carbuncle
Colorado is a beautiful place. I was out there for the long weekend and had a great time. I've been meaning to write about it ever since but well, things got in the way - in the way of my generally lazing through life. It didn't start out so promising, though ( and here I am referring to my trip, not my lazing or my life - though it probably could be applied to both). I was supposed to get to Boulder on Thursday night but on my way to the airport here, I was pleasantly informed that my flight was delayed and that this would result in my not being able to catch my connection in Dallas. After resisting their incredible offer to enjoy a full night's stay at Dallas all on my expense, I managed to get a ticket for a flight out from my home town early next morning. The journey out and the first few hours in Colorado were pretty uneventful and pleasant. Once S and I stopped sneering at the smaller Rockies, and the snow caps and 14ers made their appearance, all of us enjoyed the wonderful views. We got to the Rocky Mountain National Park later that evening and drove around generally soaking in the vistas. We pitched our tents, had a good dinner and went to sleep. We had a really nice view of mountains from our camp site and I would have enjoyed it more if there weren't as many of those pestilential RVs around. I abhor these things. Still, it was excusable. I could tell you of the fun and games involved in pitching 2 tents that took us nearly as many hours ( I am only slightly exaggerating) but that information was never supposed to leave RMNP (Rocky Mountain National Park - pay attention, will you!!) so I won't.
We had planned a nice, day-long hike for the next day so we got up pretty early and got to the trail head (or at least, what we thought was the trail head) by around 6.30 am. And this is when things got out of hand. So the trail that we were looking for wasn't marked on any of the maps at the trail head. In fact, no mention seemed to be made of the Mountain that we intended to get to (Mt.Ida). Poor A, our host, had looked up this trail and sent us all some links and info abt it but of course, we all had ignored it. After hmming and haing for a while, we identified a trail and started walking along it. Having greeted and taken pictures of some elk that were lounging about close to the trail, we continued. Pretty soon we came to a fork with about 4 trails emanating from it, none of which seemed to be leading anywhere. We picked the one that looked more promising and set off on it. In a few minutes, we realized that we were walking very close to the initial part of the trail that we'd taken. A few more alarming minutes later we realized that we were looping right back to the trail head. We hmmed and haed some more. We pondered. We discussed. We checked the map that we had. Finally we went back to the fork and decided to have a go at the only other trail that seemed to be leading away from the trail head (on the map). P and I ventured on this to do some recon work. It was all very marshy and there really was no trail but we kept at it for a few minutes. At this point, A and S waved to us from the fork and we made our way back. S, being the bright girl that she is, figured out that the trail that we were trying to hike on - the trail that we could not find - the trail that was clearly marked on the map as "The Continental Divide" - was indeed the Continental Divide!! And not a regular trail!! Once we looked at the legend, it all made sense. Who would have thought!! Wait! I don't think this information was supposed to leave RMNP either!! Ooops. Anyways, we marched back to the trail head rather sheepishly. We attempted to figure out the trail that would take us to Mt.Ida but we couldn't. We gave up and were looking for hiking trials elsewhere in the park when a car pulled up at the trail head and a couple got out of it and made it known that their intention was to hike to Mt.Ida. Here was happy coincidence indeed. We quickly set about behind them when we realized that we'd forgotten our map in our car. 10-15 minutes later, having recovered the map, we set off on the trail again. 10 minutes later we reached a big patch of snow with no sign of the trail anywhere. It was gone. Poof. As were the hikers ahead of us. Disturbing I tell you. We mulled over this for a little, went around the patch of snow in different directions, sighed and came back to the trail head. And yes, you have correctly assumed that this info was not supposed to have left RMNP either. So please do not discuss this with anyone else. Ever.
I must admit that I was giddy at this point. My lack of sleep over the last two nights and some exhaustion because of that was one reason. The other was that the situation was just so darned hilarious. It was around 9.30 am and we had made two abortive attempts to hike in the Rocky Mountain National Park and had no clue what to do next. Amyways, it all turned out good. We drove around in the park (including the drive on the highest motorable road in the US - at around 12,500 feet), walked up to a nice viewpoint, generally enjoyed the scenery and changed plans and drove all the way to the little town of Alamosa, Colorado. This place has many distinctions. One being that it, as we discovered that night, has one of the best Thai restaurants I've been to. They actually had a full 2 page vegetarian menu! The second was that the backyard of the Comfort Inn that we stayed at is just open prairie land. Well, meadows or something like that. But just loads of open land in general. As we walked in to the motel, we saw a couple of firecrackers burst out suddenly in the middle of all that dark space. It was some sight. And finally, this town also happens to be the town closest to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado. Now, this was a fun experience. Up reaaaally early again the next morning, we drove out to the park before sunrise. The sun rose from the east, over the mountains and spilled over the tall 600-700 feet sand dunes and made all those open plains glow golden. And this fantastic scene set in the calm that is peculiar to sand dunes. It was deeply beautiful. Much fun was had hiking up the dunes and then sliding down some of them while chasing our footwear that P had whimsically started tossing down the dune before setting off on the slide. We rounded off the trip with a super fun white water rafting episode in the Royal Gorge in Cannon City. That was a blast. Other than enjoying getting splashed and bumped by the rapids, and taking turns "riding bull" on the front edge of the raft with our feet dangling in the water thanks to our cool guide, we had great fun making fun of each others' appearance in a wet suit. And then, it was back to Boulder and thence to Mass. All in all a happy trip. I just wish I could have given such an account without divulging some of the information that I did. Oh well. At least, I didn't mention our in-car discussion on Yak Spanking in the context of extreme sports or the Killing of the Bird by P on our way to the Great Sand Dunes NP (one minute we are breezing through the pre-dawn darkness and the next there is a 'whump' on the windscreen and A's exclamation on the stupidity of a low flying bird) or the Possible Maiming of Another Bird by P that followed shortly after (this one just deflected off the windscreen and careened off in that direction) or the Elk That Planned Our Cold Blooded Murder by lazily strolling onto the road while P was doing ~ 60 mph. If I had mentioned it, we'd never be allowed inside Colorado again. Ever.
And so to bed.
We had planned a nice, day-long hike for the next day so we got up pretty early and got to the trail head (or at least, what we thought was the trail head) by around 6.30 am. And this is when things got out of hand. So the trail that we were looking for wasn't marked on any of the maps at the trail head. In fact, no mention seemed to be made of the Mountain that we intended to get to (Mt.Ida). Poor A, our host, had looked up this trail and sent us all some links and info abt it but of course, we all had ignored it. After hmming and haing for a while, we identified a trail and started walking along it. Having greeted and taken pictures of some elk that were lounging about close to the trail, we continued. Pretty soon we came to a fork with about 4 trails emanating from it, none of which seemed to be leading anywhere. We picked the one that looked more promising and set off on it. In a few minutes, we realized that we were walking very close to the initial part of the trail that we'd taken. A few more alarming minutes later we realized that we were looping right back to the trail head. We hmmed and haed some more. We pondered. We discussed. We checked the map that we had. Finally we went back to the fork and decided to have a go at the only other trail that seemed to be leading away from the trail head (on the map). P and I ventured on this to do some recon work. It was all very marshy and there really was no trail but we kept at it for a few minutes. At this point, A and S waved to us from the fork and we made our way back. S, being the bright girl that she is, figured out that the trail that we were trying to hike on - the trail that we could not find - the trail that was clearly marked on the map as "The Continental Divide" - was indeed the Continental Divide!! And not a regular trail!! Once we looked at the legend, it all made sense. Who would have thought!! Wait! I don't think this information was supposed to leave RMNP either!! Ooops. Anyways, we marched back to the trail head rather sheepishly. We attempted to figure out the trail that would take us to Mt.Ida but we couldn't. We gave up and were looking for hiking trials elsewhere in the park when a car pulled up at the trail head and a couple got out of it and made it known that their intention was to hike to Mt.Ida. Here was happy coincidence indeed. We quickly set about behind them when we realized that we'd forgotten our map in our car. 10-15 minutes later, having recovered the map, we set off on the trail again. 10 minutes later we reached a big patch of snow with no sign of the trail anywhere. It was gone. Poof. As were the hikers ahead of us. Disturbing I tell you. We mulled over this for a little, went around the patch of snow in different directions, sighed and came back to the trail head. And yes, you have correctly assumed that this info was not supposed to have left RMNP either. So please do not discuss this with anyone else. Ever.
I must admit that I was giddy at this point. My lack of sleep over the last two nights and some exhaustion because of that was one reason. The other was that the situation was just so darned hilarious. It was around 9.30 am and we had made two abortive attempts to hike in the Rocky Mountain National Park and had no clue what to do next. Amyways, it all turned out good. We drove around in the park (including the drive on the highest motorable road in the US - at around 12,500 feet), walked up to a nice viewpoint, generally enjoyed the scenery and changed plans and drove all the way to the little town of Alamosa, Colorado. This place has many distinctions. One being that it, as we discovered that night, has one of the best Thai restaurants I've been to. They actually had a full 2 page vegetarian menu! The second was that the backyard of the Comfort Inn that we stayed at is just open prairie land. Well, meadows or something like that. But just loads of open land in general. As we walked in to the motel, we saw a couple of firecrackers burst out suddenly in the middle of all that dark space. It was some sight. And finally, this town also happens to be the town closest to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado. Now, this was a fun experience. Up reaaaally early again the next morning, we drove out to the park before sunrise. The sun rose from the east, over the mountains and spilled over the tall 600-700 feet sand dunes and made all those open plains glow golden. And this fantastic scene set in the calm that is peculiar to sand dunes. It was deeply beautiful. Much fun was had hiking up the dunes and then sliding down some of them while chasing our footwear that P had whimsically started tossing down the dune before setting off on the slide. We rounded off the trip with a super fun white water rafting episode in the Royal Gorge in Cannon City. That was a blast. Other than enjoying getting splashed and bumped by the rapids, and taking turns "riding bull" on the front edge of the raft with our feet dangling in the water thanks to our cool guide, we had great fun making fun of each others' appearance in a wet suit. And then, it was back to Boulder and thence to Mass. All in all a happy trip. I just wish I could have given such an account without divulging some of the information that I did. Oh well. At least, I didn't mention our in-car discussion on Yak Spanking in the context of extreme sports or the Killing of the Bird by P on our way to the Great Sand Dunes NP (one minute we are breezing through the pre-dawn darkness and the next there is a 'whump' on the windscreen and A's exclamation on the stupidity of a low flying bird) or the Possible Maiming of Another Bird by P that followed shortly after (this one just deflected off the windscreen and careened off in that direction) or the Elk That Planned Our Cold Blooded Murder by lazily strolling onto the road while P was doing ~ 60 mph. If I had mentioned it, we'd never be allowed inside Colorado again. Ever.
And so to bed.
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