It was a beautiful hike, there were some great views of Long's Peak along the trail we took. The boys really did pretty good. A little whiney towards the end (I thought for sure I would have to carry Jayce AND Amara the last 1/2 mile), but they made it the whole way!
After the hike we drove into the park and to the Alluvial Fan. We had lunch in the parking lot, then hung out at the waterfall for the next hour or so until Daddy showed up.
It was a 17 mile run for him, and a lot more steep than he had anticipated! So it took him a little while longer. But he still made it! He is so amazing. And I'm so glad that we went with him, because a few days later the fan went from this:
To This:
I'm sure by now you have all heard about the flooding we've experience here in northern Colorado. It has been crazy. It started raining her on Monday and didn't really stop until yesterday afternoon. Luckily, we've been fine here at our house. We are far enough east, and on high enough ground that we didn't have any issues at our house. It was such a crazy occurrence though. There are three major rivers north of Denver that run east to the south Platte: The St. Vrain through Longmont, the Big Thompson through Loveland, and the Cache la Poudre through Fort Collins. and they ALL flooded in historic ways at the same time!!! Some newscasters were calling it "flooding of Biblical Proportions," others where throwing around terms like "500 year flood." It was bad enough to see one river cause so much distruction, but add all three and their tributaries, and it was unheard of! I believe Governor Hickenlooper said that over 150 square miles of northern Colorado have been flooded. (and that was yesterday morning before the water started spreading out over the plains). Boulder's rain totals for the last week were over 18 inches as of yesterday morning!!! (when this area typically sees around 15-16 inches of moisture (snow and rain) a YEAR!!!) Red Feather lakes was at nearly 14 inches, and Estes Park was over 8. Areas in Denver also received over 13 inches. It was just absolutely nuts the amount of rain that fell in just over 36 hours. And when all that water rushed to the rivers, and down through the towns it destroyed them. Small towns like Lyons, Jamestown, and Allenpark were completely surrounded with water and became Islands of their own. Eventually Estes Park reached that status as well. Entire roads and highways have been demolished. Not just covered with water and debris from the flood, but COMPLETELY WASHED AWAY!!! COming from the midwest, I've seen my share of floods, even helped out on some recovery efforts. I'm used to seeing the water lines at super high levels, the inches or feet of mud left in odd places, the crops destroyed from being under water for multiple days at a time, boats, canoes and kayaks floating through residential streets to rescue people from their homes. But something I have never seen is the underneath of roads completely washed away causing the road to collapse. That was a new power of water that struck me with amazement. Thursday and Friday I was nearly glued to the news stations watching it unfold before my eyes: rescue after rescue, roads being closed, town shops and houses being filled with water, two foot carp being caught on city streets by a 16 year olds bare hands, mailbox posts used as measuring devices, roads disappearing - sometimes with cars still on them!
So pray for us in Colorado. They are airlifting residents out of some locations that can't be reached by road, and the national guard is trucking out an entire city of 2500, 15 at a time. There are currently over 10,000 that have been evacuated in one town alone. This is going to take a long time to recover from, and we are expecting more rain tonight and tomorrow. So it's not even over yet. If you would like to see more of what we are seeing on every news cast, you can check out these slide shows: Here and here. Thankfully the Louies are all safe and sound, but others aren't so lucky. Pray for us please! Thanks!
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