Estes Park Wool Festival, yes, you read that correctly

Sometimes the best things are unplanned. This is one of those times. We had wanted to see Estes Park after hearing how beautiful is was. When I pulled it up online, I saw the “largest wool festival West of the Mississippi” would be there that weekend, so we thought, why not?

We were amazed at how much we learned and how much fun it was to see and pet the llamas, alpacas, sheep, goats and bunnies. Did you know there are angora goats? I had no idea there were so many kinds of sheep and goats and how incredibly soft they can be.

These English Angora Rabbits were so interesting. In case you're confused, this is his face.

We watched a sheep dog demonstration, the judging of alpaca fleece, a sheep show and a llama show where they actually tried to make their llamas run thru obstacle courses. Yes, I said tried. Llamas can be up to 400lbs and I saw a few of the big ones FLAT OUT REFUSE to do that crazy stuff. It was hilarious!

This little guy was about a third of the size of the others, but he had no hesitation jumping over the same height bar. 

We watched people spinning the fibers into thread, which would later be turned into yarn, then watched others weaving the yarn into garments. The kids and I learned how to needle felt- basically stabbing the wool fibers into a felt piece on top of foam with a barbed needle. It was fun and the girl running the booth liked our creation so much, she kept it to use as an example for others.