I just had to separate this trip into two posts, because one post alone is just beauty overload!

GOR-GEOUS is the only way to describe it. We had this trip planned for about two weeks. My brother (of course), his wife (they left my triplet nieces home with her sister), my oldest son, my niece, and my youngest sons girlfriend went. It was so great to get a group together! We just needed to be back home around 3:30pm so that my son could take a nap before his shift at work, and so that my niece couldmake it to a wedding rehearsal(she wasa bridesmaid).

We woke up to rain in the forecast. Yes, I always check the weather, but they cry wolf so many times that I had a positive outlook.

I picked the girlfriend up, my brother and his wife met us at my house, andwhen I got back home I went intothe house to get my son. He was in bed! I had just seen him about a half hour before when he had come home from the fire station (remember – he’s a fireman). I’m yelling at him to wake up, that we were all ready to leave!

We headed to pick up my niece who lives in the next town over, whichwas on the way to our destination –Rocky Mountain National Park. When we got her, we decided to head over to Walmart to pick up some inexpensive rain ponchos. Almost EVERYONE decided to run inside. My brother went and got the ponchos; the girlfriend got herself a trail snack;the niece who thought that we’d stop somewhere for a sit-downbreakfast (was she crazy?) was satisfied with going to theMcDonald’s in the store; I took the opportunity to run into the bathroom.

Finally we were on the road again. The rain started to come down pretty hard at first. After about an hour we got to Estes Park where we always enter the park. The image below shows you the weather we had:

Cool, huh? We drove to the Bear Lake Trailhead:

As always, Iwas ready for the weather with enough sweatshirts to go around. The three other girls in our group took some, and I changed from shorts into jeans. Thankfully it was just a here and there sprinkle forthe hikeup.

Welcome to the Bear Lake Trailhead! This was our group. Notice1/2 of them were in the ponchos (.99by the way!):

Notice I am the only one still wearinga poncho:

We first walked around Bear Lake since we had never done that. Previous trips were just to look at the lake and then leave.

These next imagesare from Nymph Lake. This hike was achain of lakes.

Honestly, the weather was perfect for taking pictures! No harsh sun like we usually have. Usuallywe getto our destination way after sunrise. More images from this hike to come!