Mom and Dad come to Visit

In the middle of October, the parents came out to visit and have some high mountain fun. The trip would be the standard Colorado tour, including lots of eating, rock climbing, elk spotting, snow storms, high plains drifting, and hanging out at 14,000 ft.

We started off the trip with having a huge meal at the omelet parlor. The parlor is an old house owned by a 1920’s actress that has been converted to a restaurant . All of her old trinkets are still throughout the house, which is supplemented with massive portions of food.

After eating and dealing with the food coma, we tore off up to Estes park. Along the way, I showed my parents the Cabelas of Liquor, “Tipsy’s Liquor World”. Both of their eyes instantly lit up. We grabbed a couple of bottles and continued on our way.

Estes Park is a small town known for it rutting elk. Its is right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park and is surrounded by several massively impressive mountains. Right before entering the park, we were greeted by a large bull elk and his harem. They were some of the laziest elk I’ve seen, but impressive none the less.

While driving through the park, they had just closed the alpine vistor’s center, so my plan to take the old dirt back road was nixed. We cruised around the low elevations looking for animals and trout. A large storm had rolled in and was socking in the peaks. We traveled up to Bear Lake (Alpine Lake), and were treated with a fast and steady snow storm.

After cruising around the lake we headed down to the meadows to listen to the bugling elk. One elk in particular, was mobbed by tourists on the way out of the park. After leaving, we swung back to Boulder and dropped off the liquor for “Ben and Amanda.”

The next morning, we did the tour of Boulder’s Pearl Street. Looking at the different shops, some of which were highly herbal focused. We also had a fancy Boulder-ite breakfast with square plates and water from wine bottles.

From there we left and took a drive through Eldo canyon, before taking the high plains drive. We left the Denver area and took the road to the high pains, where we crossed the famous “Insert Pass”, where for years it was used to access the deep west. We spilled out on to the park county plains then drove through Fairplay (South Park) and Alma (highest town in the USA). We stopped at the top of Hoosier Pass and did some Blazer four wheeling. Again there was a storm rolling in, giving us some really cool views. Afterwards we did some quick fly fishing in the small pound below the pass.

The next day, we set off for the cog-railway ride up to the summit of Pikes Peak. We stopped by Jimmy’s cabin first making sure his cat was still alive, while he was traveling. We loaded on to the cog and got a seat near the front. On the way, we saw lots of trees and rocks, some marmots and big horn sheep. We got to the top an it was a balmy 15-20 degrees with a nice coating of snow. We did the standard cliff poses and quickly rush the parents around the top of the mountain, making sure the got all the cool pictures and good views. It will pretty chilly at the top but that didn’t stop them from trying to throw each over off the top of a 14,000ft mountain. We headed back down and caught a quick glimpse of a mountain lions running across the tundra.

It was great trip and I’m glad the weather held out for them. I think it also gave them a good feel for the mountains adventures.

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