An Action Packed Weekend

Friday Night: Brett and I went to the Rockies game, which cost us $4 a piece! Mind you, they were the worst seats in the house, but the beer tastes the same:) So the game went by rather quickly, and the weather couldn't have been nicer. After that we headed off to the Wynkoop Brewery where he had a local brew and watched some dude get arrested for public intoxication. After that craziness, we headed to Illegal Pete's for some midnight mexican food.

Saturday: I got up really early, so that I could get new tires put on my Jeep. I got some awesome all terrain tires, which I got to test out in Rocky Mountain National Park (more to come). After getting my tires, I headed over to the storage unit where I'm keeping all of my stuff until I get my apartment. I grabbed a few things, and then headed up to Boulder to pick up Brett. We got to RMNP around 3PM and found out that all of the campsites were full. After calling the ranger station, we found that the the Elk Meadow Lodge and Campground had vacancies and is located just outside the park. We got a site and setup my tent, so that it was pointing straight and Long's Peak, the highest point in the park (pictures to follow). After setting up camp, we got our packs ready and headed for the park. We drove to Bear Lake and set out on a 1.8 mile trail to Emerald Lake, which is surrounded by a cirque (Wikipedia), which is quite amazing. The snow was deep, and the scotch guard on my boots was non-existant, so it was a little strenous, but we made all the way up to 10,091 feet elevation, and that was a first for me.

Saturday Night: The night was clear, and the stars were unbelievable. After heading back to camp, we made dinner and then headed over to the Rocky Inn. There was some live entertainment, and every beer on draft, with the exception of PBR and Guinness, was locally brewed. We limited ourselves to a couple beers, so that we wouldn't be hurting the next day, and then left the Rocky. We both were in the mood for some good tunes, so we took a spin around Estes Park listening to Good Times, Bad Times until Brett put in some Herbie Hancock, which is probably best described as porn music. Don't believe me? Listen to Palm Grease here. When we got back to camp, it had gotten into the 40s, so we crawled into our sleeping bags and passed out.

Sunday: We got up and broke camp around about 9AM. We headed over to the Sheep Lakes, where the Bighorn Sheep head in the summertime. We saw no sheep, but we started hiking a trail to Ypsilon and Lawn Lake, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. After about a mile of hiking, we reached the split where one trail goes off to Ypsilon Lake, and the other goes to Lawn Lake. Lawn Lake was 5 miles away, while Ypsilon was only 3.5, but we figured Lawn might have a better view, since it was at 11,000 ft elevation. We kept hiking until we passed about 9,600 ft, at which point the snow started getting thick on the trail. We kept hiking hoping that the trees would start getting shorter, which would mean the snow might be more melted, but we had no luck. Once we were up to our balls in snow at about 10,400ft elevation, we could see storm clouds forming on the horizon. We decided to head back down to a clearer part of the trail and break for lunch, so that we could escape the piles of snow and the approaching storm. We were practically running down the mountain, while lightning was striking all around us. There was one strike that was what I classified as "scary close" (that's where the light and sound happen together). We got down to the Jeep just as it started pouring, and then we headed out. Estes Park was clogged up because of tourists, but we finally got through and took the scenic route back to Boulder. Once in Boulder, we celebrated with Abo's Pizza.

Living in Colorado feels like being on vacation.