When we booked this trip I started researching if you could take kids on a 14er hike. I remember being on top of a peak and just being amazed at the mountain ranges all around us. Grays Peak kept coming up as a good beginner 14er for kids. They listed it as moderate (Dragons Tooth is rated as a hard hike and the kids practically ran up that at thanksgiving)
We had to wake up at 4:45 so we could get to the trail head as the sun was coming up.
2 out of 3 kids were really excited. One wasn't. I'm sure its hard to choose which child didn't want to spend their day climbing.
We took it really slow. Lots of water and snack breaks.
Colin was pointing to Grays Peak. The other peak to the right is Torres. You can climb from Grays to Torres - all the reviews said that would take around 90 minutes. Colin was all in and hoping to do two 14ers that day.
The closer we got to the top the slower we got. And the air was thin so I'm glad we had Colin's inhaler. We decided to just do Grays Peak while hiking up and not to attempt Torres. It was a lot harder than any of the reviews and we thought one 14er was a big enough accomplishment this time.
They loved seeing the mountain goats. We saw a mama and her baby. They were on the path and we had to wait for them to move and then further along we saw the daddy goat.
We were about 45/30 minutes from the top and Norah was just about done. Brent and Joel were a little further down but we could see them so I sent Norah down the path to Brent. We wanted to be off the peak if an afternoon thunderstorm came up (they had been coming around 1 every afternoon) We wanted this hike to be fun for the kids not scary. So Colin and I made the final ascent to the top.
It was pretty incredible. Well worth the hike. And I'd like to add that it might've been rated as moderate but we came to the realization that maybe Virginia's hard hikes are Colorado's easy hikes. I don't think I've ever done a hike that hard. The kids were amazing.
We took pictures. Looked around. Ate some sandwiches and then headed back down so Brent could go up and see the top.
On our way down we ran into a couple that asked if we were with the dad and kids below and they said they were having a great time waiting for us and that Norah proudly told everyone that she had climbed higher than her daddy.
Brent saw us coming and left Joel and Norah - they could see us coming down so he headed up and when I went to see Norah she was fast asleep on a rock.
A beautiful setting to take a nap.
She woke up - not very happy and I couldn't carry her down the steep rocky paths safely for either of us. But Norah rallied and walked the entire way down.
She did earn her hiking badge from girl scouts for this. I wont tell her yet that the other girls walked around a flat dirt path at sea level for theirs.
Just beautiful. And Joel who wasn't thrilled at the beginning became very animated and was nonstop talking the entire way down. He did tell me that he decided that he was more a river and lake guy than a mountain guy.
Brent made it to the top and then met us at the bottom. He had a very peaceful hike down. We had just gotten to the car when we saw Brent walking down the road
Right above the arrow is where Joel and Norah stopped. They made it pretty far. Not many adults attempt to hike a 14er.
We drove back to Winter Park and sat in the hot tub for a long time that afternoon. I was worried we wouldn't be able to get moving the next morning as we were flying out. This time we had a direct flight. But we all woke up a little sore but not as bad as I thought we would be.
We were all too tired to hunt for some dessert after the hike so Colin pushed hard for icrecream at the airport.
Frontier has different animals on the wings of their flights. The kids were excited we were going home on Cliff the mountain goat.
It was a great vacation and now the kids want to know where we are going next summer.
