Colorado With Val
2012
My dearest and bestest friend Valerie has had some hard times this last year. She was understandably needing to get away for a bit to breathe and refocus. We found a deal on Southwest Airlines for around $300 to escape to Colorado. It sounded like a perfect, quiet, chill get away. We booked our tickets and waited for the day to come to start our adventure!
Our first day there we out in Denver. We shopped, we ate and met my friend Jill Parmer and her daughter Addi for lunch. During lunch we laughed about crazy adventures and mistakes we've had in our lives. Afterward we decided it would be fun to take a hike together. So, we busted out the guide book and picked a place nearby to go hiking- then we got separated and couldn't find each other. Mobile phone reception is pretty bad when you are surrounded by mountains.
Valerie and I ended up at Red Rock Amphitheater. It was amazing! We climbed to the top of the amphitheater and looked around and took some classic touristy pics.
As we started to get close, we wanted to get something to wake us and warm us so we pulled into a small shopping center and got some delicious Mexican Mochas. Yum! And kind *wink, wink*
The ground was slick with ice. We noticed lots of hikers with poles. Now, I called the park ranger and he said that although there was 22 feet of packed snow, as long as we had good snow hiking boots, we'd be fine. I double checked and asked if we needed anything else and he said, "Nope. Just good shoes."
Liar! As we headed off into what looked like the woods to Narnia, I could not keep my footing. I was slipping and sliding all over the place and the where we were heading into had no signs marking which way was which. Hiking around Bear Lake was starting to feel like a bad idea. I could just see this turning into an episode of I Shouldn't Be Alive.
After much discussion and Valerie telling me to quit being a wussy we decided to turn back. There was a family close by who heard us talking and agreed with our decision. We asked if they would take our picture before we turned around.
This is me moments before I busted my ass. After we took this cute pic, I turned around and lost my footing. I came down hard. Real hard. The family rushed over to me and asked, "Are you okay???" I honestly didn't know; my whole body felt pretty rattled. They helped me up and dusted me off and Valerie and I went on our way to find an easier hike.
As we were walking away, I told Valerie I thought I was going to be okay. My hand hurt so bad that I was certain that I had caught myself and not gone flying and flailing like I had previously thought. She said, "Oh no. You went flying. Your feet were up above your head before you fell. I had to walk away because it was pretty funny." WTF, VAL!! That's right. As her nearest and dearest is flying through the air my sweet friend got the giggles!
I think she's still laughing at me here.
Album cover!
On our last day there we wanted to see more mountains, but were done hiking. Our waiter suggested we head over to Breckenridge to see some "real" mountains. They were only about "oh, an hour away." So away we went with our paper map and water to see Breckenridge. Two hours later we arrived.
As we were getting close, we could see the ski lifts and decided that we would take one as high as we could and have something warm to drink. After we parked, we walked on up to the ski lift like we knew what we were doing and hopped on! It was all fun and games until it took off, fast, and we were suspended in the air, in a pod, on a wire. Things got real quiet while Val and I made mental plans to get off this death trap as soon as we could.
Once we settled in and realized we were not going to actually die, we started talking about... well, dying. Like, "Oh if we fell from here we would definitely die.", "Nah, we'd be busted up, maybe some serious head injuries, but not dead.", "I don't know. We're pretty high up.", "Okay, definitely dead from here. For sure." We got off at the last stop and opted out of going up in the exposed ski lifts. One near death experience for the day was enough.
The fun thing about traveling with a fellow "just along for the ride" gal is the misadventure we found ourselves in. This trip would not have been the same without it.
My dearest and bestest friend Valerie has had some hard times this last year. She was understandably needing to get away for a bit to breathe and refocus. We found a deal on Southwest Airlines for around $300 to escape to Colorado. It sounded like a perfect, quiet, chill get away. We booked our tickets and waited for the day to come to start our adventure!
Our first day there we out in Denver. We shopped, we ate and met my friend Jill Parmer and her daughter Addi for lunch. During lunch we laughed about crazy adventures and mistakes we've had in our lives. Afterward we decided it would be fun to take a hike together. So, we busted out the guide book and picked a place nearby to go hiking- then we got separated and couldn't find each other. Mobile phone reception is pretty bad when you are surrounded by mountains.
Valerie and I ended up at Red Rock Amphitheater. It was amazing! We climbed to the top of the amphitheater and looked around and took some classic touristy pics.
It was a relief to head back down all those stairs after climbing all the way up!
Beautiful.
The next day we headed out to the Rockies for some hiking! Our plan was to do a 3.5 mile hike around Bear Lake. We called and got the clear from the park ranger and headed on our way.
Oh, did I forget to mention that we drove for about three hours lost the day before? I must have been trying to forget that part. We drove around lost for three hours the day before. We were relying on our mobile phone's GPS to get us to where we needed to go, but couldn't get a signal. We stopped and got a real paper map on our way Estee's Park, but after driving for a bit felt we should have exited and saw no exit in sight. Val tells me to pull into a warehouse park to ask for directions. As we pull in, the conversation went like this:
Val: "Ugh! This looks like something from the Hills Have Eyes."
Me: "Geeze, Valerie! There is no way you are getting out of the car then! Wait, what's that? You can go in there. Those K's look like pot leaves. It's probably some harmless hippies in there."
Yup, harmless medical marijuana-dispensing, direction-giving, friendly hippies.
As we started to get close, we wanted to get something to wake us and warm us so we pulled into a small shopping center and got some delicious Mexican Mochas. Yum! And kind *wink, wink*
Bear Lake
We get to Bear Lake and are ready to go hiking.
The ground was slick with ice. We noticed lots of hikers with poles. Now, I called the park ranger and he said that although there was 22 feet of packed snow, as long as we had good snow hiking boots, we'd be fine. I double checked and asked if we needed anything else and he said, "Nope. Just good shoes."
Liar! As we headed off into what looked like the woods to Narnia, I could not keep my footing. I was slipping and sliding all over the place and the where we were heading into had no signs marking which way was which. Hiking around Bear Lake was starting to feel like a bad idea. I could just see this turning into an episode of I Shouldn't Be Alive.
After much discussion and Valerie telling me to quit being a wussy we decided to turn back. There was a family close by who heard us talking and agreed with our decision. We asked if they would take our picture before we turned around.
This is me moments before I busted my ass. After we took this cute pic, I turned around and lost my footing. I came down hard. Real hard. The family rushed over to me and asked, "Are you okay???" I honestly didn't know; my whole body felt pretty rattled. They helped me up and dusted me off and Valerie and I went on our way to find an easier hike.
As we were walking away, I told Valerie I thought I was going to be okay. My hand hurt so bad that I was certain that I had caught myself and not gone flying and flailing like I had previously thought. She said, "Oh no. You went flying. Your feet were up above your head before you fell. I had to walk away because it was pretty funny." WTF, VAL!! That's right. As her nearest and dearest is flying through the air my sweet friend got the giggles!
I think she's still laughing at me here.
Album cover!
We found as easier, less slippery and comical hike to take and still got to see lots of Bear Lake.
I bet that water feels nice in the summer.
As we were heading out of the park, we saw a sign for Alberta Falls and pulled over to check it out. We were both getting a little hungry and didn't want to go too far. We asked someone who was coming down the trail if he went to the falls and about how far they were. He said about half-a-mile. Sweet! We could do that. So, we headed up to see some falls. After a hiking for about half-a-mile and not seeing or hearing any falls we asked some more people coming down the trail if they had been to the falls. They exclaimed, "Yes! And it's SO worth the hike!" Cool! How much farther we asked? "Oh, about half-a-mile." Valerie and I looked at each other and both agreed we could do another half mile in order to see some falls. This happened several more times.
Up, up, up and we could hear falls. So we hurried up to where we could hear water and this is what we saw:
Pretty, but there was no water fall. We could hear water and see way, way down below a stream, but no falls. So we asked some people coming down the trail if they had been to the falls and how much farther. Another, "Yes! And it's SO worth it! Just another half-a-mile!" We both looked at each other and then sat down. We had been hiking at this point for about an hour and a half in search of the ever elusive falls a half mile away. We had no water with us and were no longer a little hungry, but very hungry (this is how people end up on I Shouldn't Be Alive). We both really wanted to see the falls, but at this point decided that without a map and without water it was best to turn around. We sat down for a minute longer to enjoy the sight and listen to the falls- that were somewhere around us- then got up to head back.
On our last day there we wanted to see more mountains, but were done hiking. Our waiter suggested we head over to Breckenridge to see some "real" mountains. They were only about "oh, an hour away." So away we went with our paper map and water to see Breckenridge. Two hours later we arrived.
As we were getting close, we could see the ski lifts and decided that we would take one as high as we could and have something warm to drink. After we parked, we walked on up to the ski lift like we knew what we were doing and hopped on! It was all fun and games until it took off, fast, and we were suspended in the air, in a pod, on a wire. Things got real quiet while Val and I made mental plans to get off this death trap as soon as we could.
Once we settled in and realized we were not going to actually die, we started talking about... well, dying. Like, "Oh if we fell from here we would definitely die.", "Nah, we'd be busted up, maybe some serious head injuries, but not dead.", "I don't know. We're pretty high up.", "Okay, definitely dead from here. For sure." We got off at the last stop and opted out of going up in the exposed ski lifts. One near death experience for the day was enough.
Our view with lunch
After lunch we did a little shopping and walking then headed back to the hotel, two hours away. That night we both collapsed into bed and were snoring by 9:30.
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