Day 19: Rocky Mountain National Park

Ironically, the weather today was some of the best we had. It was cold, in the 30s-40s, but didn't feel too cold. Maybe it got even a little warmer. There was some very light frozen precipitation, more hail then snow perhaps, but it didn't stick to the ground. It did pile up in the existing snow, though.
We had a late start again, no surprise. Our first stop was the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center. The ranger we spoke with was super helpful. There is snow on a few trails here, but there are also some pretty clear trails, too.
Our first trail was the Cub Lake to Fern Falls Loop. Ezi still wasn't feeling well and this was one of the snow-free trails, so we decided to do it and then see how he did. We missed the turn off to Fern Falls. I was disappointed we missed the falls, but didn't want to turn around and go back the 2 miles to try and find it. It was an okay trail, but didn't have many mountain views, which surprised me.
Ezi decided to rest in the car while Edon and I did the Bierstadt Lake Trail. It isn't a long trail, but has a good increase in elevation. This trail did have some good views of mountains, but the loop around Bierstadt Lake had very few lake views. I found that a bit strange.
Since it was only about 4pm at this time and there weren't too many people at the park, we decided to try and do the Emerald Lake Trail. This is an approx. 3.5 mile trail that is extremely popular. We found out why it is so popular shortly after beginning it. The trail was covered in well-packed snow, but offered amazing mountain and lake views. This was more the type of trail I was expecting. We passed Nymph Lake and Dream Lake on our way to Emerald Lake. The entire trail was very beautiful. Emerald Lake was frozen and the kids walked around it and climbed up Tyndall Gorge (Glacier). They climbed so high I could barely see them. Then they slid and rolled down. They had a really fun time, but wanted to quickly get back to the hotel so they could take warm showers.
Bear Lake, the most visited area of the park, was close to the parking lot and we made a very quick stop to look at it before heading to the hotel. We are all sore this evening and grateful for hot showers and the exciting day we had.