The second day took us out to Estes Park. We passed through Golden, Colorado and Boulder, Colorado. I must say, Boulder is a beautiful city ... perhaps one of the most gorgeous I have been to. The weather was perfect, and the open air mall in downtown was inviting. We decided that if we were up to it, we would stop on the way back.

Our destination was Estes Park. This was where we would go for a short 2 hour horse ride. After seeking out various places, this was one of the few that would allow our 4 1/2 year daughter to ride on a horse of her own.

Here is the view from the valley:



It wasn't long before we were mounted on our horses. Our daughter was ecstatic ... can you tell from her smile?



As we climbed the mountain, my wife, who was in front of me, managed to snap this picture of me coming up the trail:



The view from the top of the mountain was breath-taking. We weren't at nearly the altitude as the day before, but the pines were beautiful, chipmunks and rabbits ran to and fro underfoot, and the vista looked like this:



Of course, all good things must come to an end ... here was our descent back into the valley:



After the ride, we drove to Mary Lake Lodge and had a delicious lunch. Then, we stopped at Boulder and walked through the mall. It was incredibly beautiful - the temperature was perfect, there were flowers all through the mall, and the backdrop was the mountains in the distance. Because of the proximity to the University of Colorado, there was quite a bit of ... um ... "culture" to be found! I bough a hackey-sack and my daughter got an etching toy and a glow-in-the-dark skeleton. What fun!

That's it for day two.

Jeremy