Colorado

Last month, Two months ago, (whoops!) Naomi and I took a trip to Colorado to visit her sister + family.  Despite the elevation, we took some great day hikes and saw some really gorgeous scenery and animals.  It was also really fun to get to spend time with them, especially with our niece.

One of our first forays was to a place called Horsetooth, because it looks like a horse's tooth.  Local tribes recount a legend about the slaying of a giant, and the rock looking like the cleaved heart of said foe.  The trail guide said it takes 5 hours on average, and our brother-in-law said it would take 3 hours.  So we got dropped off with a 3-hour window.  The air was really thin and we definitely weren't in top hiking shape.  We ended up taking just under an hour and a half to get up, hung out for about 45 minutes, and came down with time to spare. 

Horsetooth

gorgeous view

Horsetooth selfie. 

We also took a short trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, which was really really amazing.  No photos or words will ever really do it justice.  I'd never seen anything like it in my entire life. On the way in, we stopped at the ranger station to ask about conditions.  They said that the night before, the park had received 73" of snow- IN ONE NIGHT.  The roads were surprisingly clear, but the amount of snow at some of the higher elevations that we saw was unbelievable.  As well, the number of deer and elk we saw was astonishing.