Fish Creek Falls But Thankfully None Of Us Did

Yesterday we loaded up the Suburban and headed up to the mountains for a day trip. Janna and cousins Cally, Casey and Annabelle joined us. Our destination:

Fish Creek Falls

According to an online description of the Fish Creek Falls hike (which I just read this morning), the trail is 2.5 miles to the upper falls, the path being ranked as moderate to difficult. I didn't know this before we started. What I did know, was that the Upper Falls is Matt's favorite local hike (unfortunately he had to work down in Denver and couldn't join us) and that the Pedersens have made this hike many times, with youngin's as small as tiny Annabelle hiking most of the way on her own. But what I didn't know about the hike was how loooong and haaaard the hike was, how scary parts of it were to this chicken heart I was blessed with, and consequently, how hard my children's guardian angels would have to work to keep us all in one piece and not dead or maimed or horribly disfigured. (Perhaps I am still the weensiest bit unnerved by the whole scary-yet-breathtaking adventure.)

Three hours from Denver is the adorable mountain town of Steamboat Springs (our anniversary destination last year). Our first stop was to a park down town next to the Yampa river. In the immediate vicinity of "Little Toots" park are no less than 7 natural hot springs, of the stinky sulfur variety. The park was cute, but it literally stunk. "Little Toots" was a hilarious family joke for the rest of the day. I'm talking hilarious.

Out of the car and up a tree.

Staged photo ops are the only purpose these uncomfortable and over sized "benches" could possibly fulfill.

Just down the path from Little Toots was the public library, complete with nice bathrooms and more funny things to sit on.

After the park we met up with the cousins at Wendy's. Before we went in I told my kids we would be ordering of the Value Menu (as usual). I believe my words were...You can order anything you want off the value menu.....Tommy's face absolutely beamed as he quietly whispered "I'm going to get a cup of chocolate candy!"

Do you remember this picture from last year's anniversary post? We started up the trail only to realize that it was way too rocky--I was in flip flops. Same trail, but we all were wearing sensible shoes this time. Most of the trail is like this. Very beautiful, somewhat rocky and a lot of uphill. Except for the parts where the path is across big slabs of granite, with mountain on one side and nothing on the other side. Nothing but my heart palpitations.

Let me back up a bit. Years and years ago, before we had kids, Pie and I visited Zion and started up the trail to Angels Landing. We started up together but somewhere along the trail...

I think it was about here.....


I stopped. I was terrified. Looking at this picture I just snagged off google images I am still terrified. I remember that metal chain, and holding on to that chain with a drowning grip. My feet, my legs, my hands all refusing forward motion. After a few agonizing minutes I managed to convince my body that if it would just back up, I would take it down to safety and never torture it like that again. And I have been a woman of my word. Sort of. Because while Fish Creek Falls doesn't have anything like the chain of death, it was still pretty scary climbing up the side of the mountain, with only a few feet wide of bare rock path provided. On my own, I would have probably NOT gone all the way to the upper falls. But when Pie (with Tommy on his back) and 2 more of my children climbed around the corner of the rock and were no longer in my view, I knew I was going to follow them. And I learned that there are much scarier things in this world than my fear of heights. My children, for instance, hiking around on boulders within feet of a sheer drop off. That is MUCH SCARIER.

Thankfully, the scary parts were at the end and didn't last long. And talk about beautiful. The Aspens were beginning to change and so for much of the hike we were surrounded by scenes that were stunningly gorgeous. Here is the bridge at the bottom of the falls.

Near the top, there is an open meadow of Aspens. This picture and the one above (both courtesy of someone's unwitting generosity) was taken before the color really got going, so you'll just have to imagine all the gold. Can you believe I forgot the camera? But I remembered the water. That was important.

The hike was supposed to take 1 1/2 hours each way. We were 2 1/2 hours up and 1 hour 15 minutes down. We all preferred the down, I think. It was beautiful, it was fun (mostly), it was sorta hard and definitely scary for Mom. But I'm glad we did it. Too bad Sid was home sick and had to miss it, because if I am being honest, I can't really imagine doing it again.

****A few notes.

1) Please do not tell me that you did this hike and didn't think it was scary at all. Because that is just not being a good friend.

2) Cally, Casey and Annabelle (and Janna, of course!) are amazing hikers. Seriously, they are all little mountain goats. (Thanks for spending your day with us!)

2) I know I am terribly behind in posting and that the baptism post is way past due. I'm getting to it....