Oh Beautiful For Spacious Skies

This morning we took a little drive over Shrine Pass and stopped at the Mount of the Holy Cross overlook. Can you tell why they called it that? :) Shrine Pass starts at the top of Vail Pass and ends in Red Cliff. Then, we explored about 6 miles of Tigiwon Road (where we go to get our Christmas trees, but we've only been up a little more than a mile doing that) till we got to an old cabin built buy the CCC in the '30s where Christians making pilgrimages to Mount Holy Cross could be sheltered back in the day.  Now-days you can rent it out for parties and such. We stopped in Minturn to check out the big chunk of Lionshead Rock that broke off and tumbled down to (and demolished) the railroad tracks below. (We hiked to and stood atop the rock in 2012, and attempted again in 2013 with Cal, but didn't quite make it to the top that time.)  And then we got some Nicky's Quickies (Greek gyros) for lunch, which we ate at the same little park in Minturn that we ate last year's 4th of July Quickies at. We were home by 12:30, ready for a nap and a bike ride and a little brownie making. Now it's pouring down rain, which smells and sounds amazing - we've needed this storm for a while! Pretty great way to celebrate America's birthday, I'll say.

A peek at the amazing Gore Range from Tigiwon Road.

The flowers were very festive - red, white, and
blue - though I wasn't able to get all three
colors in one shot.

The path created by the boulders as they
tumbled off Lionshead Rock.

The water was too cold for those tiny toes.

Totally authentic American meal for lunch.
(We had French toast for breakfast and are having pizza for
dinner.  America is a melting pot, right?)

But it was DEE-lish and enjoyed by all.  Callie was a
big, big fan of the pita bread.