Day 22: Rocky Mountain National Park to Colorado Springs

On our way out of Rocky Mountain National Park we stopped at the Wild Basin Trailhead to do a hike to Ouzel Falls. Luckily when we arrived just before 10am there was still parking available at the trailhead. This was a wonderful and beautiful hike past Copeland Falls and Calypso Cascades. We stopped at Ouzel Falls, even though the trail kept going. The trail was a little muddy and a there was still some snow, but for the most part it was clear. We had a snack at the falls and headed back to the car. As we were leaving several people were hiking into the area carrying bouldering mats. The trailhead parking was full by now.
Traffic was backed up in the Denver area and it took longer to get to Colorado Springs than we anticipated. The boys, especially Ezi, really wanted to rent mountain bikes so we drove straight to a bike shop that rented mountain bikes. Unfortunately, they were out of the full suspension bikes we wanted so they sent us to another bike shop across town. We went straight there because they were about to close. We realized we should have called ahead to bike shops earlier in the day and while we drove Ezi called a third bike shop. The third shop was open late and had full suspension bikes in our sizes, plus a hitch rack.
We decided to check into our bunkhouse (a cabin with no running water, but with electricity) at Garden of the Gods RV Resort. The boys thought the RV park was strange because there were RVs basically on top of each other and it was so different from campgrounds at state and national parks. There were clean bathrooms with hot showers, so that part was nice. Next we stopped by the Garden of the Gods Visitor Center to find out where mountain biking and bouldering were allowed. The staff at the Visitor Center recommended the Red Rock Canyon Open Area, a different local park, for biking and climbing. We stopped back by the bunkhouse, emptied the car more, had a quick snack, then headed to the third bike shop.
We successfully rented 3 full-suspension mountain bikes and a rack. We were so excited that we went straight to Red Rock Canyon to see what the trails were like. The boys were super stoked to find a jump trail and trials bike park near the parking lot. We rode around until nearly dark. Edon kept riding despite a pretty bad fall. He was scraped up by the fall, but was most upset that his phone had been fatally smashed.
On the way to the bunkhouse I ran into the grocery store to grab food for tomorrow. Back at the RV park, I started laundry and we all showered. I finally made it to bed around 11:30pm when the laundry finished.