Colorado Top Ten

We had an amazing time in Colorado.  It was one of our best trips.  Here are some of my favs from the trip.

#10 

We got to see A LOT of animals.  This Clydesdale at the Anheuser-Busch brewery was the only one we didn't get to see in its natural habitat.  We also got to see deer, chipmunks, elk, big horn sheep, pikas, many birds we don't ever see in TX, and a coyote.  We even had a possible bear cub attack while sleeping in our tent.

#9

I think I finally understand how beer is brewed.  I think you'd have to finally "get it" after touring four breweries behind the scenes.  One of the coolest parts of the process was getting to taste beer at each stage of the process at Anheuser-Busch.  We tasted wort, alpha beer, unfiltered beer, and freshly brewed Bud Light.

 

#8

After a lot of practice over the past couple of years, I think Adam and I have finally hit our stride as to what we need and don't need when going on a camping/road trip.  This was our most minimalist trip yet, and still I look at all this stuff and think "we don't need that, we don't need that, do we really need that?"  Granted we did pack a suitcase for this trip which is not typical but it was because we weren't just going to be camping for this trip.  I even dehydrated all our meals to cut down on excess stuff.

#7

I love that Adam loves to do this with me.  And he looks pretty cute when he's in his mountain man get up. :)

#6

Going off trail was some of the must fun hiking we did.  We scrambled over boulders and rocks to get to the top of a waterfall.  We went off trail to get an overhead view of a lake.  This gave us some pretty unique experiences.

#5

Going on free tours and getting free beer is da bomb!  We didn't get free beer everywhere we went.  In all we tried beers at seven different brew pubs, craft breweries, and big corporate breweries.  Coors and New Belgium were the most generous with their free beer which is cool because those were the beers we liked the best.

#4

The smells, the colors, the sounds...all indescribable.  Fir trees so sweet.  Blues so blue.  Greens so green.  Quiet filling the air.

#3

Climbing the highest we've ever climbed to Hallett's Peak at 12,713 feet was pretty intense.  It was a lot of climbing with a lot less oxygen than we're used to.  Getting to the top was the best high.  And maybe we were.  Like I said, there was less oxygen than we're used to.

#2

The trails were awesome.  I *heart* trail running!  I don't know how it took me 10 years to discover how much fun trail running is.  I wish I got to run trails like we ran and hiked every day.  We ran in Palo Duro Canyon on our way to RMNP and we ran an easier trail while in the Rockies.  It is such a different thing than road running.

#1

I've said this before, but camping and getting into the outdoors is the one thing I can do to completely get away from everything.  I think it's because it's so foreign to my normal life that it's easy to let go of all my worries and responsibilities and truly just live in the moment, relax, and enjoy myself.