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.

Easter 2010

It wasn't your typical Easter Egg Hunt in Grand Lake, Colo. Saturday. It was more Easter On Ice (just as whack as Disney on Ice). Eggs were hidden simply by laying them in the snow early in the morning and waiting for a few more inches to fall. And — get this — they were REAL eggs, not the plastic kind full of candy. Traditional, hard-boiled, PAAS died eggs. Hundreds of them. My mother, who was visiting from Virginia where the temperatures were in the 80s last weekend, was in a bit of shock over the whole thing. She should have taken the hint when I told her that Easter outfits would not be necessary this year. Somedays I feel like I've stepped onto the set of "Northern Exposure."

Adams Falls

The Adventure:


The Reward:

SAHM - day one of four.

One of the little perks of this move is that I get to be a SAHM for one week. Actually, four days, if you don't count Sunday. It's Monday, and this SAHM thing has already kicked my ass. I am wholly exhausted and it's not even 9 p.m. We visited three schools today (one twice), and Sawyer walked away from one stating: That's my school. (I agreed but, sadly Arden can't go there for another year.) It was, of course, the most expensive school and it follows the regular school year calendar (i.e. inconvienant). But, it's in a little red schoolhouse for Heaven's sake. After the school tours, we went to look for horses because Sawyer decided when he woke up this morning that his mission was to talk to a horse. We didn't see any close up but I did find him some in a field, which he yelled at. We explored YET ANOTHER awesome playground, ate lunch at Dairy King (which kicks Dairy Queens ass by the way) and then played in the driveway for the remainder of the day. And, I still managed to get a P.O. Box, which was my number one mission. I had to drag the kids inside (one kicking and screaming) and into the bath, and I haven't looked but I'm sure there's a filthy ring around the tub dirty as they were. I spent almost an hour on the phone talking to red schoolhouse teacher tonight, and now I'm going to collapse. But before I do, here's a photo I took from the driveway: