Wednesday, June 16

Wednesday morning we woke up in the Rocky Mountain air and were treated to a bacon and eggs breakfast. The plan for the day was to be taken on a tour of the area. We were going to go through Hayden (where Jon graduated HS) on the way to Steamboat Springs. Our first stop in Steamboat was Fish Creek Falls. This is an absolutely, stunningly beautiful area in the mountains. We did some light hiking here and took lots of pictures of the falls and surrounding area. We later found out that this waterfall is the one pictured on Coors can...neat trivia. Next time, I'd like to try the 5 mile hike back to the lake that is the source of this waterfall. Pictures from Fish Creek are included here.







After Fish Creek we were taken up the mountain over Rabbit Ears Pass through Routt National Forest. The mountain scenery was again beautiful. Colleen stopped at one of their family camping spots so we could get out and hike some more. (Apparently, you can camp anywhere in this area, it doesn't have to be in a campground). High river water in the creek here prevented us from strolling too far but we did enjoy the scenery, found some moose tracks, and dodged snowballs thrown by the boys. Much laughter and merriment! On the way back down the pass, we stopped briefly for another photo. The following photos are from this hike and photo stop.





After descending the mountain, we stopped in Steamboat Springs for lunch at Qdoba and dessert at ColdStone. Yum. Bad for the diet, but on vacation...who cares? The rest of the evening was spent chilling "at home". We got Duane into playing Drums on the game "Rock Band", did some reading, sleeping, etc... Stop back tomorrow for Thursday's tale!

...and if you want more of our pics, cut and paste this into your browser (let me know if doesn't work!)...

http://www.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2293315021/a=154363634_154363634/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/