Flatirons - incredible hike and views

On Friday we were up early for two reasons.  First, we were staying a relatively nasty motel and wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.  If you do "Priceline's Name Your Own Price" you might want to be quite careful in your criteria.  The room wasn't particularly cheap - costing us over $125 for the night, but the place was highly questionable.  We survived...and yes we've turned into big babies as we've gotten older. Secondly, we wanted to get out and hike the Flatirons near Boulder before heading to Estes Park.  Mission accomplished; it was truly outstanding. The views there are just unlike anything I've seen and one can hike near to the summit (although you really need to CLIMB once you get to a certain point so we had to stop...but got very close to top).

Flatirons and Boulder itself is a place we will want to return to.  We could have probably stayed there for several days and had an enjoyable vacation.  Excellent time.  Oh...and we had a salad for lunch (after partaking in some Asian food the day before) as we are finally cutting back on the ridiculous caloric intake rate we were on the first several days of trip.

After leaving Boulder, we cruised up to Estes Park and checked into the Wildwood Inn. Super nice suite here with mountain views, private hot tub, tempur-pedic bed, kitchen, etc.  Couldn't be more different than accommodations in Boulder.  Staying here until Monday, so it's great to have a nice "home" less than a mile from the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.  Ventured into park late afternoon on Friday and it's pretty darn impressive.  A ton of pictures to come.    It's so much cooler here.  Right now it's about 60 degrees and a bit overcast.  Hopefully we'll avoid rain at least in the AM, so we can get in a good hike.