« previous: Eats, Shoots & Leaves | next: TOOTHPASTE! »

Colorado

I just got back from an awesome little vacation with Kim and her parents in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. If there were such a thing as heaven on Earth, I think it’d probably be in Colorado. There are rivers and mountains everywhere, and the civilization (mostly farms) is sprinkled so sparsely across the landscape.

The little town of Steamboat Springs is wonderfully quaint and cozy. There is a walking/biking path that runs along the Yampa river right on the edge of downtown, and it takes you past bridges and mountains and restaurants and stinky bubbly sulfur springs. From literally everywhere in the town, and for that matter everywhere we drove in Colorado, you can see huge snow-capped mountains either right next to you, or off in the distance.

The only downside is that the sun is more intense there (seemingly a LOT more intense) due to the high altitude, and we got some sunburn pretty early-on in the trip. The only time I ever wear sunblock is at the beach, so I didn’t really think about it for the mountains. But on the upside, I wore a baseball hat for the first time in probably 10 years, to keep the sun off my head and face and ears, and I rather enjoyed it. I think I’m going to look for a hat to wear more regularly now.

Between myself, Kim, and her dad, we took over 2.5 gigs of photos and movie clips. I’ll be posting some of them here soon.

Posted by Anthony on Jun 20, 2005 | 15 replies
Filed under: Adventure, Life, Outdoors

Comments:

01. Jun 20, 2005 at 03:10pm by kim:

I somehow feel that the term "stinky" is inadequate to describe the bubbly sulfur springs we encountered on our biking adventure. Maybe putrid?
We passed under this bridge into one of the local parks where the spring was conveniently located next to a port-a-potty.. I think if you’d have visited that particular facility, chances of passing out in there would be pretty good.

My family has been visiting Steamboat Springs for skiing trips since Travis and I were kids, but we had never been there in the summer before. It’s really beautiful and there’s so much to do. We went hiking nearly every day, as well as biking, and horseback riding in the mountains at a local ranch. We were hoping to go whitewater rafting too, but the aforementioned sunburn kept us from partaking in any kind of water sports that involved wet suits (which is everything when all of the rivers are fed by melting snow).

In addition to the local attractions, our dog Heidi provided hours of entertainment by playing in the long grass, creeks, rivers, and any little bit of snow she could find!

Anyway, it was a blast. It was great to have you along, Anthony. I can’t wait to see what pictures you choose to post!

02. Jun 20, 2005 at 03:13pm by kim:

Yeesh, terrible comma usage. I should finish reading "Eats, Shoots, & Leaves" as soon as possible. : ) Is it possible to install a grammar checker like the spell checker you have?

03. Jun 20, 2005 at 03:19pm by Anthony:

No, a grammar-checker is a far more complicated beast than a spell-checker. The best you can hope for at this point is an attentive editor; fortunately you do have one of those here : ) I removed the extra comma after "Heidi."

04. Jun 20, 2005 at 04:36pm by MPAW:

Holy crap. 2.5 gigs of pictures?? I thought my 5 gigs of pictures over 3 weeks in Europe last year was bad. You got me beat though. Speaking of Europe, I can sympathize with getting burned when you least expect it. I got really burned not in Italy, but in Switzerland of all places when I was hiking. Unfortunately, I was wearing relatively high socks (for me anyway) and I had a bad sock line for the rest of the vacation.

I’m glad you’re rediscovering the joy of baseball caps (as long as it wasn’t a Colorado Rockies hat of course. That leads to pain). It’s especially convenient when you’re running out of the house and don’t have time to apply gel (or if you have mutant curly hair of death like me). If only I could wear one to work, I’d have one less appearance-related hassle in the mornings.

Anyway, glad you enjoyed your vacation. It sounds like it was a good time.

05. Jun 20, 2005 at 04:50pm by Rolly:

Welcome back to PA. We missed you guys yesterday. I’m glad to hear you had a fun time. Colorado is one of my top 4 favorite states, for all the things you described. Steamboat is high on my list of places to visit in the winter for snowboarding. My friends went there 2 winters ago and said the riding was epic. I can’t wait to see your pics!

06. Jun 20, 2005 at 07:19pm by Anthony:

Yeah, 2.5 gigs is a lot. But of course we were all photographing the same things so there’s lots of overlap, and we were using 3, 4, and 6 megapixel cameras, so most of the photos were 2-4 megs each.

And don’t worry, it wasn’t a Rockies hat, it was a Hawaii hat. Fortunately I don’t have mutant curly hair nor do I put gel in my hair, but I do have a severe cowlick in the back when my hair is at certain lengths.

Rolly, what are your other 3 favorite states? Yeah, Kim’s family generally goes for the skiing; this was their first summer visit. I’ve actually never been (snow)skiing or snowboarding but hope to remedy that soon.

07. Jun 21, 2005 at 06:49am by Anthony:

Update: the first photo set is online.

It’s going to take me a little while to get these all up, not because the photo-posting process takes a long time (it doesn’t), but because actually choosing the handful of good photos from many dozens of (often very similar) shots takes a while.

08. Jun 21, 2005 at 07:39am by Rolly:

In no order:

Utah
Arizona
New Vermaineshire

I have not been to Alaska or Hawaii, I’m sure my top 4 might change a little once I get to visit these 2.

09. Jun 21, 2005 at 11:09am by kim:

Rolly, if you guys decide to go snowboarding in Steamboat, let me know. I’m sure my parents would give you a good hook up with their Condo...
Maybe we could all go together some day and get Anthony on skis/a snowboard!

10. Jun 21, 2005 at 12:07pm by Rolly:

Sweet! Let’s go in February or March. Thanks for the offer, it would be a fun trip. We’re going out west somewhere for sure this winter, it’s been 2 years since my last trip out. A, out west is where you want to learn, not here on the ice coast. mmmmm....POWDER!

11. Jun 21, 2005 at 01:35pm by Kev:

Hehehe: New Vermaineshire!

12. Jun 21, 2005 at 02:26pm by Anthony:

I’ve always imagined that New England would be nice, and I guess Utah and Arizona are cool for some of the same reasons as Colorado? Other than CO and FL, the only states I’ve been to are the ones adjacent to PA, and they are none too exciting. I do like PA a lot though. I’d have to say CO is #1 and PA is #2 for me so far.

13. Jun 22, 2005 at 02:03am by Anthony:

Photos of day 2: Fish Creek Falls are online. (I didn’t have my camera with me on day 1, but Kim got some photos that will be on her site soon.)

14. Jun 28, 2005 at 01:37am by Anthony:

Kim has posted some photos from the first day of our trip, from around the town of Steamboat Springs, and from a hike along Mad Creek. And I’ve just put up my shots from day 4: Rabbit Ears Pass.

15. Jun 29, 2005 at 11:56pm by kim:

Yay! We now have the intarweb at our house, so I’ll be able to post more photos over the next couple of days. : )

Reply to this message here:

[ Home – Create Post – Archives – Login – CMS by Encodable ]