Thankfully the car troubles happened BEFORE my trip to Rocky Mountain National Park

The weekend of the 13th I was debating what to do and where to go... Crested Butte, Rocky Mountain NP, Black Canyon NP...
I couldn't decide and there were no campgrounds available anywhere (they get booked for the season so quick) so I thought, "Well I'll head to Colorado Springs and then go from there." Good thing I did. On the way to the Springs my check engine light came on. I was lucky enough to make it the 40 miles and get to a very nice shop that was highly recommended. They found a few things wrong, but it was going to take the whole weekend to fix. Luckily, I was able to stay with Laura and had a grand time!
We went to Rockledge Ranch which is a "living history farm" inside Garden of the Gods park. They have examples of old homesteads from the 1700-1900s. Volunteers dress up and will give you a history of how the original settlers of the area used to live. It was a beautiful day for a walk around the park with Laura, her dog, Raven, and the two dogs she was taking care of that weekend.

I love hanging with all the doggies. They are so snuggly ...

Afterward, we went to lunch and Laura brought me to a fun little novelty/candy shop where you can get any flavor soda you can think of including some really gross flavors like Barf, Dirt, Buffalo Wing soda, Dragon Drool, and so on. We got some to try, but we could only handle a sip or two of each cause they were way too sweet.

We also spent some time at Hobby Lobby, my favorite store. I call it "The vortex of time sucking awesomeness." But Hobby Lobby is shorter. ;)  We got a puzzle made up of covers of Nancy Drew books while we were there. We ended up working on it while watching (and singing along to) the Sound of Music in the background. (Her husband was less than thrilled.) Hehe...

This weekend, now that my car was back up and running, I drove the 3 hours to Rocky Mountain NP and explored for the day. It was the perfect day for it: 60 degrees, white puffy clouds, a slight breeze...
The scenes were so picturesque! I wish I was a better photographer cause the pics just don't do it justice.

Well I wasn't prepared for that one...

This Saturday I went up to Denver for a race. I participated in a 5K obstacle run with some friends and MAN did it kick my butt!! The altitude here was one thing that made it tough, but then there were a ton of hills to climb during the little 3 mile course. The obstacles were the fun part. The hill climbs, however, literally almost killed me. I was seeing stars at one point when I was so short of breath I thought my lungs might explode. Besides my embarrassing inability to jog up hills in Colorado I was pretty proud of how I was able to complete most of the obstacle challenges. The balance ones were by far the easiest for me. The many objects to climb over or under or through were tough, but manageable. A lot of the obstacles were over water and so if you fell you were alright, but totally soaked... which was actually kinda nice when you had just crawled through the mud and dirt. I did end up with one pretty significant battle wound from an obstacle where you had to run across these 4 floating boxes in the water. On the very last box I got both my feet on, but my back leg slipped off and I scuffed up my shin really bad. I had a big knot of swelling that showed up pretty much immediately. Today my ankle is all swollen too. Not even sure what happened there. Hope its just the swelling draining down from the rest of my leg.
Below is a link to a short YouTube video that shows some of the 27 obstacles we had to make it through. (Watch at :25 of the video. That's what I hurt myself on.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKkywrFsljE

That same evening I went to a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater which is one of the most well known outdoor theaters due to its unique location. Its nestled in the rocks that jut out on the side of a mountain. Here's a nice description from the website.

"Red Rocks Amphitheater is a geological phenomenon – the only naturally-occurring, acoustically perfect amphitheater in the world. From Sting and The Beatles, to opera stars and U2, every artist aspires to play on this magical, spiritual and emotional stage. 
Red Rocks is a geologically formed, open-air amphitheater that is not duplicated anywhere in the world. With Mother Nature as the architect, the design of the Amphitheater consists of two, three hundred-foot monoliths (Ship Rock and Creation Rock) that provide acoustic perfection for any performance."

I saw a band named "Slightly Stoopid." It was a fun concert with lots of interesting people watching. Any excuse to see a show at this venue is worth while. 

After all that excitement the rest of the weekend was shot. I was so beat I just hung out and watched the Olympics all day Sunday. :)

Great Sand Dunes National Park

This weekend I drove just a couple hours southwest of Pueblo to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. I knew the park was a smaller one, and I figured I would not need more than one day to see all there was to see. Once I got there I realized it was even smaller than I thought and it only took me a couple hours to see the whole park. It was nothing like the sand dunes at the Mojave National Preserve that I hiked. There were a lot more people and it was much closer to "civilization." I hiked a couple of smaller trails, but did not go to the top of the dunes due to not being dressed right (there was a large muddy area to cross made by a stream of run-off from the mountains nearby and I had on hiking boots and jeans) and I was a little deterred by all the people. When I go on trails I like the seclusion...
Got some good distance shots though...

On Sunday, I did another new hike in Cheyenne Canyon to the top of Mt. Cutler.  On the hike there was a view from above of Seven Falls (one of the places that I went last weekend.) Its so interesting how from the bottom of the falls they looked HUGE. Then, from this view point they looked tinny tiny. :)
Yep. Seven falls is at the bottom left corner of the first picture.

I sure can pack a bunch into one weekend...

I mentioned in my last post that I might try to go somewhere a little further away this weekend, but I didn't. There is plenty to do right here to last me a while. So, this weekend I went to Cave of the Winds, Seven Falls, hiked the Red Rocks Canyon trail again (with an added section), and explored the little section of Colorado Springs called "Ivywild." On all the down time we had, Laura and I researched equipment for long distance hiking. We are looking into hiking the Colorado Trail in a year or so.

The caves and the falls were pretty touristy attractions, but still very entertaining.
-Caves were discovered in 1881 by two boys who were just out exploring.
-One man paid for the excavation of a newer portion of the caves with the stipulation that forever more the guides would have to mention his name when ever they brought a tour group through that section. (The guide did her job, but I honestly can't remember his name... hehe... serves him right.)

-Seven falls seems to me to be just one big fall with lots of ledges.
-The 224 step climb to the top kicked my butt! The way back down was scarier though... especially in the rain.

 

On Sunday morning I hiked a portion of the Red Rocks trail again, but met up with "Section 16" to finish the 5.3 mile hike with some new scenery this time. Didn't take any pics though... oops!
In Ivywild there is an old elementary school that shut down. Years later a brewing company took it over and turned it into a brewery/ restaurant. They left the school look inside with all the doors, the hallway and old water fountain. It is really fun to walk around the little gift shops and the food was amazing.

Hiking and feeling great!

The last two weekends have been spent closer to this general vicinity. I will probably try to go somewhere further away this coming weekend. It has been a beautiful summer and so many things and places are booked up. I have to start planning a little more in advance...
So, two weekends ago I spent the day with a friend from work hiking the Seven Bridges trail. It was a beautiful day for it!

This weekend I went on a train ride through the Royal Gorge. It is a two hour long ride that takes you past some amazing scenery as it follows the Arkansas River. The view included tons of rafters on the river and the Royal Gorge bridge. They call it "the bridge to nowhere", because it was literally built on a bet and goes nowhere. Two guys were bet $1 that they couldn't build a bridge across the gorge... Well, they won. :)
I also did a 5.5 mile hike in Twin Lakes out to a cool 1800's resort which still stands to this day. There are some efforts to refurbish it, but its still pretty cool just the way it is.

I have been enjoying my little apartment where there are cows grazing across the street and the clinic where I work. The people are all so nice and I enjoy going in everyday. I see about 6-7 patients a day. It is interesting getting to know all the different personalities, but that's one of the things I have always loved about traveling.