June 8-9: Riverview RV Park

June 8-9 2013

Our first stop was at Riverview RV park.  This is the only site that we had previously stayed. 

I’m going to start this whole adventure by saying that I absolutely HATE any pictures of myself right now.  I just look HUGE and not hugely pregnant, but just huge.  I feel like every picture of myself looks like a witch doctor shrunk my head b/c the rest of my body is so big! 

We arrived around 1:30, got checked in and set up.  This is River saying “We’re HERE!”

Todd set up the camper while we played around taking pictures and getting dirty.

Finally we were all set up in spot “E1”, which was close to the bathrooms, showers, dog park and cleaning station, but also the sunniest spot in the park.

The flowers were a gift for my birthday from mom (the iris’ and star lilys) and Todd (the white roses).  You’ll see them at many of the site as I couldn’t bare to leave them at home and not enjoy their beauty.

We let Bohdi [and River] run around the dog park for a while and then it was time to relax, go for a walk and play at the park before we made dinner. 

We had some wonderful hotdogs and hot dog sauce (which I made before we left), and finished off dinner with about 4 marshmallows a piece! 

There was a band playing that night which was fun to listen to, most of the time.  They weren’t that great, but at least it was live music.  The first night went great and all slept very well!

The next morning we woke up around 7:30 and I made sausage, cheese and mini whole wheat bagel sandwiches for breakfast and packed a lunch of PB&honey for Riv, roast beef sandwich and chips for Todd, and veggies and hummus for myself. We headed to Rocky Mountain National Park around 10am. 

We stopped at the shop at the top of the mountain to have our packed lunch, play in the snow, and turn around.

While we did not see as much wild life as past trips, we did have a few run-ins with animals.  We saw a momma elk nursing her baby, a marmot, and at the bottom of the mountain we finally saw some “big guys”. 

However, Riv was OUT by this point

On the way down we decided to stop at a few places we had never stopped at before.  Our first stop was at hidden valley.  River had fun chasing the chipmunks and standing on the bridge watching the white water from the snow run off.   Our second stop was at a gorgeous set of water falls, where we did get some pics.

The water was cold (as it is snow run off) but felt great on my swollen feet!

We stopped in Estes on the way “home” to visit the sidewalk art and craft show and to get some frozen yogurt.  Estes is such a fun and beautiful little town with such character… unfortunately, it was just a little too warm to enjoy it fully. 

That evening we made a “hobo dinner”. Which consisted of ground elk meat, seasoned with a French onion soup mix, on top of carrots, on top of potatoes all wrapped in cabbage leaves (which did NOT contribute to the taste was only there to keep the food from burning) and then wrapped tightly with three layers of heavy duty foil.  We threw it in the fire for 30-40min and had a pretty great dinner!  Of course, we finished off the night with another campfire and marshmallows.