We had an eventful weekend recently filled with unrelated points of interest: chocolate, magic, and mountains.
Yes, Jason was on the run.
On Friday, we went to Taste with Jason’s parents as a birthday treat. As its name suggests, Taste is a place for tasting fine foods with pinky fingers up. Evaluating different types of high-end chocolate was a treat!
Expedious Momentum!
Nope, I’m not too cool for this.
On Saturday, we participated in the Muggles Battle Cancer 5K. We created quick, and reasonably-breathable, costumes for this event using what we had on hand. Jason’s Death Eater tattoo was impressive for a two-minute Sharpie job. It was over 90 degrees when we started this race, so it might have more appropriately been named Muggles Battle Heatstroke. Perspiro Maxima!
Our hiking band included some little rookies.
Below Sunset Peak, Brighton’s lakes formed a string of shimmering circles.
On Sunday, we hiked to Sunset Peak with some of my family members via Lake Mary, Lake Martha, and Lake Catherine. Getting to Lake Catherine takes a 2.2-mile trek. From there, it’s a little over a mile to the top of Sunset Peak. If you are a math whiz, you can add that up to be about 3.3 miles each way or 6.6 miles total. You whiz! Somehow, our distance summed to 7.6 miles, presumably from sidetracks to Dog Lake and around shorelines. I’m going to blame that extra mile for the extra hour it took us to complete this hike. Five hours was the estimate, but we required six.
Wildflowers added a delicate dash of color to Brighton’s terrain.
The air was murky during our climb because of particulates blown in from the California and Oregon wildfires. Sunset Peak still provided inspiring views from its 10,648 feet, but some of the surrounding beauty was concealed in a veil of haze.
Sunset Peak rose above hillsides dimmed by smoke.
It was a varied weekend with a little something for the mouth, the eyes, and the heart.
Some think birthdays are a reason to be sad. Jason and I think birthdays are an excuse to be rad. When both our birthdays came up this summer, rad we were… or kind of cool at least.
Good friends are better treasure than fake gold.
Although Jason took me to California for my birthday, more than enough of a celebration, he still wanted to get together with a few of our chums in honor of my oldness. Hence, he arranged for us to spend three full hours breaking out of Vizzini’s House of Escape with some of our slippery buddies. We covered both floors of Vizzini’s, including Mr. Body’s Game Room and the Pirate Hunter. Mr. Body’s became a battle of boys vs. girls that no one won. (The girls got closer though, which bears mentioning.) We felt a little potato brained after our 90 minutes with Mr. Body, but the prospect of acquiring Queen Anne’s treasure soon had us digging through hidden maps and bone piles with enthusiasm. We completed our swashbuckling quest with 10 or 15 minutes to spare. I guess our minds resembled brains more than spuds after all.
This amazing cake was just one of the three bestowed on us by my friend Robyn this year.
To commemorate Jason’s birthday, I invited a small group of old friends to join us for supper at Brio Tuscan Grille. We gobbled tenderloin on a too-full table and talked about bizarre travel faux pas. It was both a satisfying and entertaining evening.
Birthdays should be a hands-on experience.
I didn’t take Jason anywhere as turbulent as Disneyland for his birthday, but the two of us did gain some heights at Sundance Resort. We ate a bulky breakfast at the Foundry Grill and then took a sultry chairlift ride to the top of the mountain. After disembarking to appreciate some of the landscape, we hiked back to the bottom of the mountain via Stewart Falls. In keeping with the inadvertent woodsy theme of the day, we ate dinner at Log Haven. Log Haven is one of my favorite places to dine during the summer. The food is amazing, and its outdoor patio is filled with the unmistakable scent of pine and the rhythmic splashing of a mossy waterfall.
Red’s Summit is a perfect place to contemplate the passing of another eventful year.
No shoes + a cool stream = a tranquil birthday.
Thanks friends for joining in our birthday adventures. Happy birthday to you and me but mostly me!*
*This is a nerdy Captain Hammer reference not an actual narcissistic declaration.
Jason and I have gotten in the habit of taking trips with my parents and sister every summer. I guess we like each other enough not to seek a cure for this habit. My sister suggested we visit Durango this year and that’s how we found ourselves there a few months later.
No frame is too antiquated for me.
Jason and I have a different vacation style than many members of my family; we are ever ready to discover new places and try new things while others prefer just chilling. Fortunately, we rented a lovely home that made relaxation and exploration simultaneously possible.
Cliff Palace is the largest cliff dwelling in North America.
The Durango fire, known officially as the 416 Fire, started just days before our excursion. It made the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad inoperable and tourist destinations like Purgatory inaccessible. We didn’t waste time crying over spilled embers though.
The tunnel Balcony House’s tour crawls through is 12 feet long and 18 inches wide.
Our first day in Durango, we shopped on its adorable Main Ave and squeezed in a trip to Aztec Ruins National Monument in New Mexico. Aztec Ruins, despite its name, has nothing to do with the Aztecs. (Those silly Spaniards thought every native was an Aztec.) Instead of Aztecs, Ancestral Puebloans were the monument’s former inhabitants. Over a thousand years ago, these people created this sophisticated community near the Animas River. I was surprised by the refined design elements incorporated into their structures. At Aztec, unlike other ruins, you can actually go through a number of the site’s 400+ rooms. It definitely merits the drive from Durango and is different than what you see at Mesa Verde.
Balcony House consists of 38 rooms and two kivas.
The Balcony House tour is Mesa Verde’s most extreme. A 32-foot ladder is just one of its adventurous challenges.
No trip to Durango would be complete without investigating Mesa Verde National Park. We spent a day there; we could have easily spent a couple more. We did the Cliff Palace and Balcony House tours. Cliff Palace was physically difficult for some members of our group and Balcony House was a heights challenge for others; I’m A-OK with adrenaline spikes and muscle contractions when timeless curiosities are involved. We also drove along the Mesa Top Loop to sift through hundreds of years of the Ancestral Pueblo civilization’s evolving architecture.
We watched lightning flash a tantrum above Spruce Tree House’s quiet alcove.
After our packed day in Mesa Verde, some members of our group needed a breather. That breather came in the form of escaping from a room at Conundrum, painting nails, and binge-watching Stranger Things.
Silliness is contagious.
Our last day in Durango began with a hike in the San Juan Mountains on the Colorado Trail. The Colorado Trail crosses 500 miles of the state’s rugged terrain. We took it long enough to cross the Junction Creek bridge, about 5.5 miles. It was a bit muggy that morning, but the creek provided some toe-dipping diversions.
You can never have too much mountain.
Although the ride home would have been wearing enough on its own, Jason and I made several not-entirely-on the-way stops in route that extended our travel time further and resulted in a return after 2:00 AM. We checked out Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, a stretching preserve that contains the highest concentration of archeological sites in the U.S. Over 6,000 have been recorded within its borders and a total of over 30,000 has been estimated. We visited its Anasazi Heritage Center, along with the Dominguez, Escalante, and Lowry Pueblos. Lowry Pueblo was our favorite of these. On Lowry’s windy plateau, we ate a peaceful picnic of salsa and chips while the stones of a remote civilization hummed a quiet history.
A two-mile walk around Little Ruin Canyon reveals many intricate structures like Hovenweep Castle.
Our last stop was Hovenweep National Monument. Although a bit isolated, Hovenweep was both a curious and astonishing marvel! There, tall towers of remarkable complexity pack the rim of a small canyon like a prehistoric city block. These structures look almost medieval with their turrets and defensive positions along the ravine’s brim. Many were constructed so close to the canyon’s cliffs that chunks of them have crumbled into that gully over time.
Most of the structures in Hovenweep’s Little Ruin Canyon were constructed in precarious spots along its edge. Overtime, many have lost pieces to the valley floor.
Durango was a historic trip with many historic moments. We witnessed the remains of some remarkable cultures, got my sister hooked on Stranger Things, and got my mom to play a board game. (Say what?) We also got a hint of the power behind the 416 Fire as smoke infiltrated the air and ash drifted down on our heads. Dang Durango!
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