We went on a total of three hikes while we were there. We went on the first one monday night and we just walked around Bear Lake, and yes I have now been to two different lakes named Bear Lake. The kids had fun running up the trail to find the next bear foot marker. It was really pretty there with the sun just barely setting behind the mountains.
The next day we went on the Alberta Falls hike. This was by far my most ambious hike of the vacation. It is only about a mile up and back, but it is a little steep in some spots. I was extremely proud of myself when I made it to the falls. I didn't go up to the top of the falls like Jeff and the boys did, but I still got some really cool pictures of the falls
After lunch we decided to try and get the kids to take a little nap so we went on a drive to the Alpine visitor center located up at the top of the mountains on the Alpine Tundra. We had to drive a long time to get there and Dallin was determined to not sleep and complain the entire time, but eventually he gave up and slept for a couple of minutes. When we got up to the top of the mountains it turns out that they were fixing the roads so there was one way road for a little bit and around a 30 minute wait for your turn. They say that the weather on the tundra can change with a drop of a pin and we found out how true that is. While we were waiting for our turn on the road we had high winds (it was shaking our van), rain (because of the wind came in vertically), sun and clouds.
The visitor center is at 11,796 ft above sea level, but you actually will get to over 12,000 ft while driving to and from the visitor center. There is also very little that can survive on the tundra, but we were able to catch a glimpse of a few elk staying cool on the snow across the mountain from the visitor center.
The last hike we did after we had packed up camp and it was again walking around a lake. This lake is used a lot by people who like to fish and there were several in the water trying to catch something. The hike was pretty flat, but after all I had done the previous day I was exhausted so I didn't have as much fun. The lake did have one of the things that my boys loved to do during the whole stay and that is climb really huge rocks. I have several pictures of them on top of the rocks, but I will only share one.
The rest of the week we spent mostly relaxing in James and Carol's air conditioned home. It was nice. We did go and cheer on Michael at his baseball game and we went swimming where my kids again had a wonderful time. The rest of the time we spent playing board games or the wii. It was a nice trip for all of us. We all had a wonderful time getting to know our cousins and the beautiful place where they live. Now I guess I can't put off getting ready for the baby any longer
