Hiking With 3 Generations
Hiking with full hearts and wildflowers
Five days in Colorado.
Ten people.
Two under ten.
Two over seventy.
One house.
All family.
Five days to be together in the mountains I grew up visiting.
On the doorstep of the National Park that made me fall in love with hiking.
I don’t have a strong memory. Never have. Dates and years meld together for me. I’ve never been one to pull out the right year something happened.
But I can remember how things felt.
I needed glasses as a kid but we didn’t know till I was 7 or so. The world to me was blurry. Edges fuzzy. Details nonexistent… unless my face was pressed up to it. Leaves on the trees were more sweeping swaths of greens… but I could hear the wind rush through them, the sound sweeping through the forest. I could see movement but it was never defined…
The sound that aspen leaves make as they dangle and shimmy in the wind is embedded in my heart and mind. My daughter said something similar to me after returning home from this trip, she can hear them too, if she just closes her eyes.
I can remember how it felt to run haphazardly back down trails as a kid, feet pumping on dirt paths trying to avoid rocks along the way. Trails I have since hiked with my own children. I remember always leaving Rocky Mountain National Park at dusk and the road back that lead back to downtown. Orbs of colorful lights against inky blue skies and pines as we passed small hotels and cabins.
In all likelihood this trip is probably the last of our hiking days all together. I knew that going in. My Mom was dead set on trying to hike to Alberta Falls, one we did often as kids with my parents. The last time any of us had done it was seven years ago, just after Juner had turned one.
When all is said and done it’s about 1.7 miles out and back from Glacier Gorge Trailhead. Not bad but in your late seventies, not easy. Especially at an already high altitude. Around 9,000ft. Honestly, I wasn’t confident my Mom could do it.
But there she was, with an amount of gusto in each step forward that was as stunning as it was powerful. It was like watching someone propel themselves forward with pure joy. It’s the happiest I’ve seen her in quite awhile. If I had to say what compelled her every step to get to the top (aside from the cheery assistance of my sister in law), I would guess it was the feeling of pure happiness and determination. An absolute feeling of elation at being back out on the trail. It was written all over her face.
At the top looking over the falls, my Mom between one of my brothers and I, there was a rush of emotions and memories I wasn’t prepared for. They came on sudden and strong. Tears filled my eyes and my heart swelled in a way I didn’t anticipate. Grateful to be standing there together one more time, to have witnessed my Mom’s determination. Grateful both of my parents accepted help when offered for a change.
I went up just a little higher with my Dad and savored the time… reflecting on the trips we took when I was a kid. All the time spent in National Parks helped instill my own love and appreciation for nature. A desire to protect and preserve. A catalyst as I’ve gotten older to provide for all the things that coexist within the region I live. The appreciation that’s rooted within me is something I just began connecting the dots for but they’ve been there, hiding in plain sight.
Before we headed back down the trail that day my Mom asked me if she could go just a little higher. She knew she couldn’t get to the top portion of the falls but she wanted to see what she could do nonetheless. I helped her along and we found a place to sit and take it all in together alongside my kids and my sister in law. My Mom repeating how happy she was, over and over again. Grateful for help along the way from each of us. It was also fun pointing out all the flowers along the trail. Some I’d never seen before outside of native gardens and she equally enjoyed the opportunities to pause and take them in along the way.
Hiking to me has always been about more than reaching the destination. It’s taking in the details and secrets of the landscape, breathing it in deeply. Observing how it changes from one trip to the next, or even what you notice on the way back down. Being in nature can change you from the inside out if you let it.
Now that we are back home we are settling in for what little is left of summer break. It feels like it’s gone by too fast. Wrapping up by taking time to work through the possibilities of a new collection and swimming as much as possible with my babes. More to share next week,
xoxo,
Bec