High Rockies 2014

I've been in the high Rockies for the past 48 hours for a wedding.  It was gorgeous.  I loved the trees, the smell of the air, the wildflowers, the kind people, the coziness of the fire in the ski lodge even though it was summer, the mountain streams, the wild west look to the tiny towns.

Flew into Denver on Friday and rented a car.  Drove to Vail and checked in the hotel.  Went for a little hike around town with my dad.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner at a saloon in Minturn.  It was quite scenic with the creek just behind the patio of the bar.

Saturday morning, Uncle Fred and I got up super early and went hiking.  We chose the Big Horn Creek Trail and it was initially quite chilly!  We were the only ones on the trail for the first two hours (turn around point).  On the way back, we encountered 11 people total, only two of whom were local.  They seemed to have known to not go out of the trail at dawn because it would be too cold!

The hike was awesome, though.  I loved being the forest.  The aspen trees are beautiful with their white bark, the silver blue tint to the blue spruce is lovely, too.

The scenic overlook was about 2miles in.  The sun was out by this time and air temps were on the rise!

There was one small area that looked like the type of forest I'm used to around here.  There was about five big evergreen trees with soft dirt/needles on the ground all around.  A nice little creek with waterfall, too.

As we climbed higher and higher (total elevation gain: ~2100ft), we encountered a lot of wildflowers and a narrower and narrower trail.  It was obviously marked, but it was easy to see that not a lot of people came through that far.  There was one part where there had been an avalanche and rocks had fallen over the path.  We had to climb over large boulders for probably 50 meters until we connected with the trail on the other side.

After the hike, we came back I headed to the pool.  I was nearly lunchtime and straight up hot outside (air temps approaching 90F but no humidity).  I did apply sunscreen, but as I was closer to the sun, I got burned, even on my lips!

Early afternoon, Mom, dad, Nancy, Fred, and I drove to Avon, where there was a man-made lake.  The afternoon was gorgeous.   I should have worm my swim suit!

The wedding was on Saturday night and was lovely.  Chris and Kate were married by a creek and the ceremony was short and sweet.  I don't have any pics of it.

On Sunday morning, I went for a walk/hike around town again before we had to drive back to Denver to go to the airport.  We stopped in Idaho Springs for some gas, and this fire station was across the street.  Pretty cool, old building.

Colorado was awesome.  I hadn't been there since 1994, and it was awesome to get back out West as an adult.  I remember being in awe of the mountains twenty years, and I fell in love with them again this past weekend.

One last photo:  A pan from the hike