What an adventure this truly was! Mountains, snakes, Shawarma, homeless people, monks and a rocking concert at the end. it was a trip of a life time. We are not really gift giving people so instead we like to spend our money on making memories. For our 14th anniversary we went to Colorado! Ryan's brother lives in Denver so we thought it would be a good idea to visit and take in the state in the meantime. Here are the highs and lows of traveling that we experienced in Colorado.
Highs:
Okay... I know that I love local things especially food. Denver has a food scene but they are not really "known" for any sort of food. For example I mean they sorta have the Denver omelet but that is about it. They should be known for biscuits. I mean holy moly was my sandwich divine. The honey, mustard, fried chicken and sweet pickles all sandwiched on a biscuit was perfection. I mean look at it!
Berthoud Pass
I just have never in my life seen anything like the Rocky Mountains. I mean people talk about it, sing about it and paint it... but it leaves you speechless. Specifically the Pass we went through with the rental car was memorable with the road side snow, steep cliff faces (we saw them pulling a car out of the rock face that fell down. Don't worry the guy survived somehow), rock formations and buffalo it was magical.
Garden of the Gods
This was like nothing else I saw in Colorado. Located by Colorado Springs this is a hikers dream. Valley's, awesome rock formations and tons of wild life. I do not want my rattlesnake story to take away from this gorgeous place (See below for the rattler story). Please know that even though we had a snake encounter I would still come back here in a heart beat and you should come here too.
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| Okay. I called this a skunk bird but really it is a Mag pie. |
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| Bunny! |
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| Cute deer! |
Denver Zoo
I did not even plan on going here until the day of. I love the rare animals that I have only seen on documentaries such as the komodo dragon, Aye-aye and kakapo. I became almost giddy seeing these animals. We learned a lot about Asian elephants during the elephant show. Watched people feed cute little parrots in a feeding room they were so darling. There were giant robot dinosaurs all over and some were cool yet creepy. They had a food truck and they served beer all over the park!
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| Look a baby! |
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| There be dragons. |
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| Ryan's spirit animal. |
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| RUN!!!! |
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| They love the nectar you can buy to feed them. |
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| Elephants! |
Crooked Stave Sour beeeerrrrrrr. I loved the beer and atmosphere of this brewery. I wish I could come back and spend more time here.
How I love thee. The sound in the Rave sucks in Milwaukee but that did not stop this band from putting on one hell of an awesome show. We danced and jumped along while singing along all night long.
Lows:
Altitude. It sucks okay. I drank so much water and took acli-mate before and while I was there. I still had swollen fingers every morning, a dry mouth and I even got a massive bloody nose (at dinner with others). I could function but it was a bit of a damper on the weekend.
Rocky Mountain National Park:
Nothing is as fun as driving hours to a national park and it being closed. Okay we think let's take a different way home. NOPE. Colorado is limited on highways we had to go back the way we came from. Bummer. At least the view was pretty.
Rattlesnake:
I want to prepare this story by stating I have experience with this type of climate I did live in South Dakota for two years. We were safe and mindful the whole hiking trip at Garden of The Gods and watched the paths/brush accordingly. This encounter happened at the end of our hiking day on a white/grey outcropping of rocks we were hiking along. Ryan was in front of me slowly moving along the path when I see him flinch and lunge forward. In my confusion I see he stepped on a snake. A rattlesnake to be specific. The snake was on the right side of the path and must have been sleeping in the sun of the day. From what I figure Ryan had to have stepped on it's head and stunned it. It only rattled it's tail once and stopped moving. I thought he killed it till it moved it's head and started to flick it's long black tongue. I then knew I had to scale down the path below were the snake was to go around. Ryan moved slowly along and met me half way down the little rock outcropping and we scaled down around the snake. I managed to snag a pick of him before we moved on. I named him Leroy. We are EXTREMELY lucky Ryan was not bite that day. Be careful while hiking here and bring a walking stick of you can.
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| The now famous Leroy. Scary rattlesnakes! |
Traveling:
We are lucky we got a rental car. Denver is not a compact city like Chicago. If you want to go somewhere you need to take the train into town and then take the bus, lyft or uber really to get anywhere. You can walk but you have to go through some not so nice neighborhoods to get where you want and you need to walk far. There are also a lot of homeless people in this city. Something else to be mindful of.
In conclusion this trip was wonderful. If I had to tell people what to expect I would tell you that if you are an outdoors lover this is a place you need to visit. If you are a city person there are better cities to visit.
Until next time~
XoXo Emily
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