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One of the best aspects of Unschooling, and indeed almost any type of Homeschooling, is the freedom to explore amazing places when they’re not particularly crowded. Zoos, museums, park playgrounds, etc. are often terrible busy during the summer and weekends, but the opportunity to explore them on weekdays during the school year results in a very different sort of experience. So yesterday we drove up into Rocky Mountain National Park.

RMNP is one of the busiest National Parks in the country, currently the #4 most visited park. As a result the roads, trails, and parking lots throughout the park are frequently very crowded. Especially during the summer, which is why we tend to spend more time exploring the park in the fall. It’s not as busy, but still spectacularly beautiful. This particular trip wasn’t for hiking, but instead to drive over Trail Ridge road and enjoy the scenery. It didn’t disappoint, despite the haze from distant wildfires that has been drifting through the state. Besides the striking landscapes we managed to spot some interesting wildlife, such as the flock of wild turkeys we saw not long after we entered the park.

While RMNP was far from abandoned, and was still fairly busy compared to how it will be in another month, but the crowds of high summer were absent. The kids thoroughly enjoyed everything about the trip, and picked up some Junior Ranger booklets along the way to start working on, so it’s a pretty safe bet that we’ll be spending a lot of time in the mountains this fall. Maybe we’ll see you there.