Sorry, dear
family and friends, to keep you waiting so anxiously without an update. But we’ve been super busy on our adventures
and with too limited Internet access to post this week. What a week it’s been though!
When Molly
was growing up, her mom Jane spoke endlessly of the two long summer vacations
she spent traveling out west, how Colorado was the best place on Earth, and
how, someday, she was going to take us on a family trip to Colorado. I really think this was mentioned every summer,
though it never quite worked out. So when
we planned this trip, we decided we would fly Jane out to Colorado so she could
join us during our 4-days in the Denver area.
Last Sunday
(6/24), we traveled to the Rocky Mountain National Park to do some hiking. Our
hosts, Tracey Bobo and her husband Tom Kane, drove us all around and led us on
a great hike to Gem Lake, high up the mountains outside of Estes Park. Fortunately, they were there with us to teach
us how to deal with significant elevation change and dryness by drinking lots
of water and using extra chapstick! It
was beautiful to clamber over rocks to reach the pretty views of the park. We could tell the oxygen was lower at the top
(about 10,000 feet) when we had to stop more frequently. On the way out, we made sure to get our
passports stamped, adding to our collection of national parks we’d been to! We spent the night at their AMAZING home,
buried deep in the forest, atop a huge mountain overlooking the city of
Denver. It was absolutely breathtaking,
though we’re not sure we could tolerate using an ATV with a plow to get myself
out in winter!
On Monday, as
Tracey and Tom headed back to work, we three headed back to the Rocky Mountain
National Park for more. This time we
took the long, scenic Trail Road around the park, passing through the
Continental Divide and back again and overlooking scenic vistas. As we ascended above the tree line and into
the tundra ecosystem, we saw lots of wildlife—mule deer, elk, marmot, pikas,
etc. One elk was so close to the road
that we stopped as he passed within feet of our car and walked around us and
across the street! We stopped for a few
smaller hikes, walking to a waterfall (which reminded us of Coors commercials
with the rapid mountain streams cascading downward, as Coors is brewed out
here) and through the tundra to a panoramic view. We found a cute little hotel and spent the
evening walking through the adorable shops of Estes Park’s downtown.
Tuesday
morning we woke up early and did a longer hike up a mountain, passing 3 lakes
(Nymph, Dream, and Emerald lakes) along the way. On the trail, we could see out over moraines,
to the tops of huge mountains, beautiful forests, and lots of gigantic boulders—it
was easy to see why it was named Rocky MNP!
For dinner,
we met up with Molly’s friends in Denver.
We had four of the seven good friends who had done an environmental
study on Vancouver Island in 2002. Even
though we’d met up a couple times since then, it had been years and was great
to get together. Jane even met up with
an old friend from Alfalfa’s Restaurant (where she’s waitressed for 35+ years)
who now lives in Boulder at the same time, in the same restaurant.
On
Wednesday, we left our great Bobo/Kane lodging and headed for Dinosaur Ridge
before taking Jane to the airport.
Dinosaur Ridge was a hill that was weathered and eroded to reveal
dinosaur bones and footprints from millions of years ago! We walked around the
hill, learning lots about the geologic history of Colorado…information Molly
can use in her Earth Science classes! We
had lunch in a cute café in Morrison, CO, and took Jane to the airport for a
bittersweet farewell. As she flew back
to Kentucky, we turned the key and headed towards Utah!
More on
Utah and Las Vegas soon…we’re off to bed so we’ll be ready for more
tomorrow!
wow, a great read. Jonathan and I are so glad that you could make this happen.
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