John Denver Park & Flowers

Here are the flowers in the John Denver Park in Aspen. They are beautiful.

John Denver Memorial Park

While exploring Aspen, Colorado we decided that we HAD to check out the John Denver Memorial Park. I guess I was kind of expecting a regular-looking park with some sort of sign or marker stating that it was in honor of John Denver. I ended up being very pleasantly surprised - it's an absolutely lovely little park and it's covered in John Denver stuff.

The park had a lovely little river running down one side of it and then a man made pond and flower garden area in the middle. There were too many flower photos so I had to split this post into two in order to accommodate them all. The flowers are up next.

A Daytrip to Aspen

This past weekend Mr X asked me what I wanted to do for the day. I told him that I didn't want to do any of our usual things - biking, hiking, etc. I wanted to do something different. So Mr X decided to put me in the car and go on a scenic drive all the way to Aspen, since I'd yet to see it. It was perfect.

We went through Leadville, where we stopped for lunch, and then we headed west and over the pass (shown in the first three photos below) to Aspen.

Once we made it to Aspen we parked the car and explored much of the town on foot for a few hours. Then we drove around to four of the local ski resorts to check those out. I told Mr X and I'd like to snowboard at every ski resort in Colorado eventually. So I at least had to check out how the mountains looked for that purpose. I like how the chair lifts really go right into town in Aspen. It's nice and convenient.

Stay tuned, there's another Aspen post to come in a few days...

A Return To My Favorite RMNP Hike: Sky Pond

You may remember this hike from my blog last summer. I declared then that it was my favorite hike to-date. Since then I've gone on many more hikes which I've loved. So it may not be my #1 anymore, but it's still most certainly grouped at the top of my list. I told Mr X and I liked it so much that I wanted to do it once every summer. 10 miles of incredible beauty:



Last year when we did this hike we saw a man fly fishing in this alpine lake and he was catching something just about everytime he cast his line. So this year Mr X brought up his fly fishing gear so he could try. I just basked in the warmth of the sun on the rocks while he fished. I wasn't about to lug my fishing gear 10 miles.

There were loads of wild raspberry bushes all around. So yummy.

Already?

When I went outside today I was greeted with this:

So it seems fall is starting already.

A Recent Work Getaway

A couple weeks ago I had to go to San Diego for work. I convinced Mr X to use some of his use-or-lose vacation days and come with me. I had to work the entire week but we stayed over the weekend so I could play at the beach a little bit too. During the days Mr X stand-up-paddle boarded with some of his buddies that live there. I think it was a much needed break for Mr X.

In the evenings, when I wasn't working, Mr X and I feasted on fantastic San Diego food. I love Colorado but sometimes I really, really miss the food scene from Southern California. I think we had some sort of tacos each day and most of those tacos were of the seafood variety. We found a new place to eat that is new to SD since we moved away. It's now our favorite restaurant. It's called Fish 101. If you're ever in San Diego it would be well worth your time to go to this place. It's incredibly delicious.

My 2nd 14er: Quandary Peak

A few weekends ago Mr X and I did our second 14er of the summer. We had to catch up to our goal of one each summer and since we failed to climb one last summer, we had some make-up work to do. We chose Quandary Peak because it was the second quickest/easiest from what we'd read online. Even though it is considered rather easy for a 14er, it was quite a bit more difficult than Mt Bierstadt, I thought. Here are the stats for this one:

Location: Tenmile Range, Summit County (6 miles southwest of Breckenridge)

Trailhead Elevation: 10,850 feet

Peak Height: 14,265 feet

Elevation Gain: 3,450 feet

Length: 7 miles

We saw loads of Mountain Goats on both the way up and the way down. There was even a little tiny baby goat that kept walking straight at me. It was making me nervous because the mom goat was keeping a sharp eye on me. I kept baking away from the curous little baby so the mom wouldn't get protective and head butt me right off the ledge or something.

 





Interestingly enough we got great reception on our cell phones at the very top of this peak - we get horrible reception at our own home. Mr X even called his mom from the summit to tell her we'd made it.