A wedding in Grand Lake and a trip over Trail Ridge through Rocky Mountain National Park

We followed up our trip to Breckenridge with a short stop in Grand Lake for a cousin's wedding.  We stayed at the historic Grand Lake Lodge in a small (very small) cabin (nicely modernized).  They had a pool with great views of Grand Lake and Shadow Mountain Lake.

We took a nice hiking trail from the lodge into town and had lunch at EG's Garden Grill.  We were going to go to Pancho & Lefty's  (based on a recommendation from people who had been in town for the week) but it took about 5 minutes for a hostess to greet us and when she did she mumbled something so I wasn't even sure she was a hostess.  The restaurant was virtually empty and she told us it'd be 20 minutes before she could seat us.  We had hungry kids, a bad impression, and couldn't figure out why there would be a wait so we hightailed it out of there.  I'm not sure we found anyplace better (food wise) but the atmosphere was better.  I was drawn to the nice patio w/ live music.  I figured the food/service could be pretty bad since the atmosphere was so nice before I would dislike this place. Well....

I had the fish tacos.  There was one more on the plate before I ate it.  They were good but I needed a side...coleslaw, chips, rice, something.  If I pay $10.99 for a lunch I expect to be full (I don't need the oversize plates of most places, however,) when I'm done.  I was still quite hungry.

My husband had the Rueben which he thought was okay.

My son got the corn chowder.  I believe the sign said it was homemade.  If that meant throwing in way to many pieces of celery (large chunks) in a canned soup then I guess it was.  It did have a corn flavor but I would have been hard pressed to find a single piece of corn in this soup.

My daughter had the Mac n' Cheese and seemed happy.  Other tables were kept waiting longer than us to be served so I'm not sure that any other people were blown away by EG's.  I had the impression that anywhere you ate in Grand Lake was going to be the same:  so so food and so so service.  (Such is life in a tourist town)

The wedding went off without a hitch...

except for a small amount of hail that thankfully fell after the vows when people could take shelter on the porch.  My possessed daughter had fun picking it up.

 The beautiful atmosphere provided a nice setting for some family pics.

We had to get our standard pic at the entrance to the national park.  We are trying to collect as many as possible.

 It had been a while since I'd gone over Trail Ridge and I'd nearly forgotten how nice the views are.

You can't go through the park without being guaranteed to see at least a couple of elk.

I had time for a run the last morning.  I took a pleasant trail from the Lodge to RMNP.  I'm glad I went as far as I did since I saw two moose in a meadow.  Definitely made my morning.  Just wish I had a camera with me since one was all of 20 feet from me when I turned around.

Hike: Tonahutu Trail

Trails Used:  Tonahutu Trail in RMNP

Distance: 7.27 miles

Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 5.1 mph
Overall Time: 1 hr, 25 min
Total Ascent: 744 ft.

Eating and Staying in Moab

 After being in the car all day we headed to Twisted Sista's on Main Street in Moab for some dinner and to meet up with the man who left us for a basketball game.

 

 We had a great meal (salmon, pork tenderloin, seafood tom yum-very good) and some yummy calamari for an appetizer.  Surprisingly, it wasn't fried and it was all the better for it.

 

 The main dishes were all on the small size (which is clearly stated on the menu) so if you are really hungry this might not be the place for you.  The atmosphere was pleasant and so was the company.

 

 

Only one of us had dessert (the cheesecake) and it was fantastic.  The rest of us headed to the Moab Diner for malts and ice cream.

 

 We stayed at the Kokepelli Inntowner while in Moab.  This was about 2 blocks off main street and okay accommodations.  We had plenty of room and a kitchen but nothing was that updated.  Being able to sit outside and enjoy the sun was definitely a plus.

Montana State Fair in Great Falls, MT

We headed to Great Falls, MT for our third and last hotel stay on the trip.  Luckily, we checked out the visitor's center first and discovered that the Montana Sate Fair was starting that night and going through the weekend.  We quickly discovered this meant the hotels were already booked and had raised rates.  After searching for about an hour we finally found a room at the Comfort Inn.  I think the only reason we were able to find a room was due to all the construction around the hotel.  It was difficult to figure out how to get to it. 

We went to Rikki's Pizza and Pasta for lunch.  It didn't look that inviting from the outside but we all had good meals. 

 

We had a bruschetta appetizer

 

and a shrimp pizza.

My non pizza eater ordered the mac n cheese of course.

 

Look at that bumped and bruised face!  I don't think I mentioned it before but she managed to 'flop' on every single hike we did this trip.  They were always full frontal with maximum body contact flops too.   It was a running joke in the family about how long it would take her to 'flop' each time.

Someone had told us to go the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail Interpretive Center.  This was a great museum with very cool exhibits.  They also had a Junior Ranger type program so the kids earned another badge here.  This is a great place to take the family.

We ran out of time to try the bike trails in Great Falls but it looked like they had quite a few and it would have been fun to do if we had the time.

We stopped in for an early drink at the Sip n Dip Lounge in downtown.  This bar was part of a hotel that we had tried to stay at but was booked.  The hotel pool is showcased through the back bar window.  If you look closely you can see a boy swimming near the top of the pool.  It was great..him and his sister had their goggles on and would come down and stare at the people in the bar. 

We finally headed for the Montana State Fair.  They had your typical display's of tractors.  

We didn't see too much else besides the rides because the kids were having so much fun.  

 

 

We ran to get dinner at one point and passed the marines.  Chris couldn't resist challenging them to see how many pull ups he could do.  I don't think he did real well since he only got a neck lanyard.  He really wanted that water bottle!

Overall, we weren't that impressed with Great Falls.  The museum was worth a stop and the kids did have a great time at the fair but we didn't see too much else of interest to do there.

Hidden Lake and Sunrift Gorge

Went for a run towards Johns Lake this morning.  Started on the cedar trail for a bit and then headed towards the lake.  I was pretty worried about bears since I was all by myself, running, and had no bear spray. Probably not the smartest but I wanted to maintain the shape I was in for entirety of this trip.

Run: Johns Lake

Trails Used:  Avalanche Campground to Cedar Trail, to Avalanche Lake Trail to Johns Lake

Distance: 4.91 miles

Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 5.5 mph
Overall Time: 0 hrs, 53 mins
Total Ascent: 856 ft.

 

Started the morning off at Lake McDonald Lodge for breakfast.  Save your money and go somewhere good when you leave the National Park system.  This makes three for three of yucky meals in the National Parks!  This was by far the worst.

 

 

 

 

They had an inedible, rubbery, barely warm breakfast buffet.  Luckily, they let the kids onto our ticket ($13.70 each) so we didn't have to pay for them too.  Then I would have felt really bad.  It is a shame since the lodge itself has a nice ambiance. 

 After breakfast we headed out on the bus for Logan Pass.

 

The views 

 

from the top of Logan Pass are outstanding.  This mountain feature is called The Wall:

 

It was a cool and windy day to do the Hidden Lake overlook but we decided to go ahead with it.

 

 

The kids had a great time hiking through the snow, sliding on their butts, and throwing snowballs at each other.  It almost made them forget they were hiking.

 

We saw many mountain goats.

 

 

 

They didn't seem to find it worrisome that all these people were up there climbing around.  I got some great photos of everyone around the goats.

 

 

Overall, the trail was wet, snow packed, and busy.  The view was nice

 

but not too different from what we can see in Colorado so I don't know if I'd recommend the trail or not.  There are so many cool trails to do in Glacier I would personally opt for another.

 

Hike: Hidden Lake Overlook

Trails Used:  Hidden Lake Overlook Trail

Distance: 2.85 miles

Difficulty: Moderate (it is tough walking through the snow)
Overall average: 1.5 mph
Overall Time: 1 hr, 53min
Total Ascent: 680 ft.

When we were done hiking we headed down the east side of the pass for the first time just to check some things out.  We learned that the bus that was so awesome on the west side is awful on the east.  We ended up waiting 40 minutes in the cold wind at the top of Logan Pass before we finally were able to get on a bus.  We took it to the Sun Rift Gorge stop

 

 

and walked down to the Baring Falls.

Hike: Sun Rift Gorge

Trails Used:  Baring Falls Trail

Distance: .43 miles

Difficulty: Moderate
Overall average: 2.0 mph
Overall Time: 0 hrs, 12 min
Total Ascent: 313 ft.

 

 

Had to wait another 20 minutes to catch the bus back up to Logan Pass.  On the west side it seemed like there were buses every 5 minutes.  C has still yet to figure out which way the binoculars go.

 

 When we finally made it home we had taco noodles.

We put the kids to bed and started packing everything up for the big move to the east side the next day.