The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park Elevation 7,522

Not too much to say on this one over the photos, it was a long day and we were exhausted haha. Thankfully on this drive, Adam drove so I was able to be the photographer along the road. I will never be able to get over seeing snow on the mountains when it's so hot outside. I feel as if I could reach out and touch it while we're driving.

 

Upon getting into Estes Park, we saw a ton of different hiking trails that looked like adventures all their own, so don't fret, there will be more posts of adventures here.

The Stanley Hotel was absolutely beautiful! Talk about 'grand'. It was so much fun wandering the grounds and checking out all it had to offer. In the front room there were old antique cars, and this absolutely breath taking piano. Stephen King's 1990s version of The Shining took place here, and even the feel of the place makes you feel a chill up your spine. We walked around and then got a beer in the grand ballroom, which was quaint but still nice. 

 

 

And of course, the beautiful mountains on the way back to Boulder.

 

Iron Mountain Hot Springs, Glenwood Elevation 5,761

During this drive of 170 miles each way, Colorado showed us a slice of how colorful she truly is. The drive was about 2.7 hours, & the entire way there were so many types of mountains. From the snow caps, to the plateaus, to canyon walls, we saw the gradient that mother nature has to offer. Sometimes there were evergreens taller than tall, and other times the mountains look like those that you see in the cartoons of your childhood. In only a couple hours we were able to see several different landscapes each astounding us more and more.

 

Ah Vail...Vail was...underwhelming. When you hear people talk about Colorado back east you hear many things about Vail. It is pretty, don't get me wrong, but when you know that places like Estes Park, Telluride, and Crested Butte exist, it no longer excites you like other people make it seem. However, we did find it absolutely necessary to take another stop to take some pictures.

There's a thing that you'll hear natives say after you've gushed about how beautiful the mountains are for far too long, and that is "yeah but after awhile it's just like "oh...there's another mountain...cool..."." After that long in the car, you start to understand. At least until the point that you go through "just another tunnel, just like the last 5" and you let out into an ancient riverbed that has carved steep cliffs over great lengths of time through the rocky mountain. Yes, you noticed i'm using very colorful language to describe a canyon. You're all probably like "yo, i've seen a canyon, its a canyon." But when you can't even capture the cliffs in one single frame without using the windshield, window, AND sunroof, then they deserve that kind of descriptive language.

Upon entering Glenwood, you are driving along these huge mountain walls, carved out by the Colorado River, which is merrily rushing along next to you. Iron Mountain is like a secret, it is tucked back away from the big resorty Glenwood Springs. Iron Mountain was set directly on the Colorado River, and offered you this outstanding panoramic view of the surrounding mountains. The view alone was well worth the drive. The water was nice & hot, as promised, and we enjoyed some delicious beverages while we sat back, and took in the magic all around us.

Lookout Mountain & Red Rocks Morrison Elevation: 7,379 & 6,435 feet

H-SO! Today started out, let's call it "stressful". But after dealing with adult things, we decided we needed to get into nature. Unfortunately, Joe had to work today, so we kept it to a simpler day. Both of these locations are A) very close to one another & B) only about 40 minutes away from our home.

Lookout Mountain - for those back home, think of Bake Oven Knob, but instead of rolling farmland, it's mountains as far as the eye can see. Rolling from grass, trees, to snow caps. The hike up only took about 20 minutes, so it was quick, a nice little incline to make us sweat. Very much so a beginner trail though, so if you want something more challenging, there are way more trails to check out. What felt amazing was the feeling of "I am in nature, and it is beautiful. This world can pack so much into a small space, using mountains and hills and foliage to decorate itself, and oh, what an artist she is. Looking out at the mountains, seeing them disappear into clouds is awe inspiring. To think, if we dropped everything at this very moment, and trekked across those mountains, all of the Rocky Mountains, we would barely get through any of it before our time on this planet expired. But oh, to lose ourselves through their ridges and cliffs would be an awfully big adventure.

Red Rocks - you've all heard of it I'm sure, the infamous amphitheater of old (*cough* trading post *cough*) we decided to stop because there was a sign for Geological point of interest, and Josh loves his stones so why the heck not? While we were able to score some shots outside, the actual theater was closed due to a concert that evening. But! The views were still incredible & much appreciated by us.

 

J-OKAY so yeah...I took my precious time writing this. These mountains may be big, pointy, and powerful but even their power cannot cure my procrastination. For such a short hike and a simple day the views we saw were worth it nearly 4x over. When we reached the lookout's...well...lookout point I couldn't help but see the Great Valley from the Land Before Time. It wouldn't be hard to imagine sharptooths just roaming around those hills.

I could only imagine that was exactly the thing on this guys mind as he gazed into the hills. Just imagining Petri, Sarah, Littlefoot, and Spike on their adventures with the last tree-star. Yeah probably not but what a way to spend a break from work or a 40 minute adventure for the day. I appreciate you stranger for your appreciation of the view, and thank you for being you and letting me capture this.

And then came the rocks that are red and magnificent...and a random point of geological interest with a view. I'm darn near ashamed to say that I have yet to see a show at Red Rocks, but when I do, I imagine it will be everything I ever dreamed it to be. Driving up on them it looks like a huge force attempted to launch these boulders out of the ground and towards the sky but came up just a tad short.

Everything seemed to be getting set up for a show, meanwhile we 3 transplants just wandered and wondered at the rocks whilst everyone else went about their respective businesses. Oh yeah, and heres Denver, that's how close this little mountain paradise was. 

DAS REISE (The Journey) Distance:1,717.5 miles

     And just as the settlers of the 19th century headed westward believing it was inevitable and justified, so did we. Ok so granted, we didn't do it to gut the resources of our country and move native peoples out of their lands, but to us this was indeed inevitable. There comes a time in your life, in everyones life, when you start to realize that you need a change in some aspect of your life. Some people plan it out carefully and execute it...well I guess most people. Others realize it, keep living their lives knowing fully that something's gotta give, something's gotta change, and then one day wake up, and do it. Our story is a little bit of both.

     I want to start this blog post when we started our actual 3 day trek across the U.S. Throughout time we will weeble and wobble to the past and future, but this is where i'm deciding to start telling my experience. This part is a story of sanity and comfort. The best way to describe the journey would be to teach you a simple mantra for each day.

Day One: I am strong, I am comfortable, I am caffeinated. For our first day, we ended up driving 16+ hours. How you might ask? Too soon...too soon. So when you google the distance between lets say, southeast PA to Denver Colorado, it will tell you it takes 25 hours, almost exactly. This is when your comfortable trust and admiration for google begins to diminish. You wont feel it just yet, but trust me, you will. Now think about if you're planning on bringing actual human artifacts, you'll need a U-haul. (don't even call Pods, trust me, you'll just end up getting drunk about it that night and laughing yourself silly). Go ahead, please actually for the love of GOD read your drivers manual and see how fast you can go whilst dragging your belongings behind you. And then, remember that we live in 2017 and many highways that lead you out west have a speed limit of 75 mph.

    I cant even begin to describe to you what happens to your psyche when you see your ETA consistently extend even while traveling. Let alone when it doubles as soon as you have to pee. All I'm gonna say is it is rough, and bring a friend. A VERY good friend.

Day Two: Sleep is life, caffeine is God, don't push yourself, Kansas is pretty. That last one was sarcasm, and I am allowed to speak of Kansas in such way because my mother is from there. And okay, yes, Kansas is kinda cool...when you've grown up in pa. Its just hilly and...well..thats about it. But it is long, exactly 400 miles long, which is why you need to keep affirming to yourself, even if it is a dirty filthy lie, that KANSAS...IS...PRETTY! For one, make sure you sleep plenty the first night. If anything, don't drive 16 hours. Just don't do it. Which brings me to "don't push yourself." On our second night we ended up picking a new hotel for the second night because we were just too exhausted to drive any longer. (probably because we didn't get enough sleep *cough**cough*). So if anything have multiple places to stop on the second day, don't be too hellbent Hannah on being an anal Allison.

Day Three: Steak N' Shake doesn't last forever, caffeine is now a diety, how doth one geography. As in traditional fashion, I will begin by addressing these from back to forth. You can now see the state line fast approaching like a great reward, the promised land awaits you.  MOUNTAINS DO EXIST. The second you cross that state line, you still have two hours to go. TWO HOURS. Do not over excite yourself with the state line. The mountains will come. You are not crazy, and they do exist.  You probably now understand the true unwavering power of caffeine. My suggestion are the Bai drinks. (just so you don't have an espresso episode every two hours.) And finally but most certainly not leastly, Steak N' Shake only lasts for so long, soak it up. If you've never had it before, then it may take a few tries to understand its beauty. Go inside, sit down, and soak it all up, and APPRECIATE IT DAMN IT!

Getting here: a biiit of a headache. We went came straight to the apartment, went into the leasing office, AFTER CALLING AHEAD, and were told "oh I can't find your file." then the girl walked around a couple times, came back and said "yeah sorry, I can't find it. You can come back tomorrow when Jessica is in." To which Hannah said "we just drove here from Pennsylvania" (not very nicely, I mean the girl was quite cranky by the end of the drive). & FINALLY then we got the girls key. AND IT DIDN'T WORK. But then we got the janitor ring of master keys and finally got into our new apartment. & it has been absolutely incredible. (Will post photos at a later date)

Diamond Lake - Nederland, attempt 1. Elevation - 10,940 feet

Hello all! 

In order to keep everyone as updated as possible, we have decided to create a travel journal. 

(Ok, ok. It's a BLOG. But, we bought the domain so we're calling it a journal gosh darn it!)

Our first hike attempt was Diamond Lake, in Nederland. It's about 30 minutes past Boulder, & what a beautiful drive it was. Finally taking the guys through the actual mountains instead of just staring longingly at the mountain range on the skyline.

Driving up to the trail head was...terrifying. Now I know Colorado is all about dirt roads, but ooooh my goodness did we get a crash course on them. Winding up the mountain to the trail head there's the road you're driving on, and then a cliff. Oh, it's also a 2 lane road by SOME miracle. So you have to smash your car so far towards the rock wall to get around each other. Let's just say it took us a while to get up. Once up, it was beautiful.  & it was cold, which made me SO happy. The sky was overcast with a thunderstorm, but we decided to keep going. After about 15 minutes of hiking though, we unfortunately had to turn around. The path we were on was a flood trap with streams and such running under it and alongside. Not to mention the thought of driving down the mountain on that non-road in a downpour was a bit scary.

I wasn't going to write a post about this trip, since we barely got into it, but it still counts as the first time we were able to get out into the mountains & get a taste of what Colorado has to offer. Here are some photos Josh & I were able to snag.

One of the memorable moments for me was there was this noise, almost like wind gushing against your ear when it's clogged, and we couldn't identify it until we went further up the mountain. Then BAM through the trees, there's this absolutely beautiful waterfall across the way on the opposing mountain. The sound we were hearing was water crashing hundreds of feet down.

In that moment, I realized I want to chase some waterfalls. I cannot stick to the rivers & the lakes I am used to.