Winter Park Family Trip

We met my parents and Diddiwah clan in Winter Park -- actually, Fraser -- for a few days of hiking and cycling in the mountains. We rented a nice cabin, with plenty of room for all of us, right on the edge of the Arapaho National Forest. 

We brought our big black tandem and our four single mountain bikes along with four days of clothes and gear, which nearly exceeded the capacity of our little truck bed. Amos ended up on the floor at the kids' feet in the rear of the cab, since the guitars and pillows took up all the space on the seat between them.

The first evening we were in Winter Park, we followed the Fraser River Trail from Winter Park's downtown area up to the ski resort. The trail hugs the Fraser River, passing through cool forest along the edge of the mountains. 

The next day we left the bicycles in the garage at the house, and drove up a tremendously bumpy gravel road to the Columbine Lake Trailhead, several miles north of Fraser. We brought along some lunch, but, thinking that we were going to be walking for about three hours, we left the lunch in the trucks at the trailhead, and planned to eat it when we got back. Well, we did eat it when we got back, but it was six hours later, not three! PB&J and potato chips never tasted so good! The scenery around the trail was magnificent, as the trail followed a valley up into the rocky cliffs of the Continental Divide that border Columbine Lake. The trail was steep, and became steeper and rocky as we ascended to the lake. It was a very nice way to spend the day. Too bad I didn't take any pics at the lake!

Amos and Utah came along for the walk, and were nicely worn out afterwards.

On the third day, we pulled out the bikes and rode the Fraser Granby Trail. It was a warm day, and some portions of the trail were quite exposed to the sun. The trail surface was gravel and dirt, and it certainly wasn't completely flat, so we road about 10 miles and then turned back.

 

Shade!!

I didn't get any exteriour pictures of our cabin in Fraser, but the photo below was taken from the driveway. Our cabin was similar to those in the picture. The road up to the cabin was steep. Cindy and Quinn had been riding down the trail behind the cabin, and up the road back to the house.

We got in a little mountain biking on the trails outside of Fraser, too. The photo below was taken near the upper end of Creekside Trail. Grandma and Grandpa were walking down to the creek not too far away with Cailan.

Right behind the cabin was a serious of trails called the Idlewild Trails, which were very convenient for getting in a quick ride or run. Why can't we just live up there?

By Sunday morning our short stay was over and we all had to say goodbye. We also said goodbye to Quinn and went home without him! Quinn was starting camp on Sunday at Snow Mountain Ranch, a YMCA camp just outside of Winter Park. We were pretty worried about leaving him there, but we picked up a week later, and it was quite apparent that he'd had a wonderful time.