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Bear lake is a best destination in Rocky mountains. It is a small lake surrounded by woods and beautiful mountains.

Unfortunately the lake was covered with snow that day. It was still early may so that was expected. It is good to go there in late may or later if you are planning a trip.

Since the bear lake was frozen, we visited a nearby lake named Sprague lake. It was full with water and really beautiful. We took the foot trail which runs around the lake and collected many nice photographs.

 

We still had few hours left. so we drove on the open parts of the trail ridge road and visited sheep lakes but they lacked water. However we were able to see some mountain elks there.

We spent the night in Four seasons Inn, Estes park. The hotel had only few rooms but the room was clean and comfy.

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Our main target of Colorado trip was Rocky mountains national park. We searched the park's web site and decided to drive on some scenic byways like Trailridge road and Old fall river road in the park.

While driving from Denver to Rockies, we chose a scenic byway named peak to peak byway.  It was really a nice byway and we could experience lots of scenery  of snow covered blue mountains on the way.

 This is the map of our route from Denver to Rockies.



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We arrived in Estes park around noon and got to know that both Trailridge and Oldfall river byways are closed until Memorial day (27th May). This is a fact to remember if you are visiting Rockies before memorial day.

So we had lunch from Estes park and then visited Bear lake, which is another beautiful location in Rocky mountains park.
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In mid of May 2013, we visited Colorado, mainly Rocky mountains. We had to fly from Indianapolis to Denver as the trip takes like two days to drive. 

We flew with Frontier Airlines and it should get a credit for their on time departures. I have really bad experiences with American Airlines on this subject before. So we arrived in Denver International airport 9 pm and took the shuttle to Hertz rental to get the car we had reserved. It was around 11 pm when we get to the hotel (Hawthorn Suites) we had reserved for the night.

To mention a word about the hotel, the suit was clean and nice, worth for the price. It provides breakfast but only grab and go kinda thing.

So we got a good sleep and headed Rocky mountains next day. 
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We went white water rafting in Menominee river, Wisconsin. The company is called "Wildman adventure resort".  We went there for the 9.30 ride and realized that we had booked the wrong day. However they asked us to wait and see if another group doesn't show up so that we can take their place. Fortunately, the group who had booked the wild ride didn't show up so we could take their place.

Wild ride is special because the raft is small and it can hold only 4 people. That group gets to ride the rank 4 ranch thrice while others do it twice. There, we have go over the ranch 3 times and come back by foot  2 times.

We got a female guide and she was really nice and active. I guess it would be more fun if the water level was bit higher that day but it was great for a first time rafting experience.
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Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is an amazing place for nature lovers. It is situated in lake Superior's southern shore in Michigan.

The main attraction in the area is the mineral rock formations. You can read more here. The cliff walls look like human painted pictures.

The provide  guided cruise rides to show these rock formations. Rides are available several times a day but the most exiting ride is "Sunset cruise" which departs at 7 pm. If you are going from Wisconsin, remember that pictured rocks is in eastern time zone. We couldn't catch sunset cruise that day because we were not aware of time zone change. So we had to adjust our plans and come back next day after white water rafting in Wisconsin.

So we were able to catch the cruise next day and experience really beautiful sceneries in reddish sun rays.

After the cruise ride we headed back home (to Bloomington, In). We started the 10 hr drive around 10 pm.



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We drove overnight and it was really exhausting after an eventful day. It was around 11 am when we arrive home. We were awake for almost 30 hours. All these happened because we had to adjust our plans because of the time zone issue. I think it something you should do once (only once) in your life :)
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We visited Six Flags, Chicago in Summer 2012. It was not as big as Cedar point but it had some different rides, specially the Superman Ultimate Flight. There we ride in a flying position and it was a really thrilling and different experience.

Other rides we loved are, Batman, X Flight and American eagle.

After spending a fun full of day in Six Flags, we spent the night in a hotel and left heading Pictured Rocks next morning.
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Cedar Point is considered to be a best amusement park in USA. We visited there in Summer 2012. Honestly a full day was not enough to cover all thrilling rides it had.

We liked the rides Raptor, Millennium force, Power tower and Wind seeker the most. We enjoyed Gemini and Magnum too but they were too bumpy and rough.

One thing we shouldn't have done is visiting the water park. It was not that much fun compared to the roller coasters. Water rides were good but coasters are much fun. So if your time is limited then it is not a good idea to waste time in water world.

We spent the night in a nearby hotel (it was a good idea because we were exhausted by the EOD). Next day we visited Detroit, Michigan but it looked like a dead city. So didn't spend much time there.
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