Hanging in the clouds at Pike's Peak

When you're freezing, standing in a cloud on a mountain peak and just learning how to selfie. LOL

I think it was a couple years back when we took this chilly trip up to Pike's Peak. The road to the summit was on the verge of being closed for the duration of the winter. It's not open year round. Likely because no snowplow driver in their right mind would ever....

It was still warm in the lower elevations and we had left our coats at home. So, Brrrrr.

I was, as usual, freaked out by the winding mountain road and sharp drop-offs. The road was wet and crumbling at the edges as well. Plus, we were, as mentioned, in a cloud. Literally, you guys. So, not only was there the usual scary road, but there was also low visibility. You have no idea how glad I was to reach the top of the mountain.

It was blustery up there!

Our little Hawaii girl was shivering madly!

The views off the peak were spectacular!

The clouds parted for a minute just for this shot. 

 

 

 

A little rock stacking on the way down.

Of course, when I was up there, so glad to have arrived, I wasn't thinking about the trip down. You guys, do not. Just do not traverse Pike's Peak on a cloudy day. It is scary as, well, that word I cannot say in my blog. I mean, seriously, I have a rough go of it on good days.

On the way down, we took a break in this little rock stacking cathedral area to ease my mind and so that Gary could have some peace. LOL 

I guess I don't have to tell you that I made it down alive. You know, I keep looking at these pics and thinking, "Wait. Was that Pike's Peak or Mt. Evans?" But the folder was labeled Pike's Peak so that's what I'm going with.

Besides, one scary as f*** mountain peak is the same as another, right?

WE MADE IT BACK ALIVE! That's all that really matters.

Eldorado Canyon – Majestic pine studded cliffs and tumbling water

Wow! Eldorado Canyon truly has it all, you guys. Huge rocks reaching up to the sky. Majestic pines. Rolling waters. And trails, from ultra-challenging to medium to mellow. Whichever you prefer, you'll find nature doing her best to entertain your eyes and dazzle your soul. In spring, the canyon is at its' most beautiful, with the bright green of new leaves contrasting with cliffs and streams.

Cheating! This was not at the canyon, but on the way, the clouds were so beautiful! I just had to show you!

Gary and I had picture perfect timing when we headed to this spectacular canyon in May of this year. In fact, the timing was so picture perfect that I ended up with 42 absolutely gorgeous shots. Of course, they won't all fit in this humble travel blog. Luckily, I have an artpage on Facebook, where you can check them all out, along with a whole lot of other fun pics from our travels. I'll be putting them up immediately after I post this blog.

This is the sight that greeted us when we stepped out of the car to begin our hike.

If you look really closely or zoom in, you can see climbers near the top of this baby. Ummm... nope. Not for me!

This trail leads up a steep slope. Definitely for the brave, athletic hiker.

This is the cliff at the top of the trail in the pic above. Whoa!

One of my favorite things about Colorado is the red tone in the rocks.

Just a fun experimental silhouette.

What can I say about this beautiful stream that you can't see for yourself?

I took several nice shots of this. Love the dead branch hanging over the mini falls.

Sun, water, rocks, trees, what's not to like?

I think this is one my faves. When I was a kid, I used to sit on rocks like this for hours.

Breathtaking cliffs are all around you as you traverse the main trail through the canyon.

Just a little piece of heavenly trail.

On our way back to the car, I snapped this back view of the first cliff. Look for those climbers again!

On our way home, I couldn't resist this shot!

So, there you go, folks. And I'm sure you're wondering where the shots of Gary and I hiking were. Let's just say we were having a decidedly UN-photogenic day, shall we? Yes, we'll leave it at that. You don't want to know. Ha ha ha See you next trip!

Ah, the reds and greens of Lory State Park

My favorite pic of the day.

If you ever get a chance to visit Lory State Park, do it! We went on a whim at the tail end of our Memorial Day this year. We had scooped up the two youngest grand-kids with the intention to take them swimming at Boyd Lake State Park, north of Loveland on I25. Which we did. Then, once we were done, we decided to keep cruising north to Lory.

Folks, you'll want to GPS it. Gary drove and I wasn't paying attention to anything but the scenery.

Horse-tooth out the window. Check out the mirror image!

So, on we went, just past Horse-tooth Reservoir, which is gorgeous, BTW. I had never seen that either. Maybe that's a trip for another time. It's a long and winding, but highly scenic road to Lory. No one was sleeping for sure. Incredible views!

There are also some green hills like this at Lory. It's a nice contrast.

 

One of the things I absolutely love about Colorado is the combination of red rock and bright green hills you will see in the spring. So, I was thrilled at the first sight of Lory Park. We really had no idea that it was like that from the pictures in our little Colorado State Parks book. Amazing isn't the word for it. Awesome? Spectacular? I don't know. Nothing seems to do it justice. Hopefully, the pictures show that. I guess they're not too shabby for phone pics.

We hiked up to those red rocks.

 

Anyway.... we were further excited to see that Lory has a small, scenic inlet and easy to traverse trails. Gary and I love to hike, but not all hiking spots are user friendly for me. Now, I believe there are some difficult trails there, too, if you're not chronically ill like me. Don't pity me, please. I hate that. Besides, in this case, my illness was fortuitous. Because the gentler trails run right through those red rocks I love so much.

A piece of the trail we were on.

Now, this is us, so you know we had setbacks, right? First of all, Gary didn't get gas before we got there. He does that a lot you guys. We didn't run out of gas. However, all the time we were hiking, I was wondering if we would make it to a gas station in time once we were done, because I am a chronic worrier. Also, my phone was nearly dead and I had forgotten my charger. I also forgot my camera. So, I wasn't able to get many pictures for you guys.

View of the inlet from top of the trail

My grandson was so cute, though. He had just gotten his first real phone. So he took like a hundred umpteen pictures. I just asked him to steal some but I guess he deleted the ones that I needed in order to clear space on his phone. Not surprising, since he took so many. He's so much like me, you guys. He likes working in the garden too. And yesterday, he informed his older sister that if she wanted money, she was going to have to work for it. Ha ha ha!

Red rock up close and personal

My grand-daughter was busy making movies, as usual. Yup. She's a you-tuber. So maybe she won't have to work quite so hard for the money if she does well with that. She might just make a liar out of us, who knows? Stranger things have happened. And ya, we talk to her. But I'm not her Mom, I'm her Grandma. I give good advice and have fun with her. That's my job. Follow through is up to the parents. LOL

Moss rock on the trail. My phone went dead after this one.

We have plans to go back to Lory before the summer is out and do some real hiking. It was a flare day for me so we didn't go as far as we would have liked. This time, I will nag Gary to fill up the tank closer to our destination. I'll bring the phone charger and the real camera and extra meds so we can do a real hike. Ya, sure I will. Because we're always so prepared.

(You can't see it but my eyes are rolling.)

Meh, that's OK. It wouldn't be an adventure without the mishaps, would it?

Finding the elusive Alamo Placita Park

I've lived in the Denver area for a long time, you guys. But I have to be honest, although I had heard of it many times and possibly even been there once or twice, I honestly didn't know where Alamo Placita Park was. How could I have been there and not known where it was?

Hello. You have met me. Right? I'm just not into the whole labeling thing.

To me, this was just a pretty park with flowers that I liked to take pictures of. Until last year, that is. Because last year, when Gary and I came across this park for the first time together, we actually parked on the side with the plaque.

Now, don't ask me to tell you the history of the park.

It was on the plaque. Oh ya.

Did we read it? Yup.

Did we find it interesting? Yup.

Do I remember any of it? Nope.

Not only that, after we came home from Alamo Placita Park last summer, I instantly forgot the name of it. So, when I filed those pictures, I simply titled them “Park 2015.”

Now, Gary remembered once, but by the time I went to rename the file, he had forgotten. So, Alamo Placita Park became the park with the pretty flowers once again.

That is, until we went out for ice cream on July 4^th of this year. 

Incidentally, if you're looking for vegan ice cream, check out Bonnie Brae Ice Cream on University Blvd. just south of Exposition Street. They only have two flavors at a time and it's usually mint and chocolate, but they make it in house and it's pretty good. Especially if you get a combination of the two.

Anyway.... after we ate our ice cream, we decided to go for a drive and ended up at Alamo Placita Park again by accident. So, I got to take a lot of pretty flower pictures again. 

Now, I, of course, had to ask Gary where the park was again, once we got home and just before I wrote this. He says it's on Speer and Downing or thereabouts.

You see how it is with us? Hey, I told you this was not going to be a Rick Steves kind of blog.

Anyway again.... the whole thing is that I really just wanted to show you the pretty flowers.

I also thought it might help if I wrote Alamo Placita Park a few times to pound it into my head.

You know, I just realized that you might be thinking I should have my mental capacity checked. Bwa ha ha That's because I forgot to mention that it's my Lupus meds.

I forgot to tell you about the meds that make me forget things. Oh, the irony. Bwa ha ha ha

So, just in case:

 Alamo Placita Park on Speer and Downing has lots of pretty flowers.

Alamo Placita Park on Speer and Downing has pretty blue and purple flowers

Alamo Placita Park on Speer and Downing has pretty pink and white flowers

Alamo Placita park on Speer and Downing has pretty yellow, gold and orange flowers.

There, that should do it. 

Now, where was that park again, Gary? You know. The one with all the pretty flowers?

Just bite me!

Looks can be deceiving. A few weekends ago, Gary and I did our usual roaming around the mountains. Part of our journey was a highway that ran along the Colorado River. So, naturally, water being my weakness, when we saw a pullover, we pulled over. Turns out, it was a fishing spot with a well worn trail.

Now, also naturally, since we are vegetarians and I am gradually going vegan, we said a quick prayer to the universe (since we're also non-believers) ha ha, that there would be no fishermen around. You know, it's like bad vibes for veg-heads to be around death “sport” like that. Zaps the “ohm zone” and all....

Anyway.... off we headed, down the path, happily encountering nothing but nature in the raw. Yay!

Don't worry, we were not in the raw. Although, that would probably be funnier, considering the story line.

Well, pretty soon, we came across a swampy area. No problem. We made it through the swamp to the river like troopers to enjoy the scenery, virtually unscathed, aside from the splash-back, which by the way, was with us the whole rest of the day until one of us happened to notice it all over our legs. Ha ha

Anyway, we got to the edge of the river quite triumphantly tooting our horns at our survival skills. Yay again!

And that, my friends is when they pummeled us. Mosquitoes. Starving, swarming, mosquitoes. And we were the only food they'd seen in days. I am positive of that. There must have been millions of them. No exaggeration.

Ha ha ha. Now, I'm thinking how much funnier of a site we would have been if we were in the raw. OMG Not pretty! But definitely hilarious. So glad no one had to endure that!

Anyway, there I was, camera poised to take beautiful, carefully framed pictures of the river, slapping like mad at the enemy, but determined as all get out. Oh, I got the pictures. You betcha! I wasn't going through that for nothing! But I took them very, very quickly.

I was like:

OK Picture Downriver

OK Picture Upriver

OK Close up upriver

OK Picture of river straight on

Then, that quick shot of Gary "enjoying" the river and we turned and booked it back to the car in record time, stopping only to take a picture of this gorgeous wild iris. 

Seriously, you guys, I made it up that hill in 20 seconds flat. I swear I did. And all the while, Lupus and Arthritis were torturing me along with the mosquitoes. And then, back on level ground, we ran like hell for the shelter of our transportation, fumbling for keys and laughing hysterically at ourselves.

Whew! Car doors shut and ….. Hitchhikers! The freaking mean little biters had followed us into the car. So, Gary looks at me and says, “windows down” and down they went. We blew those bloodthirsty critters right out of there. And whatever didn't blow out got smacked, big time. We were covered in little splotches of blood (our blood) and itching like mad for miles.

Yes, I know, squashing mosquitoes is decidedly un-vegan in some people's view. But in my case, on long term immune system lowering drugs, those bites can get infected and kill me. Ya. So, me or them being the choice, well, no choice then.

Oh and you'll be happy to know that so far, the bites I did get seem to be healing OK.

PS- Anyway....Doesn't Gary look peaceful there, by the river? I have to admire him for managing not to look like a thousand mosquitoes were feasting on his soul, attracted, no doubt to the delightful swamp juice running down his legs and the vast quantity of blood, the likes of which they hadn't encountered for weeks.

Jeanne and Gary's most excellent adventures is up and running!

Beautiful Cape Vincent, NY

I'm so excited to get this blog up and running, you guys! Gary and I have a lot of fun traveling all over Colorado and I'm anxious to share our past, present and future pictures and experiences with you. Now, this is not your average travel blog. It's more like, “Two idiots in Colorado that sometimes venture out of state.”

I will not be regaling you will lengthy, formal, local historical reports. Nope, that's not me. Rather, I will be addressing you as friends and as my cornball, slightly silly, road trip loving self. Formalities and societal etiquette aren't really my bag. I write the way I speak. So, if you're looking for Rick Steves, well, you're going to be disappointed.

On the other hand, if you're looking to have fun, see some spectacular Colorado scenery, join Gary in laughing at my overwhelming fear of heights as we traverse scary mountain roads and possibly get a few tips and tidbits about the areas we visit, well, you've come to the right place.

Buckle up, buttercup! We're off!