The Weekend of the Losing Teams

Ever since the RSL schedule came out, we knew we'd be heading to Denver on the 4th of August to watch them play the Colorado Rapids - it would be our only chance to see them play (in person - we always have our illegal streams online) this year, so it was a given.  Eventually that trip evolved into a whole weekend adventure with Nate and Shelly, involving not only an RSL game, but a Rockies game, too.  And a whole lot of exploring in between.

After work on Friday, we loaded up the car (and when I say loaded, I mean stuffed to the gills) with people and "stuff" and headed East to catch our first losing team in action.  The Rockies really aren't doing well this season, so it wasn't a huge surprise that when we got there in the 2nd inning (we had to walk a LONG way to get to the will call window for our tickets) they were already down 2-0.  But at least we had ball park hot dogs to sooth our sorrows.

We also had one of the most amazing sunsets ever to enjoy while we watched the game.  We don't get to see many sunsets from our home due to the close, high mountains, so I've learned to not take it for granted when I do get to view one.

The clouds were doing this crazy wave thing for a good long while.

It just kept getting more dramatic and beautiful
as the evening went on.

After we decided to ditch the game in the 9th inning (the Rockies attempted a come-back in the 7th by scoring 4 runs - it was really exciting - but unfortunately the Giants more than made up for it in the 8th), we drove about an hour West again, up into the high country outside of Golden, to a little former KOA called Dory Hill Campground.  It was dark and late so we just set up camp (Gregg and I in the tent and Nate and Shelly in the back of the Sube).  The next morning we enjoyed an eggs, sausage and browns breakfast, with some biscuits cooked over the propane flame of our stove to top it all off.  There wasn't much else to do around camp, so we packed up again and drove a few miles to check out Central City.

I kind of felt like I was back in China with all the intriguing sign photos
I was taking.  There is a difference, though - Central City seemed to
know correct grammar and spelling.

The first church built in Central City - clear
back in the 1860s. 

I liked this door under the stairs of the church.

Lots of mining history here - it was called the "richest square mile
on earth".  Pretty much every building is now converted into a casino -
so I guess the money is still flowing.

Back in the car again, we decided to check out Golden Gate Canyon State Park.  We drove along the Mountain Base Road, stopping a couple of times to see the scenery and peep at the history.

Old Barn Knoll was the home of a couple twin hay barns built by
homesteaders in the 1870s.

(Yeah, I can't seem to post anything without
some nature and mountain shots.)

Bootleggers Cabin - where bootleggers in the
1920s made illegal "skunk whiskey".  Yep,
this is Colorado all right.

Lunchtime came along and instead of your traditional picnic lunch, we had this:

Papa Murphy's pizza - barbecue style.

Making the final cuts.

We flipped it mid-cooking to prevent any more burning on the bottom
and to ensure the top crust was cooked through.  No doughy crust for us!

Perfect!  And I must say it tasted pretty darn
amazing to eat pizza in the mountains.
Ah, heaven!

After lunch and a nice little snooze in the sun, we hit the road again:

At the top of the whopping 19% grade road.

Here is Panorama Point.

A couple fourteeners, Grays and Torreys Peaks, can be seen in this one.

Just an interesting rock formation along the road.

And some local wildlife.

We left the park and headed to Golden, where we thought about taking a tour of the Coors Brewery.  After driving through the parking lot and seeing the gigantic line (probably all in it for the free beer at the end!), we decided against it and instead found a quiet, shady park to nap in for a little while before heading back downtown.

We checked out the 16th Street Mall, a pedestrian-only street in downtown Denver, with lots of shops and restaurants and plenty of people-watching.  Highlights included the guitar-player who chased down a passerby who was making fun of him and nearly beat him with his blue guitar and the creepy painted "statue" people.  Also, there were lots of musicians, or wannabe musicians, playing the many pianos (painted all different colors and with lots of fun designs) situated every couple of blocks along the street.

Finally, we made our way to Dick's Sporting Goods Park, where we had a quick tailgating dinner of ham and roast beef sandwiches and then headed inside to find our seats.  Across the stadium from us was a big and loud RSL crowd - they were even louder than the Rapids fans - and around us we had a few quieter, yet still die-hard Real folks to cheer with.

This guy was a few sections away from us,
but he had some super sweet hair that I just
couldn't resist photographing.

The team coming back after halftime.

Rimando and Watson fist bumping during warm-ups.

We hoped maybe the home-team losing streak of our weekend would continue, but it turns out that the losing streak was for the teams we were cheering for instead.  The Rapids won 1-0.  But we still had a great time with fun people in a new place.

Stag Gulch Trail

Another installment of Monday Night Hikin' (after a month-long hiatus due to a plethora of rainy evenings - not that we're complaining about the rain, you know, but it was nice to get out and enjoy another evening hike together).  This week we chose Stag Gulch, which we knew next to nothing about going in.  No information on the Forest Service website, in my hiking book, or even at the trailhead - we only knew it existed because there is a sign with the name and trail number (1866) designating it as such.  Actually, there were three or four signs along the trail, so it's kind of weird to me that there's no info about it anywhere.  Another oddity is that it was obviously well used, at least by horses, as we were constantly dodging their droppings the whole way up.  But, while it made for an adventure getting "there" since we didn't even know where "there" was, or how long to expect it to take us, we had a mighty enjoyable time.

The stats:

Date hiked: 29 July 2012

Start time: ~5:45 pm

Rest/group shot time: ~10 minutes

Back time: before 8:00 pm

Total round trip time: pretty close to our typical 2 hr 15 min

Total mileage: ~5

High point: above 9300 feet (I didn't look at my GPS at the top)

And the photos:

We hiked along the muddy trail (see pics below), not knowing what we would find, when we finally picked an arbitrary ".5 miles further than the point we were at then" to be our turn-around spot, so we'd be sure to have enough daylight to get back.  Once we reached that .5 miles-further mark, we could see an opening ahead of us, and decided to make that our destination, just a little bit further ahead.  It turns out that clearing was a huge grassy field with spectacular views in every direction.  And, as an added bonus, breathtaking clouds were billowing above us.  It was SO cool!

Can you see the itty bitty rainbow?

These ones looked a little threatening, so we didn't spend too much
time up on top, for fear that we'd get soaked on the way back down.

As we left the clearing we spotted four deer - three bucks and a doe - out for their evening meal.  I wasn't quick enough to get any photos, but they were beautiful.  I don't know that I've ever seen deer on a hike - especially that close.

Coming back down the trail we had excellent views of Cordillera
and Edwards and beyond.

See?  Mud-dy!

Rocky in a Day

When Kim and Paul came to visit for a weekend at the end of July, we spent that Saturday in Rocky Mountain National Park.  It's not a huge park, but oh-my-goodness was there a lot of beautiful countryside to see!

One of our first glimpses of the park - from the car window.

Longs Peak - the sole fourteener in the park.

Stop #1 - Bear Lake.

Paul and Kim at the lake.

. . . sigh . . .

On a little hike away from Bear Lake.

We met a very angry Albert's squirrel along the trail.

Our destination: Alberta Falls.

View from the top of the falls.

We saw tons of shapes, sizes and colors of
'shrooms along the trails - but this one was
my favorite because it reminded me of Toad
on Mario Kart.

We saw a big herd of elk - and I learned that baby elk are spotted
just like baby deer when they are young.

Out our window on the drive along
Trail Ridge Road.

Also called "highway to the sky" -
it gets up to 12,183 feet in elevation.

Pit stop along the way to take in the views.
Notice Gregg's lovely socks.  ;)

You can see the road above treeline here.

Lovely tundra.

Cool formations at the top of the tundra.

A leisurely walk on the Tundra Communities Trail (above 12,000 feet!)

Paul and Kim on top of the world.

One more of the tundra -
 and the awesome clouds.

Then we drove down the road back to lower elevations and it started raining and then we were out of the park on our way back home - so no more photos.  But it was such a fun day!  And we really want to go back to hike and camp and explore some more.