Saturday, July 23, 2011

Adventures with a Two Year Old in Rocky Mountain National Park

Taking a break at Bear Lake

We had to stop at every trickle of running water.

And we had fun examining pebbles to determine if they'd be good to throw into Bear Lake.

Sizing up the Alluvial Fan Falls.

It's hard not to be cute when you're only two years old.


Sprague Lake, again making sure the little pebble he's about to toss into the water is suitable for that purpose.


Another week in the books- how was yours?  Let's just say I'd rather be remembering our late June 2011 trip to Rocky Mountain National Park!  Last weekend I wrote about the flora and fauna of the alpine tundra.  Here, Weston is pictured at much lower elevations in the park, although he did make it up past 9475 feet at Bear Lake.  The little guy was huffing and puffing as we took our gingerly stroll around the lake.

The whole family went to RMNP for Megan's brother's wedding- we stayed for a week, but Megan still had to do her day job while we were there.  After returning from early morning photo excursions, I would pick up Weston around 9:00 to give momma a break.  Weston and I had a blast exploring the park- even at two years old he was a super nature adventurer.

Weston's two early loves of the natural world are rocks and water.  He had no problems finding small rocks to throw.  Climbing boulders was also great fun.  All with my help, of course.  We visited short trails with easy access to the parking lot.  He walked for the most part- sometimes he would stop, look up at me, raise his arms and say "up".  That's when we'd stop and take a break.  Yes, it took us an hour to go one half mile but that's what exploring nature with a two year old is like.  And that's how it should be!  So many of the park visitors were in such a hurry to see everything, they actually saw very little.

Weston and I had a blast exploring the park together- on our next trip hopefully momma and Brody will be able to join us more frequently.

Tom

During July 2011, I'm writing about my late June trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.  I hope you enjoy this brief swing to the western U.S.






5 comments:

  1. Spent a week around bear lake when I was 11 years old. 40 years later it is still the place I remember the most.

    AlanR

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Alan. It's a pretty remarkable place. This year's lingering snow made the hike around the lake even more interesting for Weston. Although he's only two, I hope that he might remember a few sights, sounds, or even smells from our week spent in the mountains.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was there with my family when I was about 9 or 10 and I haven't been in that part of the world since. Your beautiful pictures really bring it back! And I remember that I wanted to stop and really check out all the different ground squirrels near the parking lot, but the rest of my family was charging off to the trail.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank Kirsten- As a student of natural history, I walk SLOWLY in the woods..and we stop to smell the roses, throw rocks, and yes, even talk to the squirrels. When we were met with a squirrel on the trail, Weston stopped, looked at it with amazement, and said, "Hi Squirrel, how are you?"

    -Tom

    ReplyDelete
  5. So happy to see there are kids that will grow learning to love mother nature. Congratulations for the wonderful work.It's amazing.

    ReplyDelete