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Day 1 – We began our day at 4:30 AM, heading to the airport only to find out we had 4 hours of flight delay. Our plane was stuck in North Dakota due to the bad storm. Upon arrival, we skipped our initial plan to have lunch in Boulder. We took a longer and more scenic route by driving along Peak to Peak Highway to Estes Park. We stopped by Lily Lake, located on the east side of the national park, before heading to our vacation home.

Day 2 – We spent the whole day hiking on the east side of the park. It was actually a recommendation from the national park to allow our bodies to adjust to the high elevation. Upon entering the park, we saw several bighorn sheep at Sheep Lake. We spent half a day hiking from Nymph Lake, to Dream Lake and to Emerald Lake. It was very tiring hiking due to the thin air and the fact that we were out of shape. The trail to Emerald Lake was covered with packed snow. In the afternoon, we spent our time hiking at Bear Lake and Sprague Lake. After dinner, we drove around the park in the evening to watch wildlife.

Day 3 – We drove along Trail Ridge Road to the west side of the park. In the morning, we hiked along Tundra Communities Trail and managed to spot several bighorn sheep at the trailhead. In the afternoon, we hiked along the beautiful dandelion-filled Coyote Valley Trail, located in Kawuneeche Valley. We had a surprising close encounter with a mama moose and baby moose at Bowen/Baker Trailhead.

Day 4 – We spent our morning horseback riding in Moraine Park for 3.5 hours. It was definitely an unforgettable experience riding horses in the national park, not to mention, it was our first time riding horses. We visited the touristy Estes Park in the afternoon before heading home early to rest. In the evening, we drove to the park and stayed there until 10 PM, hoping to capture the Milky Way without any light pollution. However, it was too cloudy to capture any epic shots.

Day 5 – After checking out from the vacation home, we took a longer drive back to Westminster by exiting from the west side of the national park. From there, we drove off the beaten path to hike up to St Mary’s Glacier in Idaho Springs.

Day 6 – We spent the entire day at Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It turned out to be a great visit. The “Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed” special exhibit, Gems and Minerals exhibit, and wildlife exhibit were particularly interesting.

Day 7, 8 and 9 – A long and very tiring conference marathon.

Rocky Mountain National Park is definitely one of the most scenic national parks we have ever visited with abundance of wildlife. Although we did have our initial concerns with the high elevation, we did not experience any altitude sickness. We might plan our third visit to Colorado soon… perhaps, the southwest side next time.

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On Thursday, we began our slow journey in a snow storm despite the “No Travel Advisory” warning issued by the state Department of Transportation. The driving condition was terrible as the back country roads were mostly unplowed. Nevertheless, after several hours of slow driving, we arrived at Copper Falls State Park. We snowshoed for about 2 hours before heading to our accommodation in Bayfield.

On Friday, after having heavy delicious breakfast at the local restaurant, we headed to Meyers Beach to visit the Apostle Islands Sea Caves, also known as the Apostle Islands Ice Caves in the winter months. This is the first time since 2009 that the ice on the lake are thick enough to safely walk on, thanks to the polar vortex we had experienced in the recent weeks. We planned our trip a week before it went viral in the local and national news. It was reported that 6000 visitors showed up on Saturday and 2500 visitors showed up on Sunday. We were glad that we visited the ice caves a day before the weekend because we had ample of space to walk around and admire the beauty of the ice formations without having people obstructing our views. It was about a mile of walking on a packed down trail from the parking lot to the nearest ice cave. Based on our GPS, we hiked 4.6 miles round trip for about 5 hours at subzero temperature.

On Saturday, we attended the 19th annual Apostle Islands Sled Dog Race in the morning. We arrived half hour before the race began and we wandered around aimlessly. There were about 45 sled dog teams from 3 states as well as Ontario, Canada. The races ranged from youth race to the 10-dog class, a race that covered 88 miles over 2 days. It was reported that this year’s race was the most attended with about 2000 spectators. We spent about two hours there before heading back to our accommodation for lunch.

After realizing we could drive on Lake Superior, we made a last-minute change in our initial plan and visited Big Bay State Park. So, we drove 2.5 miles from the mainland to Madeline Island on Lake Superior. This secluded state park turned out to be a hidden gem because 1) it was almost “human-free” and 2) the ice formations along the cliffs were incredibly beautiful. We snowshoed for about 2 hours in the park before capturing the sunset over Bayfield from the island.

Definitely a memorable trip. Yes, it was freezing cold throughout the trip. Yes, we frequently experienced numb extremities even with our winter gears on. And… it was well worth it. In 4 days, we witnessed the ice caves for the first time, watched a sled dog race for the first time, drove on Lake Superior for the first time and visited 2 state parks in Wisconsin for the first time.

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