Treasure Hunting

Last week we headed to Estes Park for the evening. Little did we know what we were in for. Summer wanted to go to the mountains while they were in town and this was about as close as we were going to get with the time that we had. 

If you visit any town you know that there's a street or two full of shops for tourists. Estes Park definitely falls into that category. It's a cute little mountain town. The kids are standing on a bridge and there's a watermill behind them. Good times.

We walked to the end of the strip and found this little pizza joint called Village Pizza. We were starving. The pizza was fabulous. If you visit Estes Park be sure to stop by. Pictures of the pizza? I was too busy eating it, or I forgot to get pics for you, so you'll just have to trust me.

After dinner we decided to be explorers. Or maybe pirates? Well, not really pirates. We weren't out to steal anything. We've had a few friends that have begun geocaching. Have you heard of it? Well you can read more about it here. You use a GPS system to search for little hidden treasures or caches. My children just love this kind of thing. They like to play treasure hunting games around the house, so this was right up their alley.

On our way to our first "treasure" we came across this statue. If a statue can be climbed then we stop and climb it because we can. ☺ I should say that we just used the GPS on my phone to do these searches. There's a geocaching app. 

Here's another stop along our route. Summer insisted that I photograph the girls because the trees are cool and the water in the background is too. No brainer shot here. ☺

We're getting closer to the treasure. The water is extremely high for this time of year. There are flood warnings out all over the mountain towns since there is still quite a bit of snow in the mountains. 

Hello! We found our first treasure. It was hidden under some rocks right by the river. How cool is that?

The children were absolutely thrilled.

There are some really strange and random things in these boxes. The rule is that if you take something you must leave something. We decided that we didn't want anything, but we did leave a crayon. What? We wanted to fit in with the weirdness of the what was in the box. . . plus that's about all we had besides diapers and wipes and stuff like that.

There was a piece of paper that lead us to another spot and a little history about the area.

Then inside the box is also a log of people that have found the cache. Quinton is signing each and every one of our names.

Since we found that first cache we were kind on this high and decided to look for another cache. The next one lead us to this beautiful area. Look at all that snow still in the mountains. It was gorgeous there!

Jared found the next cache. It was nestled in a fence post with an overgrown plant. Not all caches are big boxes with things in them. This one was just an old film container that holds a log of who has been there.

Quinton, again, pulled out the log and signed our names. 

This particular cache was right next to an oxygen bar. Have you ever hear of an oxygen bar? Often times when people come to Colorado or other high altitude areas their bodies don't acclimate to the altitude very well causing headaches, dizziness, and tiredness. Some people believe that visiting an oxygen bar can help. You just visit one of these places and breath in oxygen. I've heard that some places even serve the oxygen in different flavors. Crazy, right? I say just drink lots of water and some decent sleep.

Okay, enough of that little tangent. Since we were on such a roll we decided to find another cache. My girls get to ride in style here.

We found this little trail along the river and followed it.

There were hints leading to this boulder.

Rebecca found it! She was pretty excited. Can you tell?

She, actually, was pretty ecstatic! That was the end of our day treasure hunting. We packed up the kids and headed home only to arrive with some pretty worn out children. It was a good day!

Check out some caches in your area. There are bound to be a few. I know that there are quite a few hidden near our house alone. Some are walkable and some you drive to. It's a fun thing for the whole family.