Gem Lake

The weekend after Labor Day we went up to Rocky Mountain National Park to do some car camping.  We hiked both days and Henry did a great job.  The first day he hiked almost three miles by himself.

We saw a gaggle of turkeys along the way, pretty unusual for the Rocky Mountains.  I can't remember a time I've seen them in this area before.

Hangin' with Mom.

We had a nice picnic lunch in the shade of a nearby tree.

Later we roasted hot dogs over the fire and finished up with some smores.

That's one happy camper.

The next day we woke up to a beautiful day.

We decided to hike up to Gem Lake.  It's up on a very rocky ridge, so there are lots of 'caves' to explore and rocks to climb.

This cave was big enough for me to get in there with Henry, but a lot of them are custom built for little tykes.  No parents allowed!

Another good one for parents to join in.

And there's 'boot rock' which is a big rock that looks like a boot that's lying on it's back.  It even has a hole in the sole as demonstrated here by Henry.

Henry enjoyed the lake.  He went for a swim (it's very shallow, so it's surprisingly warm).  He also did a great job keeping the chipmunks away from our lunch.  They're pretty ferocious around these parts, but they were no match for Henry's eagle eyes and lightning quick reflexes.  Take that camp robbers!

The whole hike was well over three miles and much steeper than I had remembered.  We weren't sure if Henry would make it the whole way, but he persevered all the way to the car.  Where he promptly fell asleep.