Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park is a part of me.\u00a0 Growing up in Colorado, we went to Estes Park every summer, savoring the slow winding drive up the mountain.\u00a0 We would stop to buy a cherry pie, or Indian fry bread from one of the shops that dot the canyon road.\u00a0 I have a few of those funny western photos that we purchased when family visited and wanted the Estes Park experience.<\/p>\n
My dad loved to hunt, and loved to drive into Rocky Mountain National Park to see the elk come down into the valley.\u00a0 They would bugle-call to find mates at dusk and we would be one of the cars lined up, with windows rolled down to watch.<\/p>\n
When we decided to leave Colorado, we spent one final weekend in Estes Park.\u00a0 We stayed right on the lake, in rain that fell all weekend.\u00a0 Parker and Chase were just little boys back then and they loved eating waffles in front of the big windows that looked onto the lake.<\/p>\n
Whenever I go home to Colorado, I try to schedule a trip to this picturesque mountain town.\u00a0 Most of the time I grab my sisters and their kids and head to Estes Park just for the day.\u00a0 On those days we just get some ice cream, sit on the benches by the river and let the kids get wet.\u00a0 Other times, we book a room or a cabin for a couple of nights so that we could roast some marshmallows, or listen to a western band play in one of the hotel bars.<\/p>\n\n\t\t