Impromtu Trip Across Colorado

It was a beautiful day yesterday. Temps near 70, sunny, blue sky--what better day for a drive. With Hobie in tow (we don't leave home without him) we went to first service at church then hit the road. Andy had taken a road trip last fall and had been telling me all about the sights in southern Colorado. Our destination was Black Canyon of the Gunnison, one of our nation's newest national parks. Similar to the Grand Canyon, Black Canyon has a north rim and a south rim. The north rim is more remote and the south rim has nicely labeled hiking trails and lookouts. The walls of this canyon are narrow and sheer. We didn't understand how deep the chasms were until we looked across and saw how small the people were in comparison. It was absolutely stunning! We took quite a few hikes and were relieved that the park allowed dogs on the hiking trails because hiking is fun but hiking with Hobie is even more fun. Hobie wasn't as impressed by the steep drop offs as we were however. In fact, he has quite a healthy fear of heights at this stage in his life. At a couple of the most stunning lookouts, Hobie refused to go anywhere near the edge. He layed spread eagle on the dirt and refused to move. At another spot he stayed more alert, legs flexed and ready to run away at the first sign of danger. Before arriving at the park we passed a lake created by a series of dams. It was so nice to see a large body of water again! It was really windy yesterday and nobody seemed brave enough to face the whitecaps but we found a nice spot that was a bit calmer and played fetch with Hobie. Hobie is a water dog by nature I'm told but he has not had a lot of experience with water outside of the bath tub. We decided to introduce him to a larger body of water, something that was deeper then the snow he played in this winter (and spring). Completely unrelated sidenote: it snowed today. Hobie was shocked at first when he realized the water was deeper and slightly colder then the Gore Creek behind the hotel but was excited to play after the initial shock wore off.

Hobie playing in the lake.

It seems that the water used to be a lot higher judging by the no wake buoy in the sand...

We left Hobie in the car during one of our short hikes but he didn't seem very happy about the idea...

Mountains and lakes, what a wonderful combination!

The river was really far below where we were standing at the rim of the canyon.

It may not look very deep in this picture but those are trees on the other rim...

Hobie just hanging out during one of our many short hikes.

Again, pictures do not depth and sheerness of the canyon justice.

Anniversary Weekend Getaway

On Monday Andy and I celebrated our two year anniversary (and his 28th birthday)! In honor of these special milestones we decided to take a road trip of sorts. We have been talking for months about heading to Colorado Springs so on Sunday the three of us (we couldn't leave Hobie behind all day) headed toward warmer weather. When we left our house Sunday morning it felt like a crisp spring morning but by the time we arrived in Colorado Springs a couple of hours later the mercury was hovering around the 80 degree mark! Hooray for a day to wear capris and chacos!! Our first official stop of the day (we stopped a couple of times along the way to let Hobie out) was the Air Force Academy. I had the opportunity to tour the Academy quite a few years ago with my family but Andy had never seen the place before. After a tour of the gift shop where we learned the history and protocol of the AFA we took Hobie for a walk down the trail connecting the gift shop and chapel. The chapel at the Air Force Academy is unlike anything else. The stained glass is beautiful and the shape of the structure is very unique. According to a chapel fact sheet, there are 17 rows of spires. The number 17 does not have any signifcant significance except for the fact that the original design with 19 spires was deemed to expensive. Another notable part of the chapel is the pipe organ. The pipe organ is found in the balcony of the church. I found it interesting that the organ player sits with his/her back to the congergation when he/she plays the massive instrument. According to the same fact sheet, the largest pipe is 32 feet high while the smallest pipe is the size of a pencil.

http://www.usafa.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet_print.asp?fsID=9415&page=1

The outside of the AFA cadet chapel.














Inside the chapel looking toward the pulpit.










The massive organ in the back of the church.











A few of the stained glass windows.












After visiting the chapel and driving around the grounds a bit more we made our way out of the gate and toward the Garden of the Gods. Another stop on our family tour years ago, Garden of the Gods is famous for rock formations such as the "Kissing Camels". We had a lot of fun driving around and hiking over different trails in the park. Hobie was exhausted by the end of our journey!

Standing on the balcony of the visitor center at Garden of the Gods.

Andy and a big red rock.

The clouds parting around a large balancing rock.

The road passes very close to some of the rocks!

Kissing camels.

We had a wonderful time in Colorado Springs and were blessed with good weather all day (no 3 hour traffic jams on Vail Pass again!!) Thank you for all the cards and phone calls for our anniversary! We felt very loved!!

Sunday Afternoon Adventures

The weather has been crazy lately. So crazy in fact that our school had a snow day on Thursday!! So, after a few days of being cooped up inside Andy and I decided that we needed to get out of the house on Sunday afternoon. Since the mountain is closed and everything was covered with snow we didn't have very many options. We decided that it had been awhile since our last geocaching adventure so we decided to give that a try. After locating a seemingly easy cache in Summit County we gathered our coats and a few toys for Hobie and made our way over the pass. We were greeted with fresh snow as we made our way up the pass. By the time we made it close to the cache the roads were slick and visibility was not great. In fact, we missed the exit and had to go to the next exit a few miles down the road in order to turn around. When we finally made it to the desired exit we found a place to park the car, put our coats on, and let Hobie out of the car. He was so excited to run around in the fresh snow. As we blazed our way down the trail, Hobie leaped from side to side rolling around in the fresh powder. The storm made it hard for us to achieve a high level of accuracy with our GPS. We finally decided to just start searching under rocks (that were buried in snow mind you) because the clue for this cache seemed to indicate that it would be hidden amongst a pile of rocks. At this point we all looked like snow monsters. We finally found the desired treasure, logged our information in the book, and dropped off the travel bug.
We were not ready to head home quite yet so we decided to drive to Silverthorne. We didn't really have a plan but we were feeling spontaneous. After a trip to Target for washer fluid and a quick flick in town we decided that maybe it was finally time to head home. For the fun of it we decided to take that long way home over Loveland Pass. It was beautiful up there. There were even a couple of crazy people who had their friends drop them off at the top of the pass so they could ski down! As we were making our way west we began to see signs warning about an accident 3 miles up the road. As you might imagine, an accident on the freeway has a tendency to slow traffic so we crawled along at about 3 miles per hour through that section of the road. During the slow time we saw about 6 or 7 tow tracks pass on the shoulder of the road. It turns out that the accident involved at least 10 cars. (One must have been sandwiched between two others)
After we passed the accident site the traffic began to flow and we thought we were in the clear. Not quite. Vail Pass turned out to be an adventure all its own. At about 8pm we slowed to a stop on the way up the pass then sat for awhile. Andy decided to start a trend by shutting the car off in an attempt to save gas (thankfully we had just topped off the tank!) About a half hour later cars started to crawl a bit up ahead so we turned the car back on and moved up a few hundred yards only to stop again. Around 9 it became apparent that we were going to be there for awhile. Hobie was getting antsy so we decided to let him out of the car so he could relieve himself. Happy puppy!! As previously mentioned, Hobie loves bounding around in the snow and we were quite surrounded by it. We laughed because the freeway resembled a parking lot in the fact that the road was covered with snow but there were a bunch of dry pieces of pavement where the cars used to be parked when we finally were able to move ahead a little bit. Sometime around the 10 o'clock hour Hobie and I took a walk along the side of the freeway. Cars were parked as far as the eye could see so we decided that it was as good a time as any for a Sunday evening walk. We walked quite a distance before heading back to the car and were greeted by numerous oohs and ahhs and a couple of "can I pet him?"
Given the fact that I had to get up and go to work in the morning I decided to recline my seat and catch a few zzz's. Hobie thought the idea was wonderful and decided to curl up in a ball in the back of the car. The next thing I remember is getting off the exit in Avon and pulling up in our driveway at about 11:45 pm. Talk about an adventure! Geocaching, sightseeing, and 3 hours parked on Vail Pass-what a day!