Alberta Falls Plus

With Zak's basketball season over, we made plans to head up to Rocky Mountain National Park and do some snowshoeing on Saturday. Our hope was to make it to Mills Lake from the Glacier Gorge trailhead.

The weather was gorgeous. Sunny and warm, and eight inches of fresh snow from the previous day.

The view down into the drainage at some points was awesome.

Zak's REI rental snowshoes, unfortunately, were a constant problem. We were regularly stopping so I could try and break up the packed snow on the bottoms of them. He had no traction when they got like this, and they were pretty heavy.

Alberta Falls was still pretty, if a little tough to distinguish from the rest of the surroundings under the snow.

In addition to his snowshoe issues, Zak also had a sock that wouldn't stay on and a nose running like a faucet. So not too far after Alberta Falls he sent me a not-so-subtle message that he wanted to be done.

We started looking for some point that seemed like an appropriate spot to turn around. After another half a mile or so we came upon a place where other folks had clearly headed down into the drainage to hike. Hence, Alberta Falls Plus.

His favorite part was sliding down steep slopes. Unfortunately, a good slope to slide down was usually bad to try and climb back up for a second run.

The drainage route did offer some uniquely striking views.

Did I mention Zak really liked sliding where he could?

Even when we were nearly back at the trailhead around 1 p.m., the shaded areas still had most of their snow from the night before.

Tired as we were, we could still appreciate the amazing views as we left the park.

What better way to celebrate a good hike than with a plate of chicken wings? The hot sauce at Locals Grill in Estes Park nicely lived up to its billing, too.

We probably didn't hike more than 2 1/2 miles in all, but we still had a blast doing it. And we went ahead and bought the annual pass, so there will be more visits to Rocky Mountain and other national parks in the coming year!