On Sunday we stopped by Whole Foods before heading to Red Rocks.
Red Rocks amphitheater would undoubtedly be a great place to see a concert, but after seeing Zion National Park and the red rocks in Arizona, these Red Rocks were not as impressive.
We walked up around one of the trails and then consulted with some park rangers about where we could actually boulder (going off trail was denied at red rocks). The ranger directed us towards matthew winters park, which we decided to keep on driving by when we found, as the rocks were rather small and nothing like the red rocks that I’d wanted to climb.
We decided to try and find St. Mary’s Glacier next, but grab something to eat first. Driving down the country highway we saw a big sign for Heritage Square, which looked like a touristy old-timey place with shops and businesses in faux 19th century design. By the time we got to the only “restaurant” in the place we discovered that it was more like a hokey permanent county fair. Except the food was even worse. My $9 cheeseburger was a microwaved frozen piece of gray nothing in a Kroger squished bun and … nothing else on it (except for a square of fake cheese). Condiments were available in giant squeeze boxes on a table in the middle of the seating area, all of them leaking out onto the cement floor attracting bugs. We were many miles from any other options, not that we’d even know what those were, so we ate the “food.”
There were other times in Colorado where we felt like elitists when we would compare the food/amenities to Los Angeles, but this food would have seemed low class even to folks tredging through the mud at the Barlow County Fair. At least the barns in Barlow are real.
Next we drove west through old mining towns in the foothills of the Rockies. Many times throughout the weekend we saw camouflaged four door automobiles and at one pit-stop we parked next to one and got a closer look.
The cars were a new model coming from either Hyundai or Kia. The badges were all covered, but the ridiculous signs on the windows warning us not to take photographs of “Hyundai and Kia trade secrets” gave it away. I’m not sure these Koreans understand how the law works in America, but I’m pretty sure you can’t sue me for photographing a car that is parked (or driving) in public.
After a long winding road going up into the mountains we arrived at the trail head for St. Mary’s Glacier. It’s only a quarter mile hike up through the forest, but it’s all the more strenuous at that elevation. The hike itself was very serene, walking through green moss covered boulders between pine trees.
When we reached the end we were treated to an amazing view of a lake beneath a mountain peak with two glaciers laying on the upper slope.
There were lots of little chipmunks running around the edge of the lake.
After walking around the lake to the other side it became apparent that there were no “off trail” restrictions here. Sam sat for a rest while I bouldered up the mountain right beside the glacier.
Because the glacier was melting and the soil/rocks was loose, there were a few sections in which I second guessed this choice, but I eventually made it to the top and climbed down the other side of the glacier as a rain and thunderstorm started moving in. As I was climbing up, Sam took a few pictures. In the other pictures the glacier makes the mountain look small, but maybe when you see how small I am (I have a yellow shirt on) in the photos below it will give a better indication of scale.
We quickly hiked back down to the car in the rain under ominous dark clouds, reminding us occasionally with a rumble to stay away from trees on the way.
We had about two and a half hours before the sun would set, so we tried to go to Daniel’s Park on the Southern edge of Denver. We arrived at Daniel’s Park just in time to see the sunset, which wasn’t as glorious as it must usually be because there were still heavy rainstorms emptying on top of the mountains in front of the sun. Every attempt to watch the sunset on our trip would be thwarted by falling water.
After night fell we meandered back into the local neighborhood and picked out a quick place to eat. We picked Firehouse Subs, which was a drastic improvement over subway or quiznos. On our way back to Denver, heading north, we saw labor day fireworks over to the East. We quickly pulled off the freeway and into a Kohls parking lot to watch the rest of the show.
Much more photos in higher res are available here.
