A Christmas Hike

We finished our Christmas celebrations early this year. And since it is just the two of us, with no kids, nowhere else to go and nothing else to do, we decided to drive through Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) for Christmas Eve. It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful drive up. That was also how we got our white Christmas this year too. We had a lot of snow earlier, but down in the “lowlands” where we live, and we are still 5420 feet above sea level, the only snow we have left are the little patches in our backyard. But up in the mountains, there is still a lot of snow. It is expected to snow up in the mountains again today too.

It was a beautiful drive and a fun thing to do. It seems quite a few other people had the same idea too, but it wasn’t overly crowded. RMNP is only about 1 1/2 hours Northwest of us.

On the way up, we stopped at my favorite little Mountain church.

We didn’t see any critters, like we were hoping to, but the scenery was beautiful. Our mountains and views are almost as pretty as the views we saw in the Canadian Rockies earlier this year, Our Epic Journey series of my posts.

Once we arrived, we hiked around 2 of the RMNP lakes, Spraque Lake and Bear Lake. Both were frozen over, but were so peaceful and serene. These are all from Spraque Lake.

We seemed to be following a couple of ladies who brought their Christmas gnomes, and we took a couple of gnome pictures too.

This is the lake itself.

There were even a couple of people ice fishing.

We couldn’t really go much beyond the lake, because of icy conditions and we didn’t have snow boots or hiking boots with us. So we drove to the next lake, Bear Lake. We couldn’t go much beyond Bear Lake either because the roads were closed.

Again, this is the actual lake, frozen over.

The only critters we saw were birds, which is still perfectly OK with me, although we were hoping to see some deer or elk too.

I love these bright and beautiful Stellar Jays. They are mountain birds.

I did have a Christmas first though. This is the first Gray Jay I have ever seen. I was only able to get one shot of him, but it is a great shot, even if I do say so myself.

After our Christmas hike, we came home, showered and changed and went out for a nice Christmas Eve dinner at Texas de Brasil Texas de Brasil.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Holidays to all. May they be merry and bright. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.

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Author: ajeanneinthekitchen

I have worked in the restaurant and catering industry for over 35 years. I attended 2 culinary schools in Southern California, and have a degree in culinary arts from the Southern California School of Culinary Arts, as well as a few other degrees in other areas. I love to cook and I love to feed people.

33 thoughts on “A Christmas Hike”

      1. We did. We put together one of the tall garden beds and did some other clean up on the property. I made a pecan pie and we ate tamales from El Tamalero in Aurora, CO. I had frozen some from our last visit to Colorado. We also had an avocado salad and chips. It was relaxing and fun.

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  9. WOW. What a gorgeous area!!! Steve and I are planning our route back to the Jersey shore and we’re planning for it to take us through Denver. I’ll let you know the dates as soon as I know them. It would be so lovely to get together. How close are you to Denver? 

    Have a delicious day,

    Sandy Axelrod

    TheTravelingLocavores.com http://thetravelinglocavores.com/ instagram.com/TheTravelingLocavores http://instagram.com/TheTravelingLocavores pinterest.com/TheTravelingLocavores http://pinterest.com/TheTravelingLocavores twitter.com/SandyAxelrod http://twitter.com/SandyAxelrod facebook.com/TheTravelingLocavores http://facebook.com/TheTravelingLocavores

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    1. AWESOME!!!!! We are only about 20 minutes away from Denver. We are not going to be around the first week of February. We will be diving in Cozumel. But other than that, nothing else is on the books …. yet. 🙂

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      1. We don’t get to Denver until June 15. We plan on staying a week! 

        Have a delicious day,

        Sandy Axelrod

        TheTravelingLocavores.com http://thetravelinglocavores.com/ instagram.com/TheTravelingLocavores http://instagram.com/TheTravelingLocavores pinterest.com/TheTravelingLocavores http://pinterest.com/TheTravelingLocavores twitter.com/SandyAxelrod http://twitter.com/SandyAxelrod facebook.com/TheTravelingLocavores http://facebook.com/TheTravelingLocavores

        >

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      3. Perfect! Looking forward to finally getting together!!!

        

        Have a delicious day,

        Sandy Axelrod

        TheTravelingLocavores.com http://thetravelinglocavores.com/ instagram.com/TheTravelingLocavores http://instagram.com/TheTravelingLocavores pinterest.com/TheTravelingLocavores http://pinterest.com/TheTravelingLocavores twitter.com/SandyAxelrod http://twitter.com/SandyAxelrod facebook.com/TheTravelingLocavores http://facebook.com/TheTravelingLocavores

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