The journey started on Saturday where we picked up Pat & Garrett and headed from Denver to Thermopolis, WY. Wyoming had dinsoaurs, jackalopes, buffalos and cowboys perched alongside the highway to entertain us on our journey. Thermopolis is a small town with the world’s largest mineral hot spring (they proclaim this with white rocks on the hillside). After driving through town a few times lost, we finally found our campground where we’d pitch our tents in the median between two gravel roads. Classy camping (they had wifi and showers!). We quickly ate and headed over to the hotsprings and chose Starplunge! because it wasn’t in an enclosed igloo and it was open. The retro sign hinted at what was to come… To sum up the Star Plunge I can state the following, rickety, lack supervision, wild, sketchy, and fun. We retired for the night and fell asleep quickly
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.
The second season of elk hunting in Colorado proved to be a very frustrating one. Lots of walking, tons of old signs, and other frolicking animals. Continue reading “Hunting for Elk”
After Brewfest(around 8PM), we decided to camp for the night. So Dave led the drive into the Mountains to find somewhere to camp. We setup shop at the top of the cell-tower road overlooking the town of Ft. Collins. We hike several yards down into the woods and found a sweet spot. We immediately went to camp ‘readiness mode’. Dave setup the tents, the girls went about gathering a huge amount of firewood, and I “the master of fire” made of huge fire ring out of all the near by boulders. Within 15 Min’s camp was setup, a roaring fire was flickering about, and food was being cooked. We feasted, watched stars and passed out on a nice cool evening.
The next morning, we went to Vern’s Place for breakfast. Vern’s was an awesome restaurant. First of all, its first come first serve. There is no hostess to seat you. You have to rush and claim a table before someone else does. Secondly is the huge amount of stuffed dead animals on the wall. This look is exactly how I want my house to look like in the future. Third is the Vern’s Huge Famous Cinnamon rolls. These were the most delicious and ridiculous cinnamon rolls that I have ever eaten (sorry Dad, yours were semi-close). Each one was the size of a dinner plate. Vern’s Place looks like a hole in the wall from the 1930’s because it is and that’s what makes it awesome. It was built to support the workers constructing the nearby Horsetooth Reservoir.
After our pleasant breakfast, we took off to RMNP (Rocky Mountain Nation Park) because Dave and Katie, have never been. I suggested we do the quick driving tour of the park since it was Sunday and we eventually need to get back to COS. RMNP on the weekends is definably a tourist trap. Everyone is out to enjoy nature from the the comforts of their cars. Basically, RMNP allows people to see animals and majestic view with great ease.
On some of the pull overs, Dave and I came to the realization that it is great fun make other people’s mothers nervous. We did our best to be adventurous/bad influences to little kids that could only standby and watched us hop safety barriers, climbing on rock cliffs, and other sorts of tumultuous activities. It was great fun to hear the whispers of mothers saying to their kids, “now, don’t you ever, ever, ever do that.” But I think the kids saw how much more fun we were having and break their mothers wishes.
I also decided the traffic was becoming a problem on ridge road. So I built a snowman traffic cop in the center of the road to stop all the driving infractions. People seemed to not heed the snowman attempts at civil order, and instead decided to start taking picture with it. That snowman was terrible enforcing order.
RMNP is a great place to go if you want to check out what the Rocky Mtns are about, but only have a day to do so. Below are some more pictures from the trip.
