RMNP: The Colorado River Trail Hike

A couple of weekends ago Mr X and I did our longest hike of the summer up in the national park. It was 12 miles. We did one on the very western side of the park - an area in which we hadn't hiked yet. 

Mr X at the beginning of the hike. We had to really bundle up for the first time in months since it was so cold that early in the morning.

If you look closely at this picture you'll see that the plants (yes, there are wild strawberry plants in this mix) were covered in frost.

This was a little pond we passed along our way. It had a thin sheet of ice that had formed on it overnight but by the time we passed by it in the afternoon it had all melted.

A view of the ridge along our journey.

Our hike took us passed the remains of an old mining settlement.

Doesn't the Colorado River look surprisingly unimpressive? So sad. It's been a very dry summer here. Hopefully next year we fare better in that sense.

I know that feeding the wildlife is frowned upon but this bird seemed really hungry.

A ways after LuLu City you get to an area of RMNP referred to as "Little Yellowstone". I was kind of expecting some mud pots or something but I didn't see anything like that. It was pretty but it didn't remind me of Yellowstone much.

We continued on passed Little Yellowstone and up to the top of a ravine and a waterfall where we stopped to have our lunch. By this time the frosty morning had given way to a beautiful warm afternoon.

This was the view from our lunchtime perch.

First Snow in the Mountains

A couple of weeks ago we got a pretty respectable amount of rain over the course of a few days. While it was rain down here, it translated to snow in the higher mountains. Mr X had been browsing online at www.onthesnow.com, just because and he came across photos of the snowy peaks. Here they are for your viewing pleasure:



This is Copper Mountain - one of the places our season passes will be taking us this winter. Those orange splotches are the aspens.

 

More Copper Mountain.

This is Crested Butte. We went to this place once last year. It was fantastic.

This is Aspen. We have yet to try this place out. It's on our list of things to do.

Rutting Season Sights

Mr X and I slipped away to our favorite fishing hole this past Saturday. The fish were having nothing to do with me but Mr X caught 5. We didn't bring any home because it's catch-and-release only. The best part of the day, however, was when we were headed home and we happened across a meadow full of rutting elk. We pulled off to the side of the road to observe the process. Mr X had his trusty binoculars with him so we were able get impressive views. The biggest elk was in the process of defending his harem of lady-elk from 3 or 4 challengers. The challengers would encroach into the herd and sniff around the lady-elk rumps and the Big Elk, of course, was having none of that so he'd charge at the other bull elk and usually they'd run off. (Only to return later to try again.) There was one bull elk that was really giving the Big Elk a run for his money and we actually saw them fight! It was so exciting! The sound of their antlers cracking echoed across the valley - it was really impressive. I love Colorado.

This photo is courtesy of the interweb. We didn't capture the moment on camera.

CO: Fall Colors

Fall is my favorite season. I love when the nights are cool and crisp but the days are still warm and pleasant. I love the relief that comes from the sometimes oppressive summer heat. I love the bounty that comes from the harvest season. I love the promise of the best holidays just around the corner. But most of all I love the colors. Mr X drove me around to some of our favorite areas so that I could snap even more pictures of beautiful Aspen trees in all of their colorful glory. I have a bazillion from last fall but I doubt I'll ever tire of running around this gorgeous state in pursuit of more fall photos.

This was the view during our drive.

This photo doesn't capture it well, but when the light hits the Aspen trees just right, it almost hurts to look at them.

This picture and the ones below are specifically targeted to my mother. She was complaining last year that the Aspens here don't turn any other color but yellow. They do, you just have to be patient and wait for their colors to mature.

I love this photo - the trees, starting from the bottom, go from green to yellow to orange and then to red. It's spectacular in person.

Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen...

I dragged Mr X to a local apple farm where we bought a little over a half bushel of apples. We did this last year but we didn't bother to do any preserving with our apples. We just slowly ate them all straight or made tasty treats with them. By the end the last several apples were getting rather mushy and wrinkly so I used them to make a small batch of applesauce. The applesauce turned out great so this year we decided do that with all of our apples and then can them. I made up the recipe I used last year and I never bothered to write it down. So I had to make it up this year as well. I got a bit creative, though, and I made up three different kinds:

1. Traditional Applesauce

2. Lavender Vanilla Applesauce

3. Ginger applesauce

Neither of us are particularly fond of smooth applesauce so mine are all quite chunky. I also don't care for large amounts of cinnamon in my applesauce so only my first, more traditional batch, had any in it at all and even then it wasn't very much.

We used Gala and Rome apples.

Mr X volunteered to be the apple peeler. He did a great job.

This was the sweetener I added to the second batch.

I diced some crystallized ginger as finely as I could for the third batch.

The finished product: 12 pints of applesauce.

Mr X used a few of the apples to make us a small apple crumble for dessert later. It was delicious.

RMNP: Moose Sighting

Mr X and I were driving home from a Rocky Mountain National Park hike and we decided to take the westernmost route because it's our favorite for numerous reasons. One of those reasons is that we occasionally will get lucky on that route and spot a moose. We've never seen one on the eastern side of the park. So while we were driving I casually said, "I hope we see a moose today. And I hope it's a momma and a baby because I've yet to see a baby moose." Not even five minutes later I got my wish:

RMNP: Ouzel Falls

During the recent holiday weekend of Labor Day, Mr X and I tried a new Rocky Mountain National Park hike: Ouzel Falls. Mr X had heard from a friend of his that it was a really nice hike, plus it was in an area of the park we'd not yet explored. I think we're doing a respectable job of touring our National Park here. We've hiked through a decent chunk of it. There are two areas left that we need to check out: The northwestern border along the Never Summer Mountains and the northern border. Here are photos from our Ouzel Falls expedition:

Bike Trail: Copper Mountain to Vail Pass

It just so happened that Labor Day weekend was a 4-day weekend for both Mr X and I. Since we had the Friday preceding Labor Day off as well, we decided to take advantage of the fact that the mountains would be slightly less crowded that day and we went up to ride a trail that we've been wanting to ride for some time. It's not a mountain biking trail or anything. Just a peaceful and beautiful paved trail that runs from the base of the Copper Mountain ski area up to the top of Vail Pass. I didn't bring my camera but I scoured the interweb for other people's camerawork of the trail. Here's what it looks like:

It's only 12 miles, round-trip, but the first half is uphill the entire way and it's rather exhausting. The way back down is exhilarating - you hardly even have to pedal and you just fly down! When you're going that fast though the turns can be a bit sketchy. Mr X is much more brave than I am - he zooms past me and then has to actually stop so that I can catch up because I am a big chicken and I ride my brakes a lot on the way down.

The funny/dumb thing about this particular outing was that once we had pretty much finished our ride and we were meandering towards our car we decided to try to see if we could 'pop wheelies' on our bikes. Getting the front tire was pretty easy but then we decided to try to get the back tire in the air. Mr X could do it but that's no surprise because he's better at everything than me. He got to the car first and was getting it opened up while I was still behind him trying to get my stupid back bike tire in the air.

Eventually I was successful in my efforts to get my back tire up. So successful, in fact, that I somehow managed to get my back tire entirely above my head because I almost completed a back flip on my bike. I say almost because I certainly didn't land it - rather I landed us (me and my bike) on my side. My bike and I suffered only minor injuries, thank goodness. I walked away with palm-fuls of gravel and gruesome looking bruises all over one thigh and knee. My bike's chain fell off and the guard around the chain was mangled so badly the chain wouldn't go back on. And the bike seat had somehow turned pretty much 90 degrees so whoever rode the bike would have been sitting "side-saddle" so-to-speak.

I was just glad I pulled that dumb stunt at the very end of our excursion rather than the beginning, or the middle for that matter. And Mr X, to his credit, didn't point and laugh as he watched my acrobatics. He actually came running to my side to make sure I didn't just kill myself. Of course, after he'd ensured I was all in one piece he let himself laugh.