Sunday, January 13, 2013

September – Fall Colors

One day in September Andy and I got out for a fall hike.  How?  We played hooky – took off from work, left Michelle in charge, and didn’t look back.  Sometimes you just have to make a “date” happen and our best dates are when we get out for a hike.

We drove to the Hessie Trailhead which is just west of Nederland.  The drive alone was giving us the Aspen colors we were looking for.

Much of the hike was on an old road bed.  Eventhough this part of the road was still accessible for 4wd vehicles to another Trailhead further down the road, it was under water.

I want to say that the hike we did was Lost Lake (but considering I’m months behind my postings, I’m not 100% certain!).

The old townsite still had a couple of houses or buildings.

Andy chose to hop rocks to cross the stream instead of using this perfectly fine bridge.

The aspens were stunning along most of the trail.

But the part I think we enjoyed most was the cascading waterfalls.  The sloped stream bed was pure rock with cut-outs allowing the water to flow in different channels creating a multitude of waterfalls as it descended down the mountain.  Very pretty, and peaceful, and neat just to walk around checking out the different flows.

This was our turn-around point…again, I want to say Lost Lake.

On the way back we ran into two backpackers who were using their llamas as pack animals.  I’m sure this couple gets tired of everyone stopping them to pepper them with questions and ask to pet the llamas!  They probably stay out for several days just because of people like us slowing down their hike!

On the drive home we detoured to this spot on the Peak-to-Peak Highway remembering it for it’s fall colors.  It was worth the detour.

We got to celebrate Elizabeth’s friend, Finley’s 5th birthday at the Simms St Center which has a gymnasium filled with gymnastics equipment including in-floor trampoline, foam block pit, padded floor, balance beams, parallel bars, and all the equipment gymnasts use.  By the end of the party, we voted that the Dads probably had even more fun then the kids!  What a great time!

Olde Town Arvada does a lot of festivals throughout the year and we usually keep the store open.  One of us watches Elizabeth as the other watches the store.  During the Harvest Festival, my friend Carrie and her son Liam came to town and we took the little ones to the Merry Go Round.

Photo: At Arvada harvest festival yesterday :)

We finally got to the Denver Botanic Gardens.  Who knew it was so pretty?  Ha!  An artist had a special display of these bamboo pieces scattered throughout the garden that made it very intriguing.  I really enjoyed the shapes and patterns it created.  It reminded me of seeing Chihuly’s exhibit when I was in Florida.

The Gardens had a wonderful Children’s Garden with lots of active play areas – waterfall, stream, climbing rocks, a pretend camp site, and more.

Elizabeth enjoyed herself, too!

I had one more BIG event that happened in September, which I’ll put in another post:  I had a Girls Getaway Weekend!!  Somehow these rare reunions seemed even more delicious after having a child!  ha!

More pictures:  September WebAlbum

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