Colorado Highlights

The girls are planning to write about our last couple of days in New Mexico, and there are other things that have happened since then that the kids want to write about, but Rick and I are going to attempt to fill in some of the blanks...not all of them, of course - there is not enough space or time to tell you about every beautiful hike, sunrise, or funny moment - but here are a couple of highlights from Colorado!

Our first day in Colorado (April 5) was spent in Mesa Verde National Park. The drive up to the mesa was fantastic and we were glad to find out that most of the sites were accessible even though it is not the high season. We visited a remarkable number of ruins dating from about 550 - 1300 CE. These included pit houses and pueblos on the top of the mesa, as well as a number of magnificent cliff dwellings (there are 600 or so in total, and we saw around 10). Some of the dwellings were home to 100 or more people and consisted of numerous rooms linked by passages and ladders. The museum had a great selection of artifacts including some amazing pottery and some elaborate dioramas (created in the 30’s) depicting the different types of dwellings inhabited by the indigenous people of this area. The canyons were breathtaking and it was amazing to learn that the people who made their homes in the cliffs regularly climbed up to the mesa to tend their crops - this would have required agility and bravery far beyond my daily experience. :) We are so happy we visited this park - it is one of the least visited national parks in the USA and I suppose that is only because of its location which is a little off the beaten path but at the same time close to a number of other more famous sights and landmarks in Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.

Two days after Mesa Verde we woke up in Bear Creek Lake Park just outside of Denver. We spent the morning hiking around and exploring the area around Red Rocks amphitheatre. It is a beautiful area and the theatre must be an incredible place to see a concert! There were hundreds of locals using the steps of the theatre for exercise; I wondered whether the huge number of people exercising had to do with the fact that spring had arrived (which usually results in a burst of outdoor activity) or whether this was reflective of the general habits of the locals. Lucy and Miriam spent some time climbing on the rocks behind the famous stage. The huge number of bicycles on the mountain roads that day seemed to confirm a love for outdoor activity in the area.

After Red Rocks we drove north to Estes Park to stay for one night at the Stanley Hotel, something that I had wanted to do since early in our trip planning. The Stanley Hotel is the hotel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining. He and his wife stayed there on the last night of the season one year, and that night King had a nightmare that inspired the story. It is not the hotel where the Kubrick movie was filmed - that’s in Oregon - but it IS where the King-approved miniseries made in the 90’s was filmed. The hotel and its location were beautiful. We went out for pizza for dinner and returned to find nearly 20 elk grazing on the property. Of course, we had to go on a ghost tour in the evening (because the hotel is haunted!) and during the tour we learned that all of the ghostly energy at the hotel is happy energy - the founders and their guests spent many happy summers here and just don’t want to leave. One of the resident ghosts is even named Lucy...a female that can sometimes be seen in one of the green rooms in the basement of the concert hall. At the end of the tour, the girls each took a small rock from the cellar, something that our tour guide says some previous patrons have regretted. We’ll let you know if any of the spirits follow us!

The next morning we were up early and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. We asked a ranger to recommend a hike and he suggested we hike to Emerald Lake. We almost made it! The entire hike was on top of several feet of snow, and was all between 9000 and 10000ft in altitude. Luckily, we had traction devices for our shoes so we could hike without slipping. Despite the snow, the temperature was quite comfortable for hiking. The hike was really fun, and the scenery was different at every turn. We had to give up a little before Emerald Lake as the snowy switchbacks we were ascending got pretty steep and narrow...a little too steep and narrow for my liking. Lucy was disappointed - she would have liked to hike to the top - but I’m betting she’ll be back one day, hopefully with hiking poles. Maybe she’ll even bring here mom. :)

After the hike, the drive west on the I-70 to Glenwood Springs was fantastic. I’m running out of words to describe scenery, but there were snow-capped mountains, spectacular canyons, and the highway passed through a number of tunnels carved into the mountainside. We drove through Vail and almost regretted that we hadn’t planned to ski during our trip. We stayed at Glenwood Canyon Resort in a nice little cabin with the nickname ‘Cut Throat.’ It had a loft for the girls to sleep in, and for the first time in a while we had a real kitchen! The owner recommended that we hike the trail to Hanging Lake, which we did the next morning. The hike was 2.4 km up a steep trail in the canyon, and we were rewarded with a gorgeous turquoise lake and a neat waterfall. After lunch we relaxed our tired muscles at Iron Mountain Springs in a variety of pools containing water from the hot springs in various dilutions ranging in temperature from 94 - 108 F. None of us wanted to leave! It was a great last day in Colorado, and we were smart to stay as warm as possible because it turned out that winter was coming...again.

Photos here in no particular order...I’ll caption them if I can!

Waterfall at top of hanging lake trail