, and I have a tiny bit of corn. I bought these last week too, but I forgot that I wasn't supposed to plant the tender vegetables until Memorial Day here. They seem to be doing well, in their little containers. I am in the process of hardening them, and lugging them outside every day for a bit. The weather looks nice for next week, so depending on the forecast, I will try and plant them next week.

What's Happened So Far...

So I actually started working on the gardening projects back in March. I read, that even in Colorado you could start a few vegetables at the beginning of April. Basically, just peas and lettuce, but I like both of those, so I thought it would be nice to get those in. Of course, I got a couple colds, the weeks when I wasn't sick the weather was horrible. And it turned out that I didn't get any vegetables in the ground until today. Which wasn't exactly a bad thing because this is what our yard looked like on May 12.


Two days before, it was beautiful, and I planted some annuals in the front of the house. I had pre-purchased a variety of pots, and 2 flower boxes for the deck railing. You can see from the first picture that we really need a few more, but since we didn't have any supplies, the cost all adds up.

These half barrels were here, but they needed freshening up. They now hold Dianthus, African Daisy, Snapdragons, Pansy, Petunia and Marigold. I was a little worried about the snow, but they seem to have held up well.


I always imagined having a patio filled with a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Pots in every size, shape and color. That is also expensive, but I have a little bit going. Each year, I'll add more pots, and I hope someday it turns into something beautiful. I was happy to find the large colorful pots at Walmart. They were on sale for $10 each, and they remind me of the Mad Tea Party ride from Disneyland.


I have a couple of tomato plants, which I hope aren't going to be too big for the pots! Basil, Oregano and Rosemary. And a few flowers left over from the barrels and window boxes.

Getting Started

It is yard work day. Jason is cutting the back forty, I planted some vegetables, and I thought I should tease my mother with pictures of the lilacs. Then I thought Shannon might like to see pictures too, so what the heck...I'll start a blog. Then when we go on our day trips, I have a place to put few pictures, say a few thoughts and can quickly share instead of thinking, "Did we tell everyone who would want to know?"