7/7/09

After today I now understand why my dad loves it here so much as it was a day full of Colorado fun times.
We hopped into dad’s Jeep late in the morning and set out headed west. We stopped about 30 minutes out in a cute little town called Idaho Springs which was an old mining town; lots of little shops lined the street. Dad got some McDonalds, Kat and I got some sandwiches and we were back on the road at a steady incline our destination being the summit of Mt. Evans.
Mt. Evans has the highest paved road in North America and the summit is 14,240 feet high. The road up to the top was crazy curvy and steep and seemed to go on and on. There were many lakes and pools along the way some of which at the higher altitudes were still frozen. Snow was still on the ground and the temperature dropped more and more the higher we got.
As we got well above the timber line and the air got quite thin we came around a sharp turn to find a herd (is that what they are or is it a pack?) of mountain goats. They were pretty darn cool looking. We pulled of to the side of the road to take some pictures and that is when the cold and lack of air first became very apparent. Kat and I only brought sweatshirts since it was about 90 degrees at dad’s when we left; it was hard to prepare for cold when it was so hot out. Kat got pretty close to one of the smaller goats but I kept my distance. Those horns looked a bit intimidating and I recall an America’s Funniest Home Video where a goat was ramming someone so I wasn’t about to get too close. Freezing and out of breath we got back in the Jeep to continue on to the summit.
A few steep turns later we got to the parking lot at the summit but, that still wasn’t the final destination. We still had about 100 yards up to go via switchbacks which normally and by normally I mean sea level that little hike up wouldn’t seem so tough but at over 14,000 feet elevation it looked pretty darn far.
We took the path slowly taking in the views and taking lots of deep breaths to try to suck as much oxygen out of the air as possible and made it to the tippy top of the mountain. That is when the long drive, the cold wind, all the turns in the road became worth it. We had a 360 degree view of the world. It was breath taking..haha, get it, cause we already couldn’t breath..ok, stupid joke.
Kat and I made dad super nervous by standing on rock somewhat close to the edge and Kat scared all of us, including herself when she tripped a little bit. It wasn’t as though she was close to the edge or would have gotten hurt if she fell but when you are that high up and can see that far down you are already a bit freaked out, and any thing that makes you think you are going to fall is sketchy.
The other super cool thing about the summit of Mt. Evans is it is where my brother in law Nate proposed to my little sister Heidi a few years ago. It was touching to get to see where it took place.
After about a half hour on the summit we walked back down to the Jeep and drove the long drive back down the mountain to our second destination, the rugged, rocky roads in the middle of not sure where. Dad took us four wheeling on some pretty rough roads. It was Kat’s first time going off pavement and she totally loved it. I looked back at her at one point and she was bouncing around in the back seat with the biggest smile on her face and she just goes “this is so great!” it was fantastic.
We got back to dad’s house late in the afternoon after both Kat and I falling asleep on the ride home; I think the altitude makes you sleepy, well, us sleepy. We took showers and put on our fancy clothes to take dad out for his day-after-birthday dinner at his restaurant of choice, his choice being The Chart House. Dinner was great. The restaurant was up on the hill with a full view of Denver.
This evening we are relaxing at dad’s house; Kat has some work to finish up before we head out Thursday morning since we are not sure when we will have internet again. We are both pretty sleepy from our big day in the wild and are SO looking forward to our day tomorrow. We are going to Water World; one of the biggest water parks. It is supposed to be in the mid 90’s tomorrow so a day at the water slides will be perfect. Kat’s dad had offered to pay for us to go white water rafting tomorrow and we looked into it but we decided the water park was a better idea so tomorrow will be made possible by him…THANK YOU in advance.