After a much-too-long hiatus I finally went on a short adventure with my friend Angelica to Colorado in September. We flew to Denver on Wednesday, rented a car (for which we were overcharged in a weird toll requirement), and drove straight to our hotel in Estes Park, which is a town right outside Rocky Mountain National Park. After dinner and some elk rut viewing (aka mating season so they hang out a lot), we spent the next full day in the park, doing a moderate and beautiful mountain hike, an easy lake hike complete with full rainbow, and driving up to 12,000 feet elevation. We both got hit with some altitude sickness which we experienced as bad headaches, and that night we conked out right when we got back at 7pm. The plus side was a very early morning complete with watching the sunrise and a dip in the outdoor hot tub.
We drove about an hour to Boulder, where we went on the free Celestial Seasonings tea factory tour, which was absolutely delightful. They have a special room for all the mint so the smell doesn’t infect everything else. We walked around part of downtown Boulder and its funky shopping vibe. Then we drove on to Denver, less than an hour away, and checked into our airbnb room.
We had a nice night out in Denver. Earlier in the day we were talking about how we were a little bummed to be missing actions for the Climate Strike, so imagine our joy in stumbling upon an action as we were exploring the State Capitol building (because we are government nerds) while waiting for dinner. Some activists were displaying messages like “no planet B” and “stop ecotrocity” on the building. We talked to them a bit and learned fracking is a huge problem in Colorado, and the state preempts municipalities from banning their own single use plastics. After dinner we switched gears and checked out Denver Oktoberfest, where we witnessed a funny beer-holding competition, keg bowling, and a silent disco, and also made some new friends.
The next day we explored Denver some more including a City Park, the Botanical Gardens, and a riverfront park. We met up with my friend Cathy and met her new baby Quinn at a bar, which was really nice even though it was a short visit. That night we had tickets to see a concert at Red Rocks, which had been on my bucket list for a while even though I’d already seen the theater during the day. The band was The Revivalists with Anderson East, a bluesy New Orleans-style rock experience. It was lots of fun, filled with tailgating, walking up a huge hill, awesome sound quality, and eventually a little too much rain for our comfort level.
Our final day before our Sunday night redeye flight home included some more Denver exploring, including brunch, downtown, eating and drinking copiously, and using electric scooters. We fit in a half-day trip to Colorado Springs an hour and a half drive away to check out Garden of the Gods, a rock cropping park with short trails where I had been before when I first visited Cathy. It’s one of my favorite places, filled with lots of great photo ops and fun illicit climbing opportunities. I was really glad we squeezed it in! Taking the red eye home was memorably bad due to fatigue and flight delays, but we made it and overall had a great trip together!
travels.of.tara 