A year ago this upcoming weekend, my best friend Stacy and I had a weekend get-a-way in Estes Park. IT WAS EPIC.

We booked through Frontier–not the best experience at ALL, but tickets were $75.00 a piece round trip so we made it work. Flew into Denver, rented a car and headed to our home in Estes Park for the weekend.

Budget:

Frontier Flight: $75.00

Lodging: $160.00 a night in a Studio Queen Room with Kitchenette with a personal hot tub.

Food: We had to eat out three times because we were only there for the weekend and didn’t want to waste time cooking! Probably spent $200 bucks total in food and drinks.

Park fee: $20.00 per car

We stayed at the lovely 4 Seasons Inn on Fall River, The best customer service I’ve ever experienced. Quaint and cozy! Exactly what we needed compared to the busy, city life we live in Atlanta, GA.

Coffee and a fire–the perfect combo.

We checked in two hours late because we were tapped on the mountain due to a snow storm and our lovely host greeted us with wine, beer and fire wood! We made a fire, got settled and called it a night!

The next two days were jam packed with hiking!

We had some coffee and walked around the shops in town–similar to Gatlinberg, TN for those of us familiar living on the East Coast, but this town is a lot smaller and BETTER 🙂 Most of the stores were closed because we came the weekend before all the snow came.Day #1: Gem LakeThe hike to Gem Lake was very dry and steep. Lots of rocks and bare trees with pine cones. It was so cold that my phone died immediately when we started to hit elevation. I had an iPhone 6 at the time, but Tony’s iPhone 7 stayed alive for all the pictures!Gorgeous view from the top!Not much of a lake, but still beautiful.There wasn’t much snow on this hike, but as you can see behind Stacy there’s a ton on the other side–our next hike!

We drove through Rocky Mountain National Park to see the mountains because we were worried they would close with the snow coming!Short hike to Bear Lake–literally like 20 steps from the parking lot at the trail head. We were FREEZING so went to get some amazing breakfast at Claire’s on the Park and then went back to hit up the hot tub in the snow!Day #2: Rocky Mountain National Park even though the snow hit! We woke up super early to see the sunrise and we ran into some Elk.SO MANY ELK!Nymph Lake was our first stop on our journey, but we took this picture on the way back when the snow storm stopped!

We made it to the overlook on the beginning of our six mile journey in the snow.Second Stop: Dream LakeStill treking!GETTING CLOSER. Last Stop: Emerald LakeEPIC! We made the trek down. So worth it!After we made it down we got a well deserved beer at Rock Cut Brewing!Before heading back to Denver to the airport we went to see the famous The Stanley Hotel that is wear Stephen King got his inspiration for The Shining.Spooky experience–will definitely have to come back and stay there.On our way out we stopped by the Estes Park sign and headed back to Denver to go home. Amazing trip overall and are hoping to go back soon!

-E