From the Mountains to the Semi-Desert

Posted on July 10, 2013 by bottlingmoonlight | 1 Comment

The only thing that made me excited to leave Rocky Mountain National Park was our plans to visit our friends in the Breckenridge area (Silverthorne to be exact). We had seen Rebekah and her son Rhyer this past Thanksgiving, but before that she and I had not seen each other since college! Even though it had been so long since we’d spent any meaningful time together, within minutes it felt as if no time had passed. Those are the best kinds of friendships! Van had a blast playing with Rhyer. He basically became a parrot, mimicking everything that Rhyer (who is a couple of years older) would do. This was a huge benefit when it came to eating. Van was keen to skip breakfast so that he could get extra time with the toys, but after seeing Rhyer eating a nectarine, it took no convincing to get Van to follow suit. Healthy eating for the win!

On our first afternoon with Rebekah, we headed up to the nearby town of Leadville, which just so happens to be the highest incorporated town in the country. As we were wandering around town and checking out her old stomping grounds, she thought it’d be a treat for Van to see the fire station. Since she knows several of the local firefighters, we were able to take Van on a grand tour of all of the fire and rescue trucks. And these are no ordinary fire trucks. These firefighters cover a huge, mountainous area and face building as well as forest fires. Their trucks were massive! We finished the day feeding fish at the fish hatchery, grabbing a great dinner in Leadville, and staying up late and chatting over glasses of wine. A perfect day!

Downtown Leadville

Manning the Leadville firetrucks

The next morning, Rebekah and Rhyer took us to Cataract Lake, a fantastic hiking spot in the Eagles Nest Wilderness Area. It was a perfect hike for kids – not too difficult but not too easy. Van wound up walking about half of it and being carried the rest of the way on Alan’s back. The hike was around a lake and to an impressive waterfall with a small wooden bridge over the rushing water. The views were insane (no filters or adjustments of the photos below – it was that beautiful), but the coolest part was how the trail passed through several different types of environments. The number of changes in scenery, plant life, smells, and colors were pretty remarkable for a trail less than three miles long. This would be the kind of trail you could keep coming back to during different seasons and not get bored.

Hiking with Rhyer and Rebekah

Aspens

Cataract Lake

After an afternoon and evening of more fun, great food, and even better conversation, we woke up and struck out for Breckenridge. We spent the morning wandering around, eating crepes, and stocking up on food for the next few days before saying our goodbyes. THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING REBEKAH AND RHYER!!!

We continued westward, headed for Colorado National Monument. We decided to overshoot the park and first check out Rabbit Valley, a beautiful and completely deserted area along the Utah border. We could have camped there for free, but we decided to opt for a campground with water where we wouldn’t be so far away from anyone else. We made our way to Colorado National Monument and set up camp for the next couple of days in a beautiful spot up on a cliff overlooking the town of Fruita.

Rabbit Valley, near the Colorado/Utah border

Colorado National Monument

Now that we are out of the mountains and into the semi-desert, the weather has changed dramatically. The sun had us up and out of the tent by 6am and on the hiking trails by 7. We were able to get some beautiful hikes in each day before it got too hot, and then proceeded to do some exploration by car in the middle of the day with stops for water play and ice cream in Grand Junction and a shaded picnic in Palisade. Across the valley from CNM were the Book Cliffs, so named because the edges of the buttes appear similar to a shelf of books. Though they lacked the punch of the rock formations in Colorado National Monument, I found them strange, beautiful, and all the more compelling.

Exploring

Posing

The Book Cliffs

We capped off our trip with an afternoon wandering around and picnicking in Glenwood Springs on our way back to the Denver area. We also swung through Carbondale during Van’s nap and vowed to come back and check it out again when we’d have time to explore. I was instantly taken by how it was situated, between towering mountains still covered in snow in one direction and red rock cliffs in another. Those are views I could get used to!

Heaven

Posted on July 4, 2013 by bottlingmoonlight | 2 Comments

Up in the clouds in Rocky Mountain National Park

No, we weren’t in heaven, but it certainly felt that way. I’ve been to Rocky Mountain National Park before on two occasions, but I’d never had the opportunity to spend more than a day in its embrace. For a million and three reasons it was my absolute favorite place we’ve visited thus far on this trip, and definitely in the top five of places I’ve ever visited. Everything, from the wildlife to the heart-swelling views to the camping to the hiking to the peacefulness, contributed to me declaring that I was ready to stay forever.

We chose to arrive on a weekday, knowing that the campgrounds fill up quickly on the weekends. We were lucky enough to secure a home for three nights in the beautiful Moraine Park Campground near the east entrance to the park. As we began the process of choosing a campsite, Alan asked whether I’d prefer to be closer to other campers or further away. Hahahaha! We laughed about that question during the rest of our stay. While the campground may not fill up before noon on weekdays, it does fill up! But, the sites are well situated so that you’re not on top of your neighbors and there are plenty of places to amble off to explore right from your site.

Our home base in Moraine Park Campground

On a walk from our campsite in Rocky Mountain National Park

On our first full day in the park, we spent the morning hiking up to Gem Lake, a great spot for a picnic. The hike itself provided fantastic panoramic views of Estes Park and the surrounding area, but Gem Lake was definitely the highlight. The hike was about 3 1/2 miles round trip, with about a 1,000 foot elevation gain on the way up. A pretty short hike by our normal standards, but with a two-year old (who spent most of the time riding on dad’s back), this was a great length. Once we returned to the car, Van quickly fell asleep and we decided to drive up towards (and past) the Continental Divide to see some of the towering views the park has to offer. We made a decision to return the next day when Van was awake so that we could leave the car behind and do more exploring.

Gem Lake

Before heading back to our site, we headed to one of the trails where Alan and I had previously hiked so we could take Van on a walk before dinner. He was getting pretty feisty around water, so we decided to turn around. That turned out to be a pretty great idea because we would have missed this…

An elk staking out his territory

Two elk in a minor tussle

Peaceful elk

After a great second night in the park, we headed back up to some of the higher elevations in the park so we could do some exploring while Van was awake. The views were amazing. I simply don’t have the words to describe them. This is definitely a place that everyone should come and explore if they have the ability and opportunity to travel to Colorado. I have vowed to make regular camping trips up to the park when we visit our family in the Denver area.

The Rockies

Bighorn sheep

Alan in the snow!

Views from the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park

Mountain Views

In addition to the bighorn sheep (one example in a photo above), countless elk, and Van’s Buddy the Bison (photo below), we were also lucky enough to cross paths with three moose. Alan served as photographer extraordinaire while I tried to keep Van from making too much noise that might spook the moose. This proved to be much more difficult than expected as Van just wanted to keep shouting MOOSE loudly and repeatedly in their direction.

Van and Buddy the Bison

Moose in Rocky Mountain National Park

The only downside to our visit to Rocky Mountain National Park was that we had to leave. But, now I can just get excited about our next trip to this little slice of heaven.

Eastern Tennessee

Posted on May 10, 2013 by bottlingmoonlight | 1 Comment

It was only fitting that on our journey through the land of orange dirt, we should stop at an old copper mine. The mine has long since closed, but I had heard that this mine, in Ducktown, Tennessee, had one of the largest open copper craters in the area and I wanted to take a look. Although we arrived after the small museum had closed, we had a nice chat with the woman who ran it. She told us that on an ordinary day she’d stay open late for us, but she had to get home to see her daughter. No matter, we were able to see the crater and be on our way.

After a day and a half of exploring Chattanooga, we headed up to our highlight of Eastern Tennessee, the Museum of Appalachia in Clinton. I’m a sucker for living history museums, and this was one of the best I’ve ever seen. The curation was as interesting as the contents themselves. It was pretty clear that this was not the work of a museum committee made up of historians who are at arm’s length from the history they are describing. Instead, it was a more personal look at a community’s attempt to save, define, and communicate a sense of itself. We were able to spend several hours there (it helped that there was a lot of outdoor space for Van to run around), but I could have easily spent a full day or so if I wasn’t tethered to a small child.

We finished our stay in Eastern Tennessee with a couple of nights in Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. We technically camped in Virginia, but all three states meet right there, so we considered it more of an extension or our time in Tennessee. We did some great hiking, but by far the coolest thing for me was walking along the Wilderness Road Trail. This is the trail that Daniel Boone blazed in 1775, following the footsteps of many Indians and bison before him. The Wilderness Road was recently restored to its original appearance as it crosses the Gap. I spent all of our short time on the trail envisioning the many, many people who had crossed this Gap with all of their belongings, heading west not knowing exactly what to expect. Certainly one could draw some loose parallels to our trip, but those folks had guts well beyond anything that travelers with motorized transportation, a cell phone, and ready access to clean drinking water and food sources could understand.

Alan’s favorite thing in the park was standing in Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee at the same time. I admit that it was cool, and made even cooler by the fact that this point is on a mountain, which is conveniently named Tri-State Peak. We would have liked to have done even more hiking, but Van was having a particularly tough day (meaning lots of tantrums, crying, and not listening) and the hikes we were most interested in were rather long with a screamy two year old in tow. Regardless, we were able to see a lot and get a few miles of hiking in before we headed north into Kentucky.