Rocky Mountain National Park Archives

Oct 26th Rocky Mountain National Park Destination Travel Tuesday

Glad you stopped by grab a peanut butter cookie and a mug of hot chocolate. Then take a peek at our Travel Tuesday featuring Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado one of our very favorite camping spots.

Rocky Mountain National Park in northern Colorado spans the Continental Divide and encompasses protected mountains, forests and alpine tundra. It’s known for Trail Ridge Road and the Old Fall River Road, drives that wind up majestic mountain scenery, pass tall aspen trees and rushing rivers. Trail Ridge Road is a beautiful drive, but not for the faint of heart. Sheer drop offs and hair pin turns are the norm, but well worth the drive. The Keyhole Route, a climb crossing vertical rock faces, leads up Longs Peak, the park’s tallest mountain. One of my favorite hikes In Rocky Mountain National Park, is the trail surrounding Bear Lake which offers views of the peaks, and the flora and fauna are lush and beautiful. There are benches along the lake’s trail to relax and enjoy the view. Trails leading to Emerald Lake and Mirror Lake are a little more of an exhilarated hike, but well worth it.

In the winter snow shoeing around Bear Lake and other areas is wonderful. Cross country skiing areas are also available. We went up there for a day trip for my birthday in January and had a fantastic time.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain National in Colorado is one of our favorite camping destinations. The sites are primitive, meaning no electric, sewer, or water. There is water available throughout the campground just not at the sites. But still if you are prepared to dry camp, it is a beautiful serene spot. Where we usually park there is a full meadow out our front door. Great viewing of elk, moose, bear, and deer. We had an eight point bull elk wander right into our site. Quite a surprise when I opened up the front door to him standing not more than three feet from me. Our dog had an absolute fit, which in turn caused our parrot to scream a warning, but the elk didn’t seem to mind. Eventually, he went on his way.

A quick gander at my featured read this week, Mystic Maples! A great escape from the winter doldrums! While you’re here, take a look at my paranormal romance/mysteries.

Earth/Fire witch Mercy Rose’s insatiable curiosity always gets her in trouble. After a break-in at her Colorado flower shop, and a court battle that comes to a screeching halt in her favor, she arrives at Deerbourne Inn for a much-needed getaway. Looking for peace and quiet, she finds just the opposite in a startling handsome but mysterious man and his dog.

Silvanus Forrest’s gypsy/fae heritage is a double-edged sword. The land he inherited from his parents is rumored to be enchanted. But when Mercy discovers the truth, his well-ordered life unravels, and they’re catapulted into the past to right a wrong. Along the way their lives intertwine, and they discover the true meaning of family and love. Will they change the past in time to save their future?

A peek between the pages of Mystic Maples: The hook.

It was a beautiful summer evening lit by a full moon. What harm could come from simply popping over to Mystic Maples, digging my toes into the earth and see if there is any truth to the rumors? She shrugged. Sis wouldn’t have told me about it, if she hadn’t thought it worth investigating. Right?

She toed off her shoes, pulled off her socks and straightened. With a snap of her fingers she left the room without a sound and landed smack dab at the edge of the maple trees. Glancing around, she could see the house in the distance and the outline of the sign. “Good, I’m in the right place.” She wandered farther in among the trees, the dirt beneath her feet was cool. Wiggling her toes deeper into the earth, she felt the warmth of the day and something else—a connection.

Several trees had a slight glow to them, then it was gone. Am I imagining…She raised her arms out from her sides and turned her face to the starlit sky letting the magic surge through her. It had been almost a year since magic of any kind called to her. It felt so good, she was lost in the moment.

Suddenly a male voice broke through her revelry. “What are you doing here?”

Her heart thundered in her chest. She hadn’t heard a sound. Yet, there he was standing not three feet from her, hands on hips, and glaring at her.

Until next week, don’t sweat the small stuff, and remember it’s all small stuff! LOL

Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged camping, Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park, RVIng, Tena Stetler, Travel Tuesday by Tena Stetler with 2 comments.

Jun 17th #L&SR’s #Wednesday’s Blog Challenge – My Life in Photos or Gifs

Welcome to #L&SR’s #Wednesday’s Blog Challenge 6-17-20 – My life in photos or gifs. Wow, so many to choose from. Please have a seat, grab an iced tea or lemonade out of the cooler. Be sure and try a chocolate chip or peanut butter cookie. Lets get started with My life in photos or gifs.

This week’s topic is easy in a way and hard in that I have so many photos to choose from. So here we go.

The only way to camp! We travel and camp from early spring to late fall when weather permits and vacation days allow. Yep our dog, parrot and box turtle come with us.

White Water Rafting down the Arkansas River through the Royal Gorge, Colorado, Class V rapids. You can almost see my helmet on the front left side of the raft. The river was closed right after we went through because it was running too fast.

Kayaking another outdoor adventure we enjoy along with pup. Parrot and turtle have to stay in the fifth wheel trailer.

Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado. Yeah, shoes don’t cut it in the sand. LOL

Book signings

Where I spend a lot of my time, in my writing cave!

Camping adventures with friends. This one is at Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park, Bear Lake. That would be me and hubby on the right.

View from a great hike in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Hanging out with Taco in the sunroom after my writing day is finished.

After a day of kayaking, a nice relaxing evening around the campfire.

My Iris garden. In a good year.

Perfect Moment Rose – new this year in my rose garden

I take a break and water my outdoor plants everyday.

We were hiking near Trail Ridge Road RMNP Grand lake side with Mystic

Mystic and I playing in the snow on a fun winter day! We love the snow.

Okay you should be sufficiently bored by now. So there you have it, My life in photos or gifs. How about you? What’s you life look like in photos?

Alas, I must return to my writing cave where deadlines loom with edits on my upcoming release HIDDEN GYPSY MAGIC, Chocolate Raspberry Magic, and on a new WIP sixth book in A Demon’s Witch Series(very exciting and coming along very well) so let’s see what other authors list as their favorite poems, short stories, or novellas . L&SR

Pssst… While you’re here, don’t forget to check out my paranormal romance/mysteries click here.

School’s out. Looking an exciting read to whisk you away from your ordinary world into a magical, fantasy adventure ? Got just the thing. A Witch’s Journey. – Former Navy Seal, Lathen Quartz helps Pepper, a powerful witch, achieve her life-long dream of a wild life rescue. But can they save the McKay magic amid a 4th of July festival they’ll never forget?

Click on the cover to read more or purchase!

A bit about A Witch’s Journey on sale for 99 cents! At dusk, the mist rolled in, but it didn’t dampen the revelers’ enthusiasm. Pepper and Lathen followed the crowd over to the harbor where several boats were lined up and decorated with different kinds of patriotic colored lights. A variety of bulbs burned steady, while others flashed, chased, and twinkled. One pleasure craft had a flag draped over the bow made up of red, white, and blue lights that blinked in time to “The Star Spangled Banner” playing in the background.

After casting votes for the best display, they returned to Lathen’s pickup and drove the short distance to the Sea Crest Inn, where everyone gathered for an ice cream social to benefit local charities. Local bands presented the entertainment for the evening. Music ranged from country to rock and roll, and even a group that did a respectable job on the 1812 Overture as the spectacular fireworks display exploded in the night sky.

A cold shiver ran up her spine as goose bumps crept up her arms. Pepper reached down to untie her sweater from her waist, and someone grabbed her around the middle and covered her mouth with a hand. Excruciating pain exploded through her temples. Instinctively, she sank her front teeth into the palm of the hand covering her mouth.

Thanks for popping in. I really appreciate it. Next week, June 24, can you believe it already? Anyway the topic is My “go to” book or movie for a pick up! Oh that should be fun.

Posted in My Say What Blog and tagged #L&SR's #Wednesday's Blog Challenge - My Life in Photos or Gifs, A Witch's Journey, Rocky Mountain National Park by Tena Stetler with 13 comments.

Sep 10th Wow, in RMNP Mother Nature Continues to Thwart our Plans

You’ll remember back in June we traveled to Lake Tahoe to find three inches of snow at our camp ground and snow flurries during our stay. Heck we left Colorado the end of May amid 10 inches of snow. Well, Mother Nature continues to frown on us.

Mueller State Park as the fog lifts

Don’t get me wrong, our camping trips this year were still wonderful. A time to unplug and relax, but sometimes it was harder than others. Trips to Mueller State Park and Cheyenne Mountain State Parks were fantastic. However…

RMNP camping site view from behind our fifth wheel

For Labor Day Weekend, we packed up the new fifth wheel and hit the road for Rocky Mountain National Park. Usually one of our favorite camping trips. It’s a dry camping destination, in other words no power, sewer, and water is only available at several locations within the park but not at each campsite. Which is normally just fine with us. We have solar panels on the fifth wheel which meets our needs. The only thing not available by solar is air conditioning. Now who would have thought you’d need air conditioning in RMNP in September at over 9,000 feet? We sure didn’t. However, we would be wrong. The weather forecasters predicted 70 for the highs. Wrong. It was 88 to 90 degrees at our camp site during the day. We arrived Friday evening at dusk. The day time temp was cooling down, so we opened the windows in the fifth wheel, started a campfire, and relaxed toasting marshmallows and making s’mores.

Mystic, Wow would you look at this view!

We spent the following days of the holiday weekend driving the roads in RMNP in the comfort of our air conditioned truck. Why you ask? Because the sweltering heat inside the fifth wheel (no AC) was just to dang hot until evening. Hiking early, early morning was okay, but once the sun was up for a few hours, too hot for humans, dog, parrot and turtle. Yep, we became nocturnal campers. LOL

The drive up Trail Ridge Road was interesting, not nearly as many sightings of elk and other wild life as previous years. Too dang hot. They were bedded down somewhere in the shade below timberline. Even at the top of Trail Ridge Road, around 12,200 feet in altitude it was still warm enough to be comfortable in shorts, flip flops and tank tops. Weird. Usually coats, jeans, and shoes are required up there in September. Not this year.

The evenings were cool and the elk, deer, and other wild life wandered the meadows and crossed the creek in the moonlight.

Mystic checking out our picnic site

Even though we were inconvenienced by the heat, RMNP is still spectacular. But next year, we’ll try scheduling our RMNP camping trip for later in September. A bit of snow and cold, we can handle—heat, not so much.

Just one more camping trip left this season, then heartbreak of winterizing the fifth wheel and putting it in storage until next year’s camping adventures.

Taco napping in her carrier/backpack as we stop for lunch off Trail Ridge Road

Posted in My Say What Blog and tagged camping, Cheyenne Mountain State Park, Colorado, Fifth wheel, Hot weather, Lake Tahoe, Mueller State Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, snow by Tena Stetler with 2 comments.

Dec 28th The Good, Bad and Ugly – Reflections of 2018

This time of year, I always look back to see what my successes were and what I could have done better. 2018 was my least favorite year of all time. Beaten only by the year my mother passed away twenty years ago. Now there were some shining moments too; which I clung to tight just to get me through this year.

Let’s start with the good:

I met all my goals for 2018. Yeah! <Fist pump>

Book four, AN ANGEL’S UNINTENTIONAL ENTANGLEMENT, and five, A MAGIC REDEMPTION, in A DEMON’S WITCH SERIES were published in August and December. Exciting times but promo was crazy.

My third book, A Witch’s Journey became Amazon’s #2 best seller in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Yep I was stoked. What happened to the United States ranking, I’ve no idea.

I was featured twice August and December in HEA column of USA Today the latest being an exclusive excerpt from A MAGIC REDEMPTION in December. As a writer, that is a dream come true.

Hubby and I enjoyed a few fantastic camping trips over the summer and early fall. During the next to last camping trip we learned the company my husband worked for had been sold and he would have to find another job. Yeah it kinda ruined the trip to our favorite spot Rocky Mountain National Park. But there’s always next year. However, same day he was offered a job with another company but dealing with the six month non-compete sucks. Which leads me to…

The bad:

My father-in-law passed away in January 2018 after a long battle with cancer. Settling the estate long distance was difficult to begin with, not to mention the interference from relatives.

Due to Alzheimer’s, my mother-in-law is in a nice memory care facility but it’s located 2500 miles from our home. Because of her deteriorating condition, she can’t be moved.

A favorite aunt passed away mid-December.

Though my books usually get stellar reviews, there were a couple reviews that were not and those bother me even though I read them only once. Yes I know publishing is a tough industry and writing is subjective… but still…

The Ugly:

Right now the world around us is scary and very dark. Kindness is in short supply, negativity is everywhere, and it’s always someone else’s fault. I can remember when you owned your mistakes and stepped up to correct them. I’m hopeful 2019 will bring about changes that will put our country and world on a better path.

So I’m going to put aside the bad and ugly and start 2019 with a renewed enthusiasm for accomplishing my New Year’s goals.

Hopefully receive a couple new book contracts.
Meet my writing goal of 5,000 words written each week.
Set aside more quality time with friends, family, and my dog, parrot and turtle.
Relax and enjoy many camping trips.
Exercise regularly. This is always a tough one for me. I tend to let deadlines and obligations control my schedule.
Take control of my schedule and stick to it, barring emergencies.

How about sharing some of your New Year’s goals? Did you make your 2018 goals? Wishing you and yours Love, Laughter and Happy New Year! See you next year. I love saying that. LOL