State Park Weekend {Part B: Rifle Falls}

After our highly successful state park adventure of Saturday, we decided even more exploring was in the cards for our Monday holiday.  (Callie, incidentally, learned another new "day": "holiday" which is just like "Saturday" in that Dad doesn't go to work and we "play!" and have "fun!")

Our destination for MLK day (January 19th): Rifle Falls State Park, which is about an hour and a half drive from our house.  And what a lovely drive it was.  While the sky wasn't as brilliant blue as Saturday's outing, we did get to traverse new territory through some lovely ranch land near New Castle and beyond.  It really was a pretty drive once we got off I-70 (though the freeway from our house to New Castle is definitely not a bad drive; I certainly am not complaining about it).  We saw lots of horses, sheep and cows, and even a few hawks soaring up above or perched high on a wire.

We pulled into the Rifle Falls parking lot and were the only ones there for a few minutes.  We decided to ditch the backpack and just free-walk this one (which turned out to be a smart move as you'll see later).  Callie loved walking ("walking!") up the wide dirt road trail to the falls in her little barbaloot suit and boots.  Around the falls we met a family who offered to take our picture (they got there after us, but quickly passed us on the trail since we were walking at Callie pace).

Then we headed around on the Coyote Trail, which took us past some fun caves, a few of which were big enough to walk inside a ways.  The trail then meanders past a little stream and up to the top of the falls, where there are a couple of kind of scary (totally secure and fenced, but still scary) overlook points that hang out over the falls.  Up here we learned that the falls used to be used as electricity production for Rifle and other nearby towns when we saw that one of the falls was shooting over the cliff out of a pipe.  Up there are some wooden remnants of the electricity plant buildings.  The trail happens to loop back down to the main trail, but to do so would require some stealthy maneuvers down a few flights of stairs covered in solid ice.  We tried it down one flight, passing Cal along like a sack of potatoes, but decided the next set wasn't worth the risk and turned around to retrace our steps.  A wise decision, I believe, especially seeing as Gregg was hiking in his moccasins.  (Silly boy.)

We made it back down (though it was slick coming the way we had come, too).  We finished off our adventure by eating a picnic lunch of tuna and/or cheese sandwiches, tortilla chips and apple slices.  Lunch of champions!  Callie was a super champ and promptly fell asleep once we were back in the car and slept pretty much the whole way home (you may not realize that this is epic, but it is!).  (Gregg actually was the only one who stayed awake the whole drive home, which was really important since he was the driver!)  Another fun day in the books.  We like holidays and Saturdays!

(Oh, and Cal, if you're ever reading this, your parents owe you $11 for this weekend's excursions.  Ha.  Yeah, we raided your cash savings to fund our outings.  We'll pay you back in diapers.  Wink, wink.)

Rifle Falls - the "only 80-foot triple waterfalls in Colorado"
(as per the website).

Pretty cute fam if I do say so myself.

Another angle.

Really bad focusing skills on some really cute kids.

The meandering trail near the stream.

Cave explorers.

The green growing things really stood out
amid all the white and brown everywhere.

Pretty view from the top.

Falling water (and a view of one of the
scary lookouts across the way).

They're not scared.

Pipe falls.

Over the edge.

Power plant leftovers.

Now looking down from the other side.

It's a long way down.

I can only imagine it would be lovely
in the summer when everything is green
and living.

We made it down those stairs (not really
sure how) and then back up them because
just around the corner they were even
sketchier.

That's the way to be carried on a hike!

Tight squeeze through the cave portion of the trail.

Lots of caves along that wall.

Getting up close and personal with the water.

I liked all the ice formations from the spray.

After we were all done I discovered the information sign.

More remnants of the power plant - now an amphitheater
(which I can't imagine has very good acoustics seeing as it sits
directly opposite the falls - kind of noisy spot!).

"Walking!"

Happy barbaloot.

Lunch was a yummy "nanatch!"

Silly gooses.

State Park Weekend {Part A: Sylvan Lake}

Saturday (January 17th) was a lovely day and we decided we needed to get out of the house to do a little exploring.  Not too far down the road, South of Eagle is a state park that we hadn't visited before (let's be honest, we haven't visited very many state parks in the first place).  Callie ended up having an early nap that day, thus leading to an earlier wake-up right around noon, so it worked out perfectly for us to head out then.  We took our snowshoes, the backpack and our winter weather gear (even though it was quite warm in the sunshine) and set out on an adventure to Sylvan Lake (which, Gregg will point out, is actually a reservoir).

We hiked the 1 1/2 mile loop around the "lake", enjoying the views of the ice fishermen as we passed.  I'm sure they enjoyed (or maybe just wondered at) the conversation coming from Callie in the backpack the whole trek: "One, twee, six, seven, eight, Ten!  Again!  Again!"  And on and on.  We hung out in the parking lot for a bit, letting Cal test out her snow legs.  She did great tromping around in her itty bitty boots in a skiff of snow.

After Sylvan Lake, we drove up the other fork of the park to see what we could see.  We passed some yurts and then came to the end of the road which was full of parked snowmobile trailers and cars.  We made a uey and then headed back to Eagle for a few minutes of frigid swinging (it's our reward for Callie for being so good in the car after we go on such adventures) and dinner at Moe's.  Oh yeah.  I call that a Saturday!

(Speaking of Saturday, Callie learned this weekend what "Saturday" really means - she now knows that Dad doesn't go to work, so we "play" and have "fun!"  The whole drive she kept saying "Saturday!  Play!  Fun!"  We all like Saturdays in our house, that's for sure.)

A little history of the "lake".

All that to the left of the bank is frozen,
snow-covered lake.

I really love the red rocks/dirt that show up around Eagle.

Family pic taken by some nice hikers we passed.
They thought Cal's glasses were rockin'.  I have to agree.

Such a pretty day!

A little downhill section (with
unintentional lens flare happening).

Another view across the lake - note the tiny frozen fishermen
hanging out just past the shadowy section.

Here's the inlet.

The snow was super pillowy at this end.

Just a pretty snow-covered log.

Just a cheesy grin from my babe.

Heading back towards the parking lot on the other side of the lake.

Cuties.

Not a bad view.

Here is where some serious counting was going down by the
hikers ahead of me.

Snow trompin' like a boss.

This is the view at the end of the road where all the snow-
mobile traffic was parked.  I think that's New York Mountain
in the distance.

West Lake Creek Trail {In the Snow}

We've been itching to get out on the snowshoes this winter.  We had planned to do our annual Christmas snowshoe hike, but Gregg wasn't feeling great that day so we just lounged around in our pjs all day.  Then we thought maybe we'd try again on New Years.  Callie and I were less than peppy that day, so again, it was a pajama day for us.  But today the stars finally aligned for us to be healthy and the weather to be warmish.  So we suited up and headed out after Cal's nap.  She was so excited to go on a hike, which makes her parents pretty dang happy.  And she did great, only getting a little fussy/tired/cold/hungry for the last 10 minutes or so.  Can't wait to do it again!

The Stats:
Trail: West Lake Creek (only the first time on snowshoes, but we've hiked this multiple times - something like 4 - in the summer and fall; it's become one of our favorites, but for some reason I have zero posts of those hikes here on the blog.  What's up with that?)
Start time: ~2:30 pm
Back to car time: ~4:00 pm
Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Total mileage (according to my fitbit): 3.06 miles

Cal is really catching on to the whole "cheese
it for the camera" idea (as you'll see in many
more photos to come).

Cool snow on the fence at the beginning of the trail.

Sure do love this cheesy girly.

Stopping to breathe and look back at the view.

One of my favorite spots along the trail - you can
just see a snowy New York Mountain (I'm pretty
sure that's what it is) just below the clouds.

A sunny spot.

The snow crystals all along the edges of the trail
were so crazy/interesting/cool looking.

Our turnaround point - a paved road that leads to
the main road and a green house/garden - believe
it or not there were two giant mansions right behind
us in this photo.

More cheese from the cheeser.

Takin' a break from the "hike" (what Cal calls
the backpack) to test out those new boots in the snow.

I think she's having a pretty good time.

And I think she likes her daddy.

One more of the view.  There's New York Mountain again.
My fave.

We traded cargo for the trek back.  I got the squirmy
one and Gregg got the water bottle.

I thought the aspens through this stretch looked so cool with the
snowballs hanging in the branches - almost like they were
decorated for Christmas.

That view again, this time coming back.  The light was
just starting to turn slightly pinky and it was so pretty!