Boulder & Denver

Imagine it is December 4th (cause that’s when I wrote this).

Since my last post, Eric and I have mostly been hanging around Boulder/Denver Colorado area. I’ll catch everyone from where I left off. Our last night in Taos we camped at the parking lot for a backcountry ski area. The next morning, before we could start our 1.7 mile trek to Williams Lake, we had to attach (and trim) our ski skins. Luckily this turned out to be pretty easy so we were on our way. I for one thoroughly enjoyed our first backcountry ski experience, Eric definitely preferred the downhill part.

After our morning excursion we headed to Colorado. That night we stayed at a motel in Pueblo, mostly so we could shower and do laundry. The next day we headed to Boulder/Denver and went to a few towns that Eric is considering for Engineering school. After some driving we hit up a few parks and took the dogs on a little walk.

One of Eric’s buddies, from his time as EOD, now lives in Erie (right outside of Boulder/Denver), so we meet up with him and his girlfriend to have dinner. They were very kind to let us stay in their guest room for the proceeding few days.

During our time in Denver/Boulder we went on a hike to the first Flatiron, the giant slanted and pointy rock. It was going to be a climb, but the rock was a bit too frigid for us. That’s the second time this trip the cold has beaten us back from climbing. Scot and Jamie (our hosts) went skiing with us up in Breckinridge on Friday. They introduced us to a little pizza place in Idaho Springs called Bijous, where the crust of the pizza is drizzled in honey after you’ve eaten your pizza slice.

Saturday, Eric had a tattoo appointment scheduled with Gordan Combs in Denver. Originally he was getting a snail on his arm and then it turned into a giant perched eagle on his leg. So with this fresh wound on his leg we’re not skiing for the next few days. Which is why we headed out to go camping for a little bit.

However, like most of our plans, we didn’t end up camping where we thought there was an open camp site. Turns out there is very little winter camping available in Colorado. Somehow we ended up at Eldora Ski Resort. Stayed the night and I skied the next day for a grand total of 2 runs, before deciding it was far too cold for me and hardly anything was even open. With Eric not skiing he retreated to the Lodge to use their wifi and find an open campsite. We found and area to go to so headed out.

We went through a part of Colorado that must have been on Indian territory because it was a mountain town built on giant casino hotels. We finally got to a Ranger station in the area we were looking to camp and were pointed to Lake Granby. We’ve now decided to just visit the Ranger station in whatever area we’re in to ask about self-contained overnight camping or parking.

Since yesterday we have been at Lake Granby enjoying the beautiful water and magical winter wonderland. However, with the cold we decided we really should invest in a down comforter, ASAP. When Eric’s tattoo heals enough for him to put on his ski boots we’ll be back in the mountains. Also, for all those who are worried about snow, we got some very sturdy snow chains for our 4×4 Sprinter Van.

p.s. The dogs are doing great, they quite enjoy frolicking in the snow. They especially enjoyed getting to play with a dog friend at Eric’s buddies house.