Monarch Lake:

Six bodies of water form the Great Lakes of Colorado: Grand Lake, Lake Granby, Shadow Mountain Lake, Monarch Lake, Willow Creek Reservoir and Meadow Creek Reservoir.


Today, our posse circumnavigated Monarch Lake, located on the boundary of the Indian Peaks Wilderness area. In the early 1900s, Monarch Lake was built to store logs before they were transported to a nearby sawmill via flumes and rivers. There were a few relics of the old industry along the trail.


Given that about halfway through the hike, Scott and I realized we'd left lunch back at home, it's a miracle the kids made it. Sawyer hiked the entire loop. Arden hiked about half of it.

Where's lunch? Thank goodness Scott found a couple granola bars buried in his pack.

During the course of our four mile hike, we crossed a dozen swollen streams and scrambled over more than 50 fallen trees. Here is something I wrote about the unusually strong winds these past few weeks that have brought trees tumbling down in neighborhoods and forests. With the pine beetle epidemic that has swept through Northern Colorado in recent years, the U.S. Forest Service estimates that 100,000 trees will fall EACH DAY in the Arapaho and Roosevelt national forests this summer. Because they are only allowed to use hand saws to clear fallen trees from trails in wilderness areas, this could become quite an inconvenience. (You'd think they'd try to get that law changed, given the 100K per day estimate, huh?) The possibility of trees falling on you anytime the wind blows adds a whole new thrill to the forest hiking experience.

Some of the creeks had only rocks, or a log, or a two-plank bridge like this one to carry us across. The sight and sound of that much water moving under you is quite the rush. Yes, I was holding her hand.

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.

Happy Halloween

We went trick-or-treating on F Street in Salida, the supposed "Banana Belt" of Colorado, where there was 2 feet of snow as opposed to our 3 inches up north in Middle Park. We had a wonderful time with our friends (the same one who witnessed Puke-o-rama 2009), and I am happy to report that the kids were mostly charming, wonderful and completing buzzing on sugar for the entire weekend. But, because somebody had to puke, their dog barfed up a bunch of candy after we left that my kids may or may not have fed him. Our friends got more into the Halloween spirit than we did, dressing up as Betty Rubble and German-Rumplestiltskin-dude. Sawyer will forever refer to my friend Dara as "that mommy with the bones on her belt," (all adult females are currently called mommies, regardless of whether they actually have offspring). F Street was a zoo. I've seriously never seen so many people trick-or-treating in one place in my entire life. We lasted about an hour, three blocks down and three blocks up, and were completely exhausted by the time we made it home. I don't have a clue what we're going to do with all this candy now. There is no way I'm letting the kids consume it all. Other fun weekend activities included hiking up "S" mountain, through the snow, halfway through which Sawyer turned around and declared, "I LOVE SNOW;" building a snowman and a giant snow slide; walking down an old train track in Leadville, collecting spikes to make a new coat rack; and visiting Jim, aka Milt, one of Scott's groomsmen who left a lasting impression on everyone present at the wedding. On the less productive side, us adults made our way through four bottles of wine Friday night (uh, that's a bottle EACH). Made for a pretty sober Halloween.

Here's a video from Sawyer's arrival at school in costume Thursday.



Have I mention how much I love Sawyer's school?

Adams Falls

The Adventure:


The Reward: