Gore Canyon

I lived in Colorado for a decade before accidentally moving to Virgina for 7 years. But, somehow, I never spent much time in this part of the state – that is, anywhere north of I-70 and west of the Great Divide. I realized the other day that while you had to cross the divide TWICE to get to Leadville, this is actually the first time I've put down stakes west of the Big Ridge. I've been getting out on hikes with the kids every weekend since we moved, trying to explore as much as possible before the snow starts sticking and we switch to skis. Scott, for his part, also got the kids out (see photo below) on Friday as part of his daily SAHD adventure. Today temperatures were in the 60s and we headed west, past Kremmling, to a spot we had picked out of a guidebook. As we made our final approach on a typical western dirt road, we rounded a bend and both gasped out loud. The tires screeched as Scott swerved into the closest scenic overlook. I've never seen such a stunning view. At least not in a long while. Gore Canyon took our breath away. It's one of those sights that a photo could never capture — the green Colorado River winding through a steep valley below. The sharp snowy peaks of the Gore Range on the horizon, and beautiful arid steps populated with juniper and sage stretching as far as the eye could see. We hiked three miles along the river's edge, and Sawyer made the whole hike himself, including some pretty treacherous spots on the trails that were washed-out and rocky. The pinnacle of the whole hike was seeing the train that passes through Granby wind its way around a steep cliff above the river. Sawyer stood transfixed for a good 20 minutes and refused to leave until the last train car was out of sight. I also liked the part when Sawyer asked me if there are alligators in the Colorado River.

Postscript: I sincerely apologize for the cheesy music in the video. There was a lot of wind on the video soundtrack, and so I thought I'd drown it out with a Flip Video selection called "Happy Saturday." I had no way of listening to it first, so it was a little bit of a crap shoot, one that – typically – I lost.