After The Storm

The Big Blizzard that hit Colorado last week wasn't a big deal where I lived. 6 inches may have fallen, but the snow had turned to rain by the afternoon so it was hard to make an estimate. The Blizzard winds were to the south and east. The big snow totals were in the mountains. Evergreen, which is 15 miles by road to the west of me, reported 2 feet. Saturday, two days after the storm, I went for a hike in the Evergreen area. I went to Alderfer/Three Sisters Park. I did a short hike that took me to the top of The Brother and to the Three Sisters. The weather was warmer than I expected in the foothills. I was wishing I had a short sleeve shirt with me.

That's me on top of The Brother. The snow capped peak to the left of me is Mt. Evans.

This is on top of a rock ledge of one of the Sisters.

In Soccer News, the Colorado Rapids came back to beat FC Dallas to advance to the conference finals. Conyers, Georgia native, Clint "Cletus" Mathis scored a brilliant goal in OT to send the game to PK's. Rapids won PK's 5-4 Major upset, 4 seed beating the number 1 seed. Go Rapids!!!

Cold Wind Blows

On Saturday, I went to my first professional sporting event in Denver. I went to Invesco Field at Mile High to see the Colorado Rapids in a MLS playoff game. That's Major League Soccer for the non-soccer people. Unfortunately, the Rapids lost to FC Dallas 2-1. They still got another game, but the second leg is in Dallas. So I don't expect them to advance. Anyway it was still fun to be at the game even though they lost. It was also really cold at the game.
On Sunday, I went Golden Gate Canyon State Park. It is about 13 miles northwest of the birthplace of Coors Beer. I hiked to Frazer Meadow where there was an old homestead. The wind was blowing pretty good. Quite Cold. The elevation was above 9,000 feet. I looped back to my vehicle by way of the Black Bear Trail, which took me over Ralston Roost (9,334 ft). This trail was colder and windier. It was worth it, though. Good views, good rocks, good snow. Round trip was about 6 miles.













It's Monday now, I can still see snow in the foothills, but the afternoon temperatures were in the 60's in Lakewood. The forcast for Tuesday has the low's in the mid 30's and the high's in the low 70's. Nice!

That's All for now,

-M

The Next Day

There was about 3 to 4 inches of snow on the grass, sign posts, and other cold places. Gives the place a different kind of beauty. It was sunny (but cold) day, so most of the snow was gone by the afternoon. I heard they got 12 inches at Idaho Springs which about 30 minutes away in the I-70 corridor. Anyway here are some photos from this morning.

This is Bear Creek which runs behind my apartment.

My apartment complex is in the background. Bear Creek is where the line of trees are.

Morrison Mountain. Red Rocks Amphitheatre is at the base of the mountain.

Look Out The Window

Snow! It's the Great White West. The forcasters have predicted snow for Denver and the Foothills 4 times since I've been here. They finally got it right on the 4th try. Looks like the mountains are getting a good snow. I bet some of the ski slopes will open this weekend. They say Denver could get 2-4" inches. We'll see... There might be an inch of snow on the ground at my apartment. Not exactly Buffalo volume.

My Apartment

This is the view from my deck around 1:00 pm mountain time.

This picture was taken at about 5:00 pm along one of the Bear Creek trails that run right by my apartment.

Roxborough State Park

Today I went to Roxborough State Park, which is located south of Denver. It is less than 30 minutes from my apartment. The park is located where the plains meet the foothills. The park has some rock formations similar to that of Red Rocks and Garden of The Gods. Roxborough State Park has quite a few trails. I took the trail up to Carpenter Peak (7,160 ft). According to the signs, this area is rattlesnake, black bear, and mountain lion country. I didn't see any of those magnificent animals, but I did see the most dangerous creature of them all. Humans. I saw few of them. Fortunately, they were of the friendly variety. Here are a couple of pictures of me on top of Carpenter Peak.

Hey, I live in Colorado

Saturday Morning. Feeling lazy. Don't want to get out of bed. Sleep in. Finally get up. Watch a part of Gameday. The first football games of the day have started. I look outside. It is a gorgeous day. I need to go to the mountains. Oh no, I've waited to late. It will take a couple of hours to get to the mountains, and the crazy suburbanites will be out. Wait a minute; I don't have to deal with that. I live in Colorado. I can be in the mountains in no time. 30 minutes later, I find myself at Mount Falcon Park. It only took that long because I decided to take the scenic route through Bear Creek Canyon. Mount Falcon Park has 11.1 miles of trail. I walk on about 4.2 miles of these trails. I'll save the rest for another day. Mt. Falcon tops out 7,851 feet, which is not very high by Colorado standards, but over 1000 feet higher than anything east of the Mississippi. It was enough to give me that thought of "I can't believe I live here." Below are some pictures of the park.

Downtown Denver from the Top of Mt. Falcon.

This is the old mansion of John Brisben Walker. The home burnt down in 1918 due to a lightning strike.

Red Rocks, dinosaur Ridge, Green Mountain, the northern suburbs of Denver as seen from the Walker Home Ruins.

Walker owned the land from Mt. Falcon down to Red Rocks as well as other places around Denver. Walker produced a number of concerts at Red Rocks between 1906 - 1910. The city of Denver purchased Red Rocks in 1927.

On a side note, you can now make anonymous comments on this blog if you like. The default setting allowed only register users. I have fixed this.

The weather is getting cooler. It is Sunday, and there has been 40° temperature change since Saturday. There is talk of snow in the forecast...

-M

Beer Festival and Mountains

On Saturday, I went to the Great American Beer Festival. MMMMMM Beer! 380 Breweries, 1600 Beers. MMMMM BEER!!! I met up with the Seasteads for this wonderful event.  I followed up Beerfest on Sunday by taking a cruise through the mountains. I got out of the car and went for a hike up above Hoosier Pass. Hoosier Pass is above 11,000 feet and is near Breckenridge. I hiked up a jeep road that gave me some great views of some Fourteeners.

The Great American Beer Festival

Beer and maps

Mt. Lincoln is in the background. It is 14,286 ft. Someday I'm going to climb that mountain...

On the Continental Divide