Breckenridge, Day 1

[I am smart. s.m.r.t. Here's why: I remembered to bring my camera. That's very important, when you're taking a trip. But I forgot to bring along the cord which connects my camera to a computer, so that I can get at the pictures. So, I will post narratives of my adventures for now, and go back and add in pictures later. Keep your eyes peeled!]

This morning, I had to get up very early. I had a 6:15 flight from STL to DEN, and J was kind enough to drive me to the airport. Smooth flight in, and an easy shuttle ride from Denver to Breck with our Ukrainian driver, who dropped me right at the door to Dad's place.

It was nearly lunch time, so we walked down the hill for lunch. We stopped at the Columbine Cafe, where I had some delicious chicken tortilla soup - very creamy and tortilla-y - and an enormous (half-pound!) hamburger. With cole slaw. Which I ate all of. It was an impressive showing. A quick stop at the Mountain Angler secured me a fishing license and scored Dad some new teeny tiny zebra midges. Our last stop was an art gallery where they have an enormous Russian painting of some steel workers for sale for $450,000. I did not buy it.

For our first real Colorado out-of-doors experience, we drove (haha, a real out-of-doors experience) from the house up to Boreas Pass (11,482 feet in elevation according to the sign at the pass). From there, we hiked on up to Black Powder Pass (elevation: 12,159 feet, and something that's not on Wikipedia!), and then a little further up the Continental Divide to an elevation which we very scientifically calculated to be 12,322.39 feet. It was quite a climb, in probably just a little over 2 miles. We did not scientifically calculate distance. And we were right on the Divide! How cool is that? I could have rolled down the hill one direction and, if I survived the tumble out of the mountains and could travel as easily as a raindrop, I would have ended up in the Atlantic Ocean, or I could have gone the other way and ended up in the Pacific. Keystone did not care. He just wanted to chase small animals.

Red and yellow paintbrush

Keystone on our hike, enjoying the great out-of-doors

Looking towards South Park

Me and Keys at the Continental Divide

From our highest point, we could see the Front Range, the Ten Mile Range, and the Mosquito Range. And there was still snow! In August!

Snow! And there was lots more that I didn't take pictures of. This was just the first time I saw it.

This is what clearcut logging looks like, 100 years later

Wildflowers

Columbine, the state flower of Colorado

By the way, the walk back down is much easier. And we stopped on the road so I could snap some pics of the Baker Tank, an old water tank used to provide water to passing Colorado & Southern Railroad trains. Pretty nifty stuff.




And now we're rewarding all our hard work with a salad and bratwurst dinner. Mmmmm....