Steamboat Springs

As we left Rocky Mountain National Park we only had one thing on our minds… showers! So, we headed to the lovely town of Steamboat Springs, Co. and managed to secure a decent room at a downtown motel. Ah, to be clean again! (See, there were no shower facilities within the park, so we were rather ripe after four shower free days.) Once we were settled in and clean we had some dinner a decent Italian restaurant, and went back to our hotel room to be lazy couch potatoes and indulge in the Daily Show.

For the majority of the day on Friday and again on Saturday morning we hunkered down in a nice internet café, so Kimbal could do some more job searching and applying. While Kimbal was dutifully applying to jobs, I read and did a little bit of window shopping. And I have to say that a few hours in I started to get antsy, and was wishing that I could apply to some jobs myself, but all in due time.

We did manage to have a bit of fun in Steamboat too. On Friday evening we went to a very nice natural hot springs. Supposedly it’s clothing optional, but everyone there was well behaved, and clothed. It was beautiful, relaxing, and very hot! We had to keep working our way down to the cooler pools because we just couldn’t take the heat. Also, Kimbal and I were already really relaxed, I mean we’ve been on vacation for over two months now, so we didn’t stay at the springs for too incredibly long because relaxing soon turned into boring. On the way out, we passed a few coyotes on the side of the road.

Saturday afternoon it was really hot so we decided it was time cool off with a tube ride down the Yampa River. The tube ride was pretty decent, with some fun abrupt 2 ft drops. It was a great way to spend a hot afternoon. That evening we decided to do something cultural, and went to the rodeo! It was my first rodeo, and I didn’t know much about them before we went, but Kimbal filled me in, since he had been to a few at the Cow Palace in the Bay Area when he was a kid. It was a really great time… I especially enjoyed the barrel racing, and, of course the bull and bareback riders were very exciting to watch. Really, the real talent at the rodeo are the guys that distract the bull after the rider has fallen off. Man, that’s a scary job. I do wish that the announcer had kept his republican propaganda to himself. Talk about alienating people, geeze. We were there to see the rodeo, not to be converted into republicans. Even with all of his bull crap, we still managed to have a great time.

Rocky Mountains

After Jeff’s, we stopped at the National Renewable Energy Lab before headed on to Rocky Mountain National Park. Due to 9-11 they no longer give tours (booo) and, from the looks of the public exhibits, they’re currently under-funded (I blame the current administration). Nevertheless, we did learn a few interesting thing about conserving energy.

We arrived at Rocky Mountain National Park and secured ourselves a campsite on the east side of the park. We did two good hikes on the east side of the park. On our first full day in the park we hiked in the bear lake region, and did a loop hike up to a number of alpine lakes. The hike was really beautiful, but on our way down it clouded up a bit and before we knew it there was thunder rumbling in the sky. Luckily, by the time it started raining we were back below the tree line. Here’s some pics from this hike:

On our second morning in the park we hiked up to the peak of Deer Mountain. We hiked pretty quickly, and it felt great to really get our blood moving. The top of the mountain was in the clouds, so no view, but nevertheless, it was a great hike.
After our morning hike we hopped in the car and headed west over the mountain pass that is the highest paved road in the lower 48 states. We stopped near the top to do a short hike and take some photos. The air sure was thin, and the mountains sure were gorgeous. We saw some elk, marmots, pikas, and some other unidentified small rodents on our second hike of the day.
Once we got to the west side of the park we got a great campsite that overlooked a stream and meadow. To round out the day we did one more short hike along the headwaters of the Colorado River. Back at the campground that evening, and again the next morning we were serenaded by elk calls. Their calls were really beautiful, haunting even, like a really high pitched brass horn, or something. We ended our stay in the park with a long hike up to Granite Falls. The falls were really beautiful, and the rest of the hike was pretty picturesque too. Unfortunately, the west side of the park is very mosquito infested, and boy, do they love Kimbal. So, we didn’t really take time to enjoy the scenery. Luckily, there weren’t too many mosquitoes right by the falls, but we really scurried the rest of the hike. I think it was the fastest that we have ever hiked, 13.4 miles in just over 4 hours, including our lunch stop.

Boulder

Kimbal and I spent the past weekend in Boulder visiting Jeff, my friend from Tufts. Boulder is a really cool (and liberal) town and it was really great to spend some time with Jeff. Friday night was Jeff’s birthday, so we went out in downtown Boulder to celebrate. We started off the night meeting up with a bunch of Jeff’s friends for some happy hour drinks and dinner. Jeff’s friends were all super fun and really nice, which, if you know Jeff, is no big surprise. And, we ended the night on a relaxing roof top bar on Pearl Street (more or less the Faneuil Hall of Boulder).

On Saturday, Kimbal and I were a little under the weather. As it turns out, drinking hits you more at altitude. So, we had a pretty relaxing day, but still managed to fit in a tour of the Celestial Seasons tea factory and a trip to REI.

Jeff showed us around town a bit more on Sunday. We took another trip to Pearl Street to do some window shopping, ate lunch at this really amazing tea house, and went climbing at an indoor bouldering gym. The climbing gym was fun, and I could do all of the beginner climbs no problem. However, I tried to do a climb rated a little harder (a beginner +) and I just could not do it. Kimbal and Jeff tried too, but they couldn’t do it either, it just took more upper body strength than we had. The people that were obviously regulars at the gym were really incredible! Their moves were so purposeful and graceful. It was really inspiring to watch them.

Overall, it was a really great weekend. Thanks Jeff!

Telluride & Ouray

After Mesa Verde, we finally left the desert and headed into the mountains. We spent the night in a campsite near Telluride, CO among aspen trees and with a great view of a couple of fourteeners right across the valley.

The next day we hiked up Lizard Head Trail, half of which was above tree line. On the way back we heard some unidentified rustling and growling sounds coming from amongst the trees on both sides while we were taking a short break, and decided it was probably time to keep moving. Later while we were watching “Planet Earth” we decided that the sounds were probably just some deer being vocal.

After the hike we headed over to Ouray, CO which was a cool little town nestled in among several steep mountains. The campsite we stayed in was on one of the slopes of the valley, and had no showers again, so we bought 3-day passes to the local hot springs. The town made some swimming pools of varying temperatures heated by the hot springs, complete with lap pool and water slides. They had showers too, and it was a great place to relax after hiking all day.

We went on several hikes, all of which were very cool especially since we were back in the mountains where there were some trees around.

Mesa Verde

We spent the next two days exploring Mesa Verde National Park… and it was really awesome. A lot of the park is not accessible to the general public because of the fragile state of many of the ruins (which I can understand) and other parts can only be seen if you go on a guided tour. Kimbal and I decided to go on two tours: the balcony house and the cliff palace tours. Our cliff palace tour was packed (well over 40 people on the tour) and you more or less walk around the outside of the cliff dwelling. It was still really cool, given that the dwelling is in such good condition (about 70% is untouched original) and its immense size! The guide said that the current theory is that the dwelling was more of an administrative center for the community (maybe where they store and distribute crops), rather than people’s homes.

The balcony house tour was really neat because we were able to walk throughout the dwelling and we were lucky to be in a small tour group (only 8 people). The tour required climbing up and down a bunch of ladders and stairs and squeezing through tight spaces:

Our guide also believed that this dwelling was not your normal cliff dwelling home, but, instead was a spiritual center where they observed the moon, which dictated the growing season. There were several circular depressions in the floor, and on the solstice the moon beam through a window outlines the depressions (or something to that effect). It was really, really cool. And, because the dwellings are in such good condition, with a little imagination, I could picture what the community must have been like.

We visited a few more cliff dwellings and pit houses that were open to the general public. They were ok, but nowhere near as cool as the guided tours. Our last stop in the park was a hike out to some well preserved petroglyphs, which archeologists think describe the migration of the native people from their entry into the world (through a mystical hole in the Grand Canyon) and their break-up into different tribes. My favorite was the goat tribe, shown in the photograph below.

More Moab

We continued our Moab adventures with a guided duckie (single inflatable kayaks) tour down the Fischers Tower section of the Colorado River. Overall, it was a pretty mellow day; however, there were a few sections of decent rapids (class 3). Kimbal is pretty at one with the water and gracefully executed all of the rapids. I, on the other hand, was not as confident and pretty excited/nervous for each of the rapids. I got through most of the rapids a-ok, but managed to take one dip in the river at the most challenging rapid, as you can see below.


The next day we rounded out our stay in Moab with a nice morning hike in Canyonlands National Park. The hike took us through some beautiful fields and to the rim of the canyon. It was really beautiful, and we were out there all by ourselves, which made it even more spectacular.

Moab

We started out our day by fueling up for our days activities with a yummy breakfast at Jailbirds. After breakfast, we went on a mountain bike tour up Klondike Bluffs…. and had a BLAST! There were only a few of us on the tour (Kimbal and I, one other couple, and a guide), which was nice. It was also nice that we went early in the morning, to beat the heat. I hadn’t been mountain bike riding in over 5 years, and I forgot how much fun it is. Fortunately, I did not forget my skills, and I totally rocked the rock! (The trail was mostly slick rock, with some dirt road portions) Kimbal did pretty darn good too, especially considering he dwarfed his rental bike. Also, dual suspension is great. I’d only ridden bikes with front shocks before, so that was a nice treat. Once we got to the top of the bluffs, we had a nice view of Arches national park. The temperature started rising on our way back to the truck, but luckily it was all down hill from there.




We attempted to escape the mid-day heat by sacking out in our motel room for a few hours. But, before it could cool off, I got antsy and wanted to do some more exploring, so I woke Kimbal up from his peaceful nap to go do the Arches scenic drive. The drive was good, and we stopped at a couple of places to hike out to various arches and balanced rocks. We probably would have hiked even more, but the temperature (105 F) and our grumbling stomachs held us back. We rounded out the day enjoying some air conditioning while having an indulgent meal of all you can eat pizza at Zax. Yum.