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.

TTs in town

Dave, Melissa, Sid and Bella came to Colorado for the week and stayed with us for the weekend. They sure kept us busy! We had two very full weekend days -- checking out Chautauqua, a few playgrounds, Pearl Street, swimming, tubing on Boulder Creek, checking out the fish in the creek, going up to Walker Ranch at night to see the starry skies, ... (and a ton of other things I can't remember 6 weeks later as I'm writing this!)

Sid heading up Rock Island

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.

M+D vacation, part 2

My parents returned from Colorado Springs last Tuesday evening. Wednesday was rainy, so it was a quiet rest day for them. We had dinner at Turley's (many gluten free options!). Thursday they went to Cheyenne to see the buffaloes and got soaked by a heavy rainstorm. That evening, Laurel went to a talk about swimming and triathlons. The three of us went to Neptune for a short movie about some climber who apparently didn't die when aid climbing in the Italian Dolomites. My parents stayed in Boulder on Friday, checking out Pearl Street and a new exhibit at the Boulder History Museum.

Saturday morning I went on the first long run I've done in a while (7.5 miles). Then the four of us headed downtown: We got bacon cupcakes at Tee & Cakes, had breakfast at Lucille's, and then walked the farmer's market. In the afternoon we did a hike around Wonderland Lake. That evening we heard Carmina Burana performed by the Boulder Philharmonic. It was fantastic, what an experience!

For Sunday, Dad and I had a big hike planned. We left the house at 7am and hiked Bear Peak. We were lucky to have great hiking weather the whole day, and only a few fresh inches of snow at the top. Mom and Laurel hiked the Eagle and Sage trails and then did a little shopping at Celestial, Pekoe, and Savory and Spice.

Monday I took my parents to NCAR, where Dad and I had started our hike the previous day. We followed the trail a bit to show Mom what we had hiked. After that we had lunch at The Med and walked around the Sturtz and Copeland greenhouses. Mom assembled a beautiful bouquet for us and I got some information about our "Christmas tree" (a Norfolk Pine we've had for years).

Tuesday was my parents last day in town and the first day that the weather was really nice. We went for a walk around the neighborhood and checked out the planes at the local Boulder airport before they took off for the big airport in Denver.

Weekend visitors

Mark (a friend from UConn) flew in Friday, a few days early for his GIS conference in Ft. Collins next week. We took him on a hike up to the top of the First Flatiron and then got dinner at Himalaya's. My parents are also visiting next week, so we lent Mark our Echo and some hiking gear for the weekend and made a few suggestions about where to go in RMNP.

When my parents arrived on Saturday they brought rain -- first we've seen around here since September! It didn't last long so after lunch we walked the Cottonwood Trail. We met a local farmer with a stand on Jay Rd. and got some fresh produce. It was sunnier in the afternoon.

Sunday we headed for the hills! We took the scenic route to Idaho Springs for a little shopping, lunch at Beau Jo's, and a gold mine tour. We drove up to Berthoud Pass for pictures and got to see some back country skiers making turns down a nearby slope. Then we got ice cream in Winter Park. On the way home we drove through Rollinsville and took Magnolia back to Boulder. Not a 4x4 road but it is mostly dirt, and very steep!

My parents took a side trip to Colorado Springs on Monday and Tuesday. They walked around Garden of the Gods, took the Cog Railway to the top of Pikes Peak, and visited the Cliff Dwellings. Back in Boulder, I went for a hike with Mark on Monday, where we saw tons of ladybugs!

Other Activities with Adam

After we had a night to recuperate from our backpacking adventures, we shared some other great Boulder activities with Adam. Wednesday morning he and Dan went for a bike ride while I had a job interview (yes, I got the job and accepted...it's elementary music 20 minutes south of here in a town called Superior). When I returned Adam and I went to the North Boulder Rec Center so he could lift weights and I could do my weekly swim. In the afternoon we went up Boulder Creek so Adam could do some fly fishing.


On Thursday Adam wanted to do "a climb" so we did a hike up Bear Peak here in town. Though this mountain is in our backyard, it is still quite a hike. We started at NCAR and hiked the Mesa Trail to Shadow Canyon (the hard way up). After climbing nearly 3,000 feet through a cloud that shrouded most of the peak, we reached the very wet summit. Our seven mile loop was completed by going down the Fern Canyon Trail.

Adam went fishing again in the afternoon and Dan and I went to Neptune's that night to see a film on a 1968 climb on El Capitan. It was amazing watching these climbers hammer in pitons and use what were then modern techniques which today are incredibly outdated.


Adam desperately wanted to see an elk, so I dragged him up to Rocky Mountain National Park where there are plenty! We followed Trail Ridge Road through the park and at about 11,500 Adam spotted three elk way off in the distance. He took some pictures, but was hoping for a closer view. We saw some marmots and pikas, but it still wasn't enough. Fortunately, as we were heading to Fall River so Adam could do a little fishing, we saw two female elks and a baby. Adam proceeded to catch a small brookie before we headed out.

Then, the best thing happened! We saw two bighorn sheep cross the road! They were so cool and only about 100 feet from us. I've never seen sheep so close! We stopped and took our couple dozen pictures and then traveled towards the exit. Once again, we stopped and were pleasantly surprised. There was a 10-point bull elk on the side of the road. We then noticed there were 7 other elk on the other side of the road and proceeded to watch most of them cross to meet the first one. Just incredible!


To wrap up the day we met up with Ann and Sean at Southern Sun for dinner. It was delicious, even if we had to wait a very long time.

Cheyenne Buffalo Ranch

On Monday Laurel and her parents headed up to Cheyenne to check out some Buffalo.

South Park

Saturday we went to South Park with Laurel's parents.

Actually, we went to Fairplay, home of South Park City -- an outdoor museum of recreated and restored buildings. It was neat seeing some of the history of the West. Click on Mr. Hanky for more pictures.

After Fairplay we stopped in Brekenridge -- huge ski resort. Even thought it's not ski season anymore there was a lot to do and see.

On the way back to Boulder we had a nice drive through the mountains. Oh, can't forget to mention that we had a huge New Orleans breakfast at Lucile's to start the day.

Some pics from the week

Click pic for more...

Other Adventures with Adam

Well, after Bierstadt Adam was still ready for more Colorado adventure despite his mantra of the week, "You're trying to kill me, aren't you?"

On Thursday Adam and Dan headed out to Bear Canyon in hopes of seeing some bears (crazy, huh)? Our alligator hunter wanted to see if he could take a bear down with the same knife with which he took down an eleven and a half foot, 500lb gator. Fortunately for the bears (and my brother and husband!) none crossed their path. However, they did spend the entire day hiking and scrambling around Nebel Horn and other areas OFF the main trail. Because of all the scrambling they did, Adam got very interested in rock climbing. More on that in a bit...

Thursday night we got ready for CU's Blackout Game. After dressing in the darkest clothes we had, we hopped on our bikes for Folsom Field. With 53,000 fans (many of them drunk college students) we cheered the Buffs on to victory. We FINALLY got to see Ralphie, the CU buffalo!


On Friday Adam and I checked out Lucile's for breakfast. It was excellent Cajun cooking recommended by a friend of our father's. I then took Adam on a mini-tour up to Gold Hill to see what a small mountain town looks like. As I headed to work for a professional development afternoon meeting, Adam hit Boulder Creek and caught a few small fish. In the later afternoon we all met at the Amphitheater for some climbing.

Adam toproped a 5.2 60-foot climb on the West Bench--his first outdoor climb ever! After a second successful attempt, I suggested we try something a little more exciting. So, Dan led a fourth class rather exposed climb up to the top of the East Bench. With some encouragement, Adam summited and waited patiently for me to clean. He then was the first to rappel back down into the Amphitheater. We managed to get back to the car with our headlamps safely.

After a quick shower, we all headed to the Red Lion for dinner. This restaurant specializes in "Wild Game and Continental Specialties." Needless to say, I got the vegetarian entree while Adam and Dan ordered elk and quail. Everyone's meal was delicious!

This Week in Boulder

We've been up to quite a bit this weekend. At the beginning of the week, Dan's folks were still here. On Monday, they headed down to Golden again to check out more tourist attractions. On Tuesday Dan took them to Eldorado Canyon for a morning hike. Tuesday evening after dinner, we brought them to the bus station so they could catch the bus to the airport. It was a busy and fun time for everyone!

On Wednesday Dan and I went bouldering on Mount Sanitas after work. We rode our bikes out to Sunshine Canyon and hiked up the 12 minutes or so to the good rock. We climbed for almost an hour and headed home.

Thursday Dan worked as a volunteer facilitator at Community Cycles. He got to help other people fix their bikes and had a lot of fun. Afterwards, we headed out to Neptune to see a slide show about climbing in Verdon, France. It is a huge canyon with thousand foot blue granite cliffs. All the pictures were just breath-taking. The presenter and photographer were the subject of the cover article for this month's Rock & Ice Magazine. They were also handing out free beer, magazines, and stickers. Very fun.

On Friday after work we headed back out to Mount Sanitas for a little bouldering. We explored some other walls and then headed downtown for the CU Kick-off Stampede. At this pep rally before tonight's big CU vs. CSU rivarly game the marching band and football team walked down Pearl Street greeting their fans. The band sounded good and played throughout the mini-parade. The team just towered over everyone. I even got a mini-football with the CU Buffalo on it!