Durango

Our last stop on the trip was Durango. Before going there, we actually made a detour to find a repair place for the car that would see us on a Saturday. All the driving through the mountains was taking its tole on our little car and Keeper thought we should have the breaks looked at after what happened in Black Canyon. Luckily, a nice place in Cortez was open and they only charged $10.00 to look at the car. No problems were found so we headed east to Durango.

After our night of luxury we were leary of staying in a KOA but the reservation had already been booked and paid for. We saved money on this trip by camping & staying in free and/or cheap places for more than half of the nights. I was glad we booked a cabin at this KOA because I just didn't think I could do another night in the tent. The KOA was really cute. We had a little one-room log cabin that had a double bed and a set of bunk beds. It had a little porch, a picnic table and a fire pit. We were really close to the bathrooms/showers/laundry room too. The cabins have electriciy, heating and air conditioning and ceiling fans so although we slept in our sleeping bags, we still had the comfort of modern amenities. The KOA had a pool, dog park, store, and the owners planned nightly summer activities like movies, sundaes, etc. It was really cute. After unpacking we headed into town.

Durango was cute but very tourist-y. Lots of cheesey souvinier shops and restaurants. The big thing to do there is take your kids and ride the train from Durango to Silverton. We did not take the train ride. There are also tons of places to go white water rafting. We walked around the whole town and found....another brewery. By the 10th day of our road trip, I was tired and looking for a place we could just chill out for a few hours. We really didn't do anything that exciting in Durango other than have a few beers, head back to our cabin and have a little cookout. I do have more pictures of Durango but they aren't developed yet and who knows if they'll actually turn out...

Telluride

Off. The. Hook.

Telluride was freaking crazy. The drive there through the mountains was gorgeous. We stayed at the Mountain Village Resort which is actually a resort so big, it's considered a small town. We drove into the gated "community", past the golf course, fire station, post office, etc. and checked into the lodge. Keeper had found some ridiculous deal on Travelocity.com and we certainly lucked out. For less than we paid for a crappy room in a Boulder hotel, we got a one bedroom suite at this amazing resort. We had a living room, dining room, full kitchen with stainless steel appliances, deck, and a king size bed and full bath. The resort had all sorts of different condos and lodges but the "marketplace" was equipped with a full gourmet grocery store (and liquor store).

We parked our car and rode the gondolas all over the rest of the time we were there. There were gondola stops at other places within our resort that consisted of not only lodges and condos but restaurants, retail stores, coffee shops, bars, you-name-it. There were ponds and playgrounds and rock climbing walls for kids. Everything you could ever want to do on vacation was located within this resort. Which isn't technically considered Telluride.

Then we rode the gondola further into the actual town of Telluride. It was a Friday afternoon so there was a weekly farmer's market going on. The town looks like any other Colorado mountain town except everything is upscale. Spas, salons, stores, restaurants, bars were all riduculously priced. Everyone was riding bikes or the gondola (and putting there dogs on the gondolas too) so there weren't many cars driving around town. We gave ourselves a walking tour, found a brewery/bar, and claimed Telluride to be completely ridiculous and can't even imagine how crazy it gets during ski season!

We loved the night we spent here. We tasted some great beer, rode the gondolas (met some nice southerners in the gondola), and cooked steak in our suite for dinner that night. I have never stayed at a nicer place than the Mountain Lodge. We would have loved to stay in Telluride for a week to really hike and explore the area...but we were content with our one night of luxury :)

Unfortunately due to our crappy disposable cameras I have 2 pictures that actually turned out from Telluride. This one is a black and white taken while riding the gondola...and it's crappy. But Keeper looks good in the top picture at the brewery/bar that had booths fashioned from old ski lifts :)

Black Canyon

We left Breckenridge Thursday morning and headed south and west... to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. We stopped at Curecanti National Recreation Area and had a picnic lunch, then drove on to the south entrance of the park. We found our campsite, pitched our tent, and hit up the main visitor center. All we had was our crappy disposable camera but we stopped and took pictures at most of the lookout points on the South Rim.

It was my bright idea to drive down to the bottom (East Portal) and get a good look at the dam. Keeper's little car is a fine automobile. But it was not meant for driving down a canyon. The road was paved, yes, but very very very steep. We made it to the bottom and noticed a funny smell. Keeper popped the hood and smoke came out. Uh-oh. After some quick pictures, we drove back out of the canyon, the whole time I'm saying, "please God, just let us get back to the top" over and over in my head. I imagined us being stranded and having to walk miles to a ranger station (no cell phone service in this wilderness). We made it out and went back to our campsite.




We decided to be nerds and go to the park activity scheduled for Thursday night after dinner: a 9pm Astronomy Lecture. We met in the park's ampitheater with just about everyone else that was spending the night. We were treated to a general astronomy lecture (sounds boring but was quite interesting to nerds like us) by a public school teacher from Florida (which may be almost as a bad as Arizona when it comes to public schools) who was spending his month of July being the Astronomy speaker at the park every Thursday night. After the lecture, it was nice and dark and we hiked up to a parking lot where 2 rangers and one member from the local astronomy club had set up 3 super-hi-tech telescopes. We had another half hour "constellation tour" by another ranger (so cool) and then we got to look through the telescopes. We saw a globular cluster, Saturn, and Jupiter + four of its moons. So. Freaking. Cool. Black Canyon is one of the best places in the United States to view stars so we really lucked out.

I did not get much sleep that night because of the scurrying rodents/wildlife who kept exploring our plastic tarp on the edges of our tent all night. They make a lot of noise for such little creatures!

We woke up Friday morning and hiked the 3 short trails on the South Rim: Rim Rock Trail, Oak Flat Trail, and Uplands Trail. The weather was much hotter and we were pretty gross even after such short hikes. We drove west and stopped in Montrose (very cute town) for a coffee and then south on the San Juan Skyway to Telluride.

Breckenridge

After our camping/thunderstorm experience in RMNP, we were happy to be headed to luxury for 2 nights in Breckenridge. When we first decided upon Colorado for our summer trip, I messaged a bunch of friends from college and high school who now live in Colorado and asked them for suggestions for our trip. One of my sorority sisters not only gave me a list of things to do, she said her family had a condo in Breckenridge that they use on weekends, so if we were able to swing by during the week it was ours to use! Score!

Keeper and I drove down route 9 into Breckenridge on Tuesday. We unpacked and had the chance to shower (after 2 days it was much needed!), do laundry (smelly camping/hiking clothes), and head into town to stock up on food. The best part about staying in this condo was location. It was a short walk into the main part of town and we didn't have to drive anywhere! We picked up some things for dinner and decided to use the kitchen to cook in the next 2 nights.


Breckenridge was alive with summer tourists and the town is really cute. Tuesday afternoon/evening we really were tired and just chilled out. Wednesday morning I got up to run. I ran into town and hopped on the recreation/bike trail. Even though we'd been at high altitudes since the Friday before, running is a different story. That run kicked my ass! The first half felt nice and smooth until I realized it was slightly downhill the whole time. The 2nd half (going back into town) was another story. I seriously thought I'd have to call Keeper to come pick me up. I was dizzy, lightheaded, and my feet/legs felt like lead weights. Ugggh. After I showered and ate breakfast, we decided to explore the town on foot. We walked all around and got some lunch at a neat little Thai place. In the early evening we went to a brewery for some beer (if last summer in Sonoma was the "wine" trip this summer was definitely the "beer" trip). We walked home to make a pasta dinner, took some pictures, and then our camera decided to die... after an early night I decided to call Canon's customer service on Thursday morning. Unlike the problem we had with the camera earlier in the summer, this one would not be fixed for free. We sucked it up and bought some disposable cameras for the rest of our trip and the pictures definitely suffered. Oh well.

RMNP

After a night/morning in Boulder we headed up to Estes Park and into Rocky Mountain National Park. I don't have to say much about the 2 nights/3 days we spent here except that I think it's pretty much the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I am so in awe of the Rockies!



We pitched our tent in Moraine Campground, met our camping neighbors (a very sweet family of 4 from Iowa...or Idaho...never been to either place; I could be mixed up), and drove to Bear Lake Trailhead. We waited out a storm, then decided to do an easy hike since it was already after 2pm. We chose Bear Lake to Bierstadt Lake. It wasn't strenuous and was a little over 4 miles round trip. Beautiful.

Monday morning was our "hardcore" hiking day. We drove up to Glacier Gorge Trailhead but the small parking lot was already full at 8am so we drove further up to Bear Lake again to park. We hiked from Bear Lake until we met up with the Glacier Gorge Trail. We took the Glacier Gorge Trail past Alberta Falls, the Loch, Timberline Falls, Lake of Glass, and finally reached the top/end at Sky Pond. We hiked through several parts of the trail that were snow and ice.


The snow was melting heavily by Timberline Falls so they were very treacherous. The "trail" is the rocks lining the falls. We took a good 20 minutes debating whether or not it was safe enough to get up and whether or not we could make it. After seeing some people come back down in not so sturdy shoes, while others seemed older and less in shape than us, we figured we go for it. I have never been so scared before. We scaled up the rocks in the waterfall and pushed upward on the trail to Lake of Glass. Once there, we continued up the rocky trail to the very top; Sky Pond. So. Worth. It.


The most beautiful, serene place I have ever seen was Sky Pond. We were treated to a group of 3 or 4 elk feeding up there as well. I couldn't fully enjoy the beauty because I was SO nervous about how we were going to get back down the trail/waterfall. So we left after only a few minutes considering the dangerous trail and the fact that it was lunchtime and we knew we were in for afternoon storms. We made it down the falls and found a place to eat our lunch then we headed down the rest of the trail. We got caught in a massive thunder/hail storm at the end of the hike. Not fun! We made it back to our car and figured we had hiked close to 10 miles.

Needless to say, we were very sore and tired after that. We drove into the town of Estes Park for a much needed beer, then relaxed at our campsite for the evening. We were bombarded with a night of thunderstorms. It stormed while we were cooking dinner, it stormed again right before we went to bed, and then I woke up to wind/thunder/rain pretty much every 2 hours throughout the night. The wind really whipped through Moraine Valley and it felt/sounded like our tent was going to blow away. Not fun!

Tuesday morning, we broke camp and drove up Trail Ridge Road to exit the park on the west side. We stopped at every overlook and were in awe by the views. We got up to the tundra and saw a herd of elk of about 50 or 60. I have never seen so many animals together in my life. We saw a herd (smaller) very close to the road and took some very neat up-close pictures. We stopped at the Alpine Visitor Center for a quick view check and I had to put on 2 sweatshirts it was so cold up there! The road down the west side of the park was very steep and slow (RVs kind of assed it up). It was also under construction most of the way and unpaved. We finally made it out of the park at Grand Lake and headed south to Breckenridge...

Garden of the Gods & Boulder

Our 2nd day of the road trip was spent driving up through Colorado Springs to Boulder. We left mid-morning after spending some time at the Plaza in Santa Fe. The drive through northern New Mexico was pretty although the population is sparse. We passed many farms and ranches and that's about it.

We finally found the road through Garden of the Gods (after a detour through Manitou Springs...interesting town; lots of hippies and dogs) and drove through during a massive thunderstorm. Because the lightning was so intense we did not stop to hike but drove through and took pictures. They sky and red rocks were pretty amazing even though they were viewed through a car. We did have a deer run in front of our car at one point but that was the wildlife highlight of the day.

After Garden of the Gods we made our way past Denver and up to Boulder. We drove around the town and found a hotel that was nicer than a La Quinta, but way overpriced for what it was. We opted for a late dinner of burgers and beer at Southern Sun Brewery and were not disappointed. The pictures of the beer make us look like raging alcoholics but they were small (4 oz or less) tasting glasses (I swear). Sunday morning after checking out of our hotel we explored Pearl Street. We had coffee, hit up the Boulder Bookstore for a Colorado hiking book and people watched... there was much to keep us entertained...

Santa Fe

Keeper and I just got back a few days ago from our summer "adventure". We've decided to explore a different western state each summer that we live out here since we don't see ourselves staying after medical school is over. Last summer was California. We had a weekend in early June in San Diego for my marathon, then almost 2 weeks in late July/early August with Keeper's family. We saw Corrizo Plains National Monument, Big Sur, San Francisco, and had a week in Sonoma. This year, we planned for Colorado.

The first leg of our trip was over a 7 hour drive from Phoenix to Santa Fe. We had to wait until late Friday afternoon to leave because Keeper had his last final at 2pm. We did get stuck in some traffic on the I-17 just north of Phoenix (big surprise, especially on a Friday afternoon when everyone is trying to get the hell out of dodge and up to Flag for the weekend). Keeper drove through the eastern part of AZ while I watched the lightening illuminate the sky. We went through some pretty intense storms! We got to our hotel outside Santa Fe very late at night (probably around 1am).

We had the luxury of going downtown on Saturday morning and were treated to absolutely beautiful weather (breezy, no humidity!). We spent the morning exploring the plaza and I finally found a turquoise pendant at the outdoor "market" where local Native American artists were selling handmade jewelry. Santa Fe had tons of art galleries and we'd love to go back sometime for a weekend and stay downtown in one of the bed and breakfasts (not a sketchy La Quinta off the interstate).

East Coast Trip Part 3

After returning from North Carolina, I headed up to Macungie for most of the next week. I stayed with J & A and the little BB. J got to go to work in the morning and Mom got a break for the week. We even got to visit Keeper's cousins and their kids in NJ one afternoon. I was happy to play with the little guy for an extended period of time and I even got to meet up with one of my best Lehigh friends for dinner one night.

We headed back to York on July 2nd so that I could pick Keeper up from the airport that night. He flew in to spend the long weekend with my family. We had a HUGE family picnic on Saturday and were treated to cool and breezy weather. It was so great to see everyone!

My last few days were spent relaxing at home. Everyone went back to work so I had some time to sleep in, run the country roads/rail trail and spend time with my parents. It was a very relaxing break and I couldn't have asked for better weather.

East Coast Trip Part 2: OBX

My aunt & uncle (and cousins) were kind enough to invite us to share their beach house in the Outer Banks (Whalehead) the second week I was home. Mom, Joy, and I went down Tuesday morning and came home Saturday night. We had a very relaxing few days. I spent the time running, reading, swimming and enjoying my family. Our house was across the street from the beach so we had easy access. I couldn't have asked for a better few days!