My 4th day in Colorado was the busiest, due to it being my aunt and uncle's last full day there. We started the morning off by visiting Sprague Lake. Sprague Lake is one of the lakes in Rocky Mountain National Park that you don't need to hike up to. It is fully accessible. There's a trail around the lake, and the lake isn't too big so it doesn't take long to walk around. Surrounding the lake is marshy areas where moose like to hang around. We didn't end up seeing a moose there, but we did see a massive male elk laying in a grassy area before we even started walking around the lake. There is a point of the path where you can see the lake with the mountains in the distance, with their reflection in the water. It's not as incredible as the other sights in Rocky Mountain National Park, but is always pretty peaceful. You're allowed to walk off the path (within reason) so at different points we would go off to the side of the path to see if there were any animals in the marshy areas further away. There wasn't from what we could see, but with all the trees and grass you never really know how much wildlife is around in any given moment. A lot of the animals are used to people, especially the elk and chipmunks. (There's usually elk roaming around town in Estes Park even though there is usually a lot of people around. You usually see chipmunks along the hiking trails, and sometimes they'll even come right up to you to see if you will give them food.) People have more luck seeing wildlife during the early morning when the park first opens.
After walking around Sprague we drove to the parking lot for the shuttle and took a shuttle to the Alberta Falls trailhead. Alberta Falls is one of the waterfalls in RMNP. It's an incredible view that only takes a short hike to get to. Near the beginning of the trail there is a choose your own adventure option where you can walk across rocks in a stream or walk across a board of wood over the stream. I took the rocks across the stream. :P You can continue hiking further up the mountain after making it to Alberta Falls, but we never hiked any further. Along the hiking trail I spotted a male mule deer up further on the trail. The deer walked a little closer to get a look at the group before walking into a more wooded area. I hiked up some boulders to get a closer view of the water, before sitting down to eat snacks. (I was surprised by how not sore I was, I figured my legs would hurt a lot especially after the steep climb at Red Rock.) My thighs hurt a little bit when I would bend, but it was very mild.
We took the shuttle back to our car after getting back down and drove on Trail Ridge Road to go to Grand Lake. Trail Ridge Road is a road that takes you further up into the mountains. The road is narrow and goes back and forth. At the top of the mountain is a visitor center with a gift shop and some concessions. The road has places where you can pull off and look at the view along the way. You can also hike up a really steep set of stairs near the visitor center to get a better view of the mountains, but my family has never done that. (In the past we have had our minivan breakdown at the visitor center, my family had a lot of car troubles when my brother and I were growing up. :P ) According to Google Trail Ridge Road is the highest paved road in the United States at over 12,000ft. elevation. Trail Ridge Road takes about an hour drive, and ends at Grand Lake. Grand Lake is a tiny tourist town with a lake known as "Grand Lake." The actual population is around 500 people. Along Trail Ridge Road there are long sticks at the end of the roads that act as markers for where the edge of the road is for skiers to follow during the winter when the snow gets really deep. Trail Ridge Road opens around Memorial Day, and usually closes around Mid October. We stopped at the visitor center along the way, before finishing our drive to Grand Lake. From the car you can see the peaks of the mountains and huge snowbanks at a closer view. Along our way to Grand Lake my mom spotted a moose way off in the distance at the side of the road when we were no longer on the narrow road going up the mountains. There happened to be a parking lot closer to where the moose was so we could get a better view. (A female moose). We maintained our distance, and attempted to get pictures of the moose. (I've only saw a moose one other time while visiting Colorado. We saw a male moose from the car while driving, and it was pretty close by.There is also another road that takes you up into the mountains that's unpaved and way scarier to navigate called "Fall River Road." It's a one-way street you can take up the mountains, but you have to take Trail Ridge Road back down. I'm not actually sure if we've ever driven on Fall River Road before, but I don't think so?)
Once we got to Grand Lake we had an early dinner at Sagebrush Barbecue and Grill. I think it was around 3pm at the time. I ordered a 6oz sirloin with cooked broccoli and hashbrowns as the sides. After dinner we walked over by the lake and checked out the shops. I got soft-serve ice cream, and got to pet a half wolf/half dog that was walking down the street. (The owner lives in town and said he walks his dog around everyday to get treats from one of the shops.) As it is a tourist town a lot of the stuff in the shops was expensive. (Same with Estes Park but maybe not as bad.)
On our way back from Grand Lake we spotted yet another female moose near Milner Pass (the continental divide). This one was on the other side of a pond. We were able to take pictures of it from across the water. It was also not at the narrow part of the road, so we could more easily pull off to the side of the road. We had to drive the whole hour drive back to Estes Park after that, and got back around 6pm. We again watched shows before going to bed, this time we were able to sleep in a little more, as we weren't planning on going into the park the next day.
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