NW Trip--Part 1 (with Mom)

Saturday 7/13

We left Boulder and headed north for Sheridan, WY. Stopped in Douglas and walked along the North Platte River. Big rodeo in Sheridan the night we were there. Didn't go to see it, but saw everyone decked out in cowboy/cowgirl gear. Really nice downtown. Excursion to Montana after dinner. Sat in the hotel parking lot and ate Ben & Jerry's :-) (I did an awesome bike ride/run on a road that led up to Montana Sunday am.)

Sunday 7/14

Left Sheridan for Shelby, MT. Stopped outside of Billings at the Battlefield of Little Bighorn. Took scenic roads to Great Falls. Stopped in Great Falls and walked along the Missouri River before arriving in the very small town of Shelby. Found an awesome little restaurant down the road with burgers and steak.

Monday 7/15

Left Shelby and headed toward Glacier NP. Awesome windy, Mom says scary, open range road to park entrance. Drove Going-to-the-Sun Road. Very, very scenic--especially the crystal clear lakes and streams. Saw 2 mountain goats and left the park before all the big tour buses arrived. Visited White Fish, Montana ski resort town. Huckleberries everywhere! Drove more scenic roads into Idaho. Stayed in log cabin room next to highway in Sand Point. (I rode into town of Dover where I saw an osprey). Devoured huckleberry cobbler for dessert!

Tuesday 7/16

Headed south for Coeur D'Alene. Very impressed by the clean city, pristine lake, and scenic forests. We walked on the world's largest floating dock and then hiked around Tubbs Hill. Downtown was very cute, especially the beach where the Ironman starts. Searched for Mom's 1965 Girl Scout Round-up and learned we had passed the state park already. Next time... Continued south through Idaho and then cut west on unending scenic roads to Washington. Arrived in the wine country that is Walla Walla. Very cute downtown surrounded by dry, yellow, barren hills with the occasional vineyard. (I ran in the morning in Sand Point and swam at the Walla, Walla YMCA in the evening.) Dinner was at the Olive.

Wednesday 7/17

High tailed it out of Walla Walla for greener pastures....or should I say whiter mountains? :-) Drove through Yakima to Rainier National Park. Awestruck by the ginormousness of Rainier. It was huge and had lots and lots of glaciers on all flanks. Scouted out many waterfalls and hiked up part of the Skyline Trail to get a closer look. Sad to leave the park...but carried on to cute, historical town of Elber. Got fresh picked cherries and world famous northwest capuccino. Landed in Puyallup at fancy Best Western. Dinner along the Puget Sound in Tacoma followed drinks at the outdoor lounge area with fire feature.

Thursday 7/18

After a quick run in the parking lot, we headed west for the Pacific and Olympic National Park. The beach was huge and you could drive your car on it. Crazy! Saw giant trees, rainforests, and rocky shores. Very, very cool. Stopped to walk in Quinalt and also Port Angeles. Stopped for the night in Sequim, home of the Lavender Festival. Dinner included lavender-raspberry-white chocolate ice cream which was nasty. Tasted like soap. Lavender was pretty, though.

Friday 7/19

Finished the tour of the Olympic Peninsula through the cutest little town of Port Gamble. Looked like it was straight out of a movie. Took a ferry right into downtown Seattle. Walked (and ate) through Pike Place Market. The berries, flowers, fish, and everything else were incredible. Saw the "original" Starbucks and then walked around the Pioneer District. Saw the Space Needle and headed up to Everett. Replaced a tire on my bike and headed to Lake Stevens to check things out and go for a quick ride. Dinner was homemade salad in our hotel kitchenette.

Saturday 7/20

Walked around the waterfront in Mukilteo and then went to Lake Stevens for the official check-in. Got the lay of the land and previewed half of the bike course before picking up Dan at Sea-Tac. Brought him to Pike Place Market for late lunch (and lots of berries!). Early night for the big race in the morning.

Sunday 7/21

Race Day! I made Dan and Mom get up at 4:30 so we could leave by 5. Drove to Lake Stevens and got ready to race. I was the first wave of age-group swimmers--6:38am start time. Race day was cloudy and cool and the water was warm. I had an awesome swim (35:43), a very hilly bike ride (I swear we just climbing miles 30-50 with no downhill!) and a decent run (lots of awesome energy on the course). Finished around 1:00 and Mom and Dan had chocolate milk for me. Yum! AFter a dip in the hot tub back at the hotel, we had dinner in Mukilteo by the water.

Monday 7/22

All three of us went on the Boeing factory tour and then we dropped Mom off at the airport.

Colorado Springs

I love serving on this state committee. We get to meet in the coolest places. I spent the last two days in Colorado Springs, and boy did I have fun! (Ok, the work part was cool, too.) I drove down Tuesday after school and met Melanie for an evening run. We ran from her house down to Garden of the Gods, around some trails there, and then back. I love GoG! The rock formations are outstanding and I had no idea there were so many trails down there. I had a blast catching up with an old friend and running in her neck of the woods. Afterward we went out for dinner at yummy Marigold's. They have the best chocolate moose cake ever!

Wednesday morning I woke up and drove to Red Rocks Canyon Park and ran a couple of miles. Again, some of the neatest rock formations. The colors are so unique with the brilliant red sandstone. I quickly got ready for my meetings and then snuck out again in the evening, back for Red Rocks. That night one of my colleagues hosted us all for an awesome homecooked dinner.

Thursday morning I woke up early and drove to Manitou Springs. I parked at the base of the Barr Trail (what we ran up for the Pike's Peak Ascent) and found my way to the incline. This remnant from the mining era is a great hill workout for Springs residents. Essentially it's a mile long staircase that climbs 2,000'. That's an average grade of 41%. I made it up in just under 38 minutes and then cruised down the Barr Trail to the car. What an awesome work trip!

Breckenridge

I got to go to Breckenridge for the Colorado Content Collaboratives. Fortunately, there wasn't a big snowstorm while I was there--just an inch or so over night. I drove out there after a concert on Tuesday night. I got in around 10:00. The next morning I was up early enough to explore some of the roads and trails behind my hotel. I discovered a reservoir and some neat neighborhoods. I was really surprised that I found nice trails less than five minutes from my hotel room! After working all day I went back out to explore some more. I ran across the melting ski slopes and got away from town on some meandering trails.

Thursday morning everything was covered in an inch or two of newly fallen slow. I was making first tracks everywhere. I started off by heading downtown and running along a pretty creek. Then I ran up some more ski slopes and hooked up with some other trails. Thursday afternoon I had to leave early for yet another concert, but I made the most of my time there.

Grand Junction

Laurel had a two-day conference in Grand Junction so I tagged along and worked from the hotel during the days. It was a snowy drive out on the 28th but we made it. So nice to be back at Colorado National Monument -- definitely one of my favorite places.

I worked from the hotel room on Wednesday while Laurel was at her conference. In the afternoon we hiked part of the Liberty Cap trail at Colorado National Monument. We ran out of daylight to make it to the top, but still got to see some amazing landscapes. Hiked 3.5 miles in about an hour and a half.

Thursday morning we got up early for some trail running. We ran the Ute Canyon trail (also at Colorado Nat'l Monument). There was a bit of snow on the trail and more coming down. We made it to our turnaround point from last year when we hiked Ute Canyon from the other side. Ran 6 miles in about an hour and a half.

After finishing our work Thursday we headed back out to the Monument. We hiked a ways up Gold Star Canyon until it got too slippery to continue -- a bit more than 2 miles round trip, in about an hour. The trail gained over 500' in the first half mile!

Friday we both had off. We started by hiking Monument Canyon and looping around through Wedding Canyon. It was a beautiful morning -- about an inch of snow on the trail and some sunshine poking through the clouds.

Our turnaround point was a large monolith:

Following the Wedding Cyn trail on the way back was a challenge! It hadn't seen any foot traffic in a while and was covered in snow. 4.7 miles in 3h20m.

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Friday afternoon we drove to Fruita and checked out some mountain bike trails at the Book cliffs. We were just hiking, but it looks like an awesome place to bike! We hiked about 4 miles in just under 2 hours.

On the way home on Saturday we stopped at Copper for a day of skiing. It was windy on the open slopes, surface was mostly packed powder, but we found some fresh powder in the trees and skied some bumps too.

Road trip pictures

Pictures from our road trip are posted (finally).

We got the snow that was predicted and the high may have been 15 degrees today in Boulder, so we stayed in. It's going to be a quiet New Year's eve for us. Just the weekend left now before vacation is over.

Happy 2011!

Sand Dunes

Well, Alamosa was nothing to write home about in the dark and in the light it was not much better. We were glad to get back on the road. Our first stop was Great Sand Dunes National Park. It was so cool to see the Sangre de Cristo Mountains with huge sand dunes in front of them.

It was cold when we arrived at the park just before 9, and it was really windy. Despite the conditions, Dan wanted to hike the sand dunes and summit the tallest one we could see. At the car we put on some layers (we still had jeans on though---Nick Weighton would NOT have been happy!), and headed out for the sand.

Two families were turning back as we headed out. Boy, did they look cold. We managed to brave the 30mph winds and excessive blowing sands and made it to the summit in 40 minutes. It was really fun running and glissading down the big, steep dunes on the way back. Some of the slopes were around 30 degrees which seemed really steep (yes, we measured them with our new slopemeter).

We drove over the mountains to Walsenburg and then on north to Colorado Springs. We stopped for an hour to say hello to Melanie, Ryan, Josh, and Vincent and to see all the boys' Christmas gifts. It was a lot of fun to play for a while.

We got back to Boulder around 4:00 today. The weatherman is predicting 5-10 inches of snow and single-digit temps, so I'm glad we're back in our nice warm house. A fun road trip, albeit short.

Mesa Verde

Ever since we moved here I have wanted to got to Mesa Verde National Park. Today I finally got to go! It is a long haul from anywhere (except Cortez--luck us!) and once you get into the park, it's like 30 miles to the actual sites.

We drove to the visitor's center just in time to go on the first tour to the only site that's open in the winter. Lucky for us, the ranger decided to just open the gates and let people come and go as they please. It was really neat seeing the Spruce House from the opposite mesa from afar and then to get to see it up close.

We even got to climb into a Kiva (5-foot deep round ceremonial/winter home). It was much warmer down there.

We then drove down one of the park loops and saw ancient Puebloan homes dating back more than a thousand years. The Cliff Palace was awesome, even if we didn't get to walk around in them.

We then drove to Durango and walked around the cool Victorian-era downtown. Then it was off to Alamosa to try to get in front of the storm.

Utah

We left Fruita this morning and headed west. The first hour or so we drove through a lot of dense fog. It was strange how we could see the clouds as we entered and exited them. Once we got off the interstate and headed more south towards Moab, the fog disappeared and the huge canyon walls appeared. We felt like we were in a small Grand Canyon for much of the drive--especially since we were driving along the Colorado River.

We stopped at Fisher Tower, a very famous (and super hard!) rock climbing area. The spires were incredible.

After many photos, we hit the road for Moab. We passed the area where we camped in 2007 when we visited Arches. Today, though, we kept driving to Canyonlands National Park.

The canyons carved by the Green and Colorado Rivers were very impressive and incredibly expansive. The camera can hardly do it justice.

All day we were intrigued by some snow-capped mountains to the east. We're still debating if they were Utah's LaSal Mountains or Colorado's San Juans.

As the sun was setting, we drove back to Moab but decided to keep going all the way to Cortez, Colorado. Unfortunately, it seems that we are going to have to cut our trip short as another winter storm is on its way. Though it would be nice to be stuck in the mountains (say at Telluride :-) for a few days, we do need to get back to Boulder so Dan is ready to start his new job on Monday. Plus, driving through two feet of snow doesn't sound like that much fun anyway.

Colorado National Monument

After another waffle breakfast we left Gunnison and headed west. The road travels along a river that is dammed in two places, forming the huge Blue Mesa Reservoir and the Morrow Point Reservoir.

We stopped at the second dam near the town of Cimarron to check out the part of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison -- a different part than when we were there in 2007. It was still cold in the morning (not yet the predicted 45 degrees), so our hike turned into a bit of a trail run.

We continued through Montrose towards Grand Junction, and turned off towards Colorado National Monument for some more hiking. Just inside the south entrance to the park we took a trail to the Devil's Kitchen and played on the rocks for a while.

Our next stop was the Ute Canyon trail. This is considered a "backcountry" trail within the park, but it was no problem to follow. The entire trail is 7 miles one way, so our intent was not to round-trip it (since it was already 1:30pm). Instead our goal was to just get into the valley, check out what the bottom of Colorado National Monument looks like, and check out the Fallen Rock that we had seen on our previous trip.

We ended up going about 3 miles and got just about to the mouth of the canyon. Unfortunately we didn't have a topo map with us, so we didn't know how close we were. It would have been neat to get to that point and look down another 500 vertical feet to the next level.

The weather was not sunny and 40s as forecast. Instead it was snowy, humid, and cold. Tomorrow should be better.

Ski Crested Butte

Christmas morning we got up, made yummy waffles at the hotel, and then drove north to Crested Butte.

We skied all day on groomed trails. We tried hard to find bumps and powder, with some success, but we learned quickly why this was the "Corduroy Capital of Colorado."

It was another fun, sunny day, but we both preferred skiing at Monarch. We drove back to Gunnison for another night.

Ski Monarch

Friday morning we left Boulder headed for Gunnison and Crested Butte. However, on the way we realized that we would pass the Monarch Ski Area. We skied Monarch back in February 2007 on our way back from ice climbing in Ouray.

Anyway, we skied Monarch all day Friday. It was awesome! I spent most of the time on black diamonds! Woohoo! Then we drove to Gunnison and had a nice dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

Why is Las Vegas vile?

I wrote:

Las Vegas is by far the most disgusting place I have been.

Brian commented:

You are going to have to be more descriptive if you want me to believe that Las Vegas was more disgusting than the Great Salt Lake!

And another friend wrote in an email (with heavy sarcasm I assume):

I can't believe you guys didn't like Las Vegas, you must have missed the
$.99 all you can eat buffet.

It's a tough call whether the Great Salt Lake or Las Vegas gets the prize for most disgusting place ever. I will describe Las Vegas and let you decide.

1. As we approached Las Vegas from the south, the traffic reminded me of Los Angeles. It couldn't have actually been that bad, but that's what I thought of.
2. From the highway at night you could see a 200 square mile blanket of ugly yellow streetlights covering the valley.
3. There are virtually no hotels, only casinos with rooms.
4. We stopped at a casino on the outskirts of town to get a room. Lots of ugly flashing neon. Laurel went in, had to walk a mile through a room of one-armed bandits to get to hotel registration to find out there was no vacancy. She came back to the car stinking of cigarettes.
5. (OK, so most of the "one-armed bandits" are actually no-armed bandits. And they don't take quarters.)
6. Stopped at another casino on the outskirts of town. The only rooms they had left were "Apollo" rooms. Apollo was a god, so maybe that's a good thing? No. That means you pay $109 for a room with no bed, just a pull-out sofa. On a "smoking-optional" floor.
7. (Good thing #1: hotel security guards patrol the parking garage on bicycle. Given the excessive nature of Las Vegas I was surprised they didn't each drive a Hummer. With whale-skin hubcaps.)
8. We each had to take two showers that night: one because we stank from camping in the desert for 2 nights, then another because we stank from hanging out in a casino until midnight.
9. Our only prior casino experience was Foxwoods in CT and Harrah's in New Orleans. We assumed there would be some variety of live music or some kind of entertainment. Nope, just one cover band that didn't start until later in the evening.
10. (Good thing #2: the Mexican restaurant gave us lots of nachos with good salsas, moles, etc. to dip them in. Pitcher of margaritas was pretty good too.)
11. Drinks were expensive at the bar.
12. People at the bar were busy punching lit-up buttons built right into the bar -- obviously you don't want to take time away from gambling to drink.
13. We would have been the youngest people at the casino if a few families hadn't dragged their kids (5 to 10 years old) along with them for the night. What fun.
14. In the morning a handful of people were still punching buttons and sucking on cigs.
15. "Penny-slots".
16. Greaziest breakfast ever for only $2.49.
17. (Good thing #3: the Hoover Dam is nearby, go see it if you dare to visit Vegas. Better yet, drive through Arizona to see it and park on the AZ side, where parking is free.)
18. After visiting the Hoover Dam we wanted to see "the strip". Just wanted to drive by, didn't feel the need to stop in any of the casinos after all the fun we had already. Lots of traffic.
19. The brown cloud hanging over the city was as high as the surrounding mountains. Disgusting.
20. Lots of litter.
21. You know those "take one" newspaper boxes you see by bus stops that have free real-estate magazines or free want-ads? Well in Vegas they have free whore-ads in those boxes.
22. Everything in excess.
23. More traffic. We could have walked the strip faster than traffic was moving.

The Great Salt Lake is disgusting, but it is natural. Las Vegas is pollution of every kind. It has been made that way. That's what I find so vile about it.

Winter vacation wrap-up

We wanted to hike around Colorado National Monument this morning but we scratched that idea once we discovered it was 15 degrees in Fruita and 60 in Boulder.

The Grand Canyon was by far the highlight of our trip. See our treks in Google Earth.

See our Joshua Tree hiking route too.

Las Vegas is by far the most disgusting place I have been.

Overall we put 2440 miles on the Echo, which still gets 38 MPG.

Happy New Year from Sin City!

Wow. Nevada is something else. So we're driving through the Mojave Desert for hours. You come across a town on the map and there is literally one building or an intersection leading to another building 20 miles away. The views go on forever and there's mountains off in the distance in many directions. Then, lo and behold, we cross the state line to Nevada and it's like Times Square. There are hotels/casinos on both sides of the highway lit up like the sun will never shine again. One boasts an outlet mall and the other has $7.99 prime rib dinner. We drive through in a matter of minutes and we're back in the desert. 15 miles later, it's the same thing. Then, we drive up over a hill and before us spreads an entire valley of lights. Las Vegas is huge and sits in a bowl in the desert (the next morning we also got a glimpse of the smog that sits over the valley as well).

We finally stopped in Henderson (just south of the city) and got a room in a hotel/casino. After showering and resting a bit, we headed downstairs for slots, live music, dinner, and a pitcher of margaritas. It was a fun night people watching.

The next morning we headed to the Hoover Dam (most impressive) and then sat in traffic on the strip (an adult Disney World?). That was enough for us so we got back on the road and headed north through a corner of Arizona and then all of Utah. We stopped in Salina for dinner at Mom's Dinner and had a chocolate marshmallow pie (yum). We ended the night in Fruita, Colorado!

A Few Days in the Desert

After leaving the booming metropolis of Kingman, AZ, we headed southwest for Joshua Tree. On the way we stopped at a little gas station on historic Route 66 and the attendant told us what we had been looking at for an hour or so. The black hill off in the distance was Amboy Crater -- formerly a volcano that had blown its top. He informed us you could hike to the top and then inside the crater. So, a mile down the road we parked the car and made off on this short hike. The volcanic rock that littered the trail was very hard to step on, but made the desert floor much more interesting. It was fun hiking around inside and then enjoying different views from the rim of this 250 foot hill.

We arrived in Joshua Tree about an hour and a half later. There we picked up some supplies and headed into the park to stake out a campsite for the night. We weren’t able to get into the first couple of sites that have climbing routes actually in the sites so we were forced down the road to the Jumbo Rocks area. We found a sunny, south-facing site and set up camp. Our neighbors were very nice and we shared a fire with a handyman from Orange County named John.

Monday night we froze as the desert temperatures dropped to below freezing and the wind ripped through the tent. My feet never warmed up and Dan was in his sleeping bag with jeans and a sweater on (usually he sweats in the bag). However, we survived and staked the fly down the next morning.

On Tuesday we did a climb on the side of the Jumbo Rocks corridor. The rappel was off a boulder on top and we couldn’t pull the rope. Eventually Dan jumared back up and was able to pull it. Afterward we scrambled on rock for a long while and then took a short hike before dinner.

Tuesday night was cooler (but our tent was much warmer) and we both slept a lot better, although neither of us was excited about camping out again. So we packed up the site after a pre-breakfast hike, and hit the road. On the way out of the park we hiked Mount Ryan (5,000-something feet) and checked out rock around the Real Hidden Valley. Unfortunately, the climbs we wanted to do were all in the shade where it was considerably colder. We did leave the park and tried to find lodging in town. Being that it was New Year’s Eve we had no luck and decided to head north towards Las Vegas.

Grand Canyon, Day 4

By 5:00am, we were both up. We weren't moving, we weren't looking forward to the task of getting dressed in the freezing cold. The sleeping bags were warm and outside was not. At 6:00am we both bragged to one another how we were able to change out some clothes while still in the sleeping bag. This skill takes much practice! After an hour and half breaking down camp in the dark (and with only one headlamp which Dan got to keep in the tent) we were on our way.

The first part of the hike was the River Trail, aptly named as it followed the cliffs along the Colorado. It was very moderate and a good way to start the day. We could see the sun hitting the upper layers of rock like a spot light thousands of feet above.

After a quick stop for bagels, we followed the trail up along another creek. The riparian landscapes were very pretty. Around 10am we started seeing some people on their way down. They couldn't believe how much warmer it was getting, as they started their days at zero degrees. We didn't notice how much colder it was getting until we got halfway up the trail to the Indian Garden Campground. At this point we were hoping for a sunny spot for lunch, but the ranger said we wouldn't see sun again until we got to the rim. He was right. The shady high canyon walls were cold and we kept stopping to put more layers on and minutes later stopping to take them off because it got steep and we were working hard.

The last 4 miles of the trail (9.7 overall) were very steep and full of icy switchbacks. Our microspikes were awesome and we didn't even slip. 6 hours and 40 minutes after we set off on our adventure we topped out at the South Rim. It was very sunny and relatively warm. After a good stretch and some munchies, we hit the road. We made it as far as Kingman, AZ (right on the CA/NV/AZ border) and called it a night after long showers and steak dinners.