June 28, 2025

“Never doubt the Maverick.” - Darren.  Home to unpack, relax, and have homemade raspberry ice cream the girls made. What a delicious homecoming. 

A few observations from our days in Rocky Mountain National Park:

Always use the stakes for the tent. (Thank you random campground neighbor for saving our tent.)

Don’t forget your sunglasses. Just because you don’t need them when you start hiking at 5am doesn’t mean you won’t want them at some point. (Rookie mistake and I’m not a rookie.)

Put the micro spikes in the pack. They’re not that heavy and they may mean the difference between sketchy/stressful or easy peasy. (And you can smile at the people without them making their way up the snow patch on their knees.)

Pack the soda for the top of the hike. It’s so refreshing. (Although bottle is better than can because you can put the lid back on.)

9:30am is a perfectly acceptable time to have lunch on a rock. (And a rock is the best place to eat lunch, especially if it goes out into the lake.)

Don’t ask someone if they saw the moose if you can’t immediately show them said moose. (It’ll just make me sad I missed the moose.)

You’ll never win the game - guess what I’m going to want to eat at camp when I’m at the grocery store. (Your past self never buys what you want now.)

It’s OK to save some hikes for next time. (I’m looking at you Chasm and Black lakes.)

If you see a guy set up for sunset photos and ask him his name, you can then call the spot John’s Lookout. (His name was John and we would reference his view many times from different places.)

When you chat with the three older ladies and they tell you to hike past Helene to Bear instead of going back the way you came, you listen. (And you’re very thankful you ran into them because it was the much better way to go.)

Just because someone tells you a little girl climbed up to the top of something doesn’t mean you should feel pressured to do the same thing. (Little girl may mean 14 year old rock climber.)

Campsites are always good if a deer walks through. (Two deer in this case and they had antlers.)

Always look at the stars. (They weren’t Canyonlands stars but there was the Milky Way and tree shadows.)

Go ahead and say yes when someone asks if you want them to take your picture. (Some will turn out great and some will turn out not great.)

Sometimes gas stations have delicious burgers. (Thank you Fresh Burger Stop. Delicious burger and amazing fries.)

This Rocky Mountain Park is so beautiful but hard to capture in photos. (But I did get a shot or two I like.)