I love Labor Day! It's a freebie holiday that gives us a three-day weekend, and that means time to do FUN things! How can you beat that? We decided to once and for all, find a "beach"-- Colorado style!
Saturday afternoon we headed to Cherry Creek State Park about 20 minutes from our house, which has a large reservoir for swimming and boating. We invited Jeremy and Kylene and their kids to meet us for a picnic and to play!
I have to admit, it did kinda sorta feel like a beach with the sand and the water. Let's face it, it's probably as close as we're ever going to get to a beach way out here in land-locked Colorado! I'll take what I can get.
The kids had a great time playing with cousins, swimming in the lake, and catching "waves" off the wake from boats coming by. Luckily it was pretty shallow, so the adults were able to sit in the shade and supervise from afar. We lucked out with gorgeous weather.
The plan had been to rent a jet ski for Jon and the kids for an hour, but we didn't know you had to reserve it (we called twice to ask questions about price and how to do it, and you'd think someone may have mentioned that, seeing as it's pretty important). When Jon finally got there, it being Labor Day weekend and all, they were booked out-- the next available time was at 5:30 p.m. and we didn't want to wait that long. Oh well. Next time!
Jeremy and Kylene suggested we try Costa Vida for dinner, which is kind of like a Cafe Rio-copy cat, so we headed straight over there. I'd been there once a long time ago, and although very good, it's just not the same as MY Cafe Rio. The kids finished quickly as usually, but thankfully all five kids were entertained by this one iPhone so the adults could finish up. Ha ha.
Monday morning we couldn't quite decide what to do! The options were endless considering we hadn't even stepped foot in the mountains yet! We decided to drive up to Mt. Evans, which is the highest "drive-able" peak in North America, elevation 14,000+ feet. The road was first made by FDR's CCC'ers back during the Great Depression. It was 14 miles of switchback, windy roads, straight to the top. It felt like we were traversing Middle Earth and heading up to Mordor!
After a few white-knuckled turns (a lot of the road is sheer drop-off, with no barriers)-- Leah was literally looking out her window and holding onto her car seat for dear life! The cool thing was that the views and height were not lost on the kids-- at every turn they would "ooh" and "ahh" and say, "Mom! Take a picture of that!"
We knew with the elevation gain it would be colder than in Parker, but we hadn't really anticipated just how cold it was going to be up at the top! When we got up there it was 38 degrees, with a windchill of 3 degrees, and snow warnings. And there we were with our light fall jackets, shorts, and flip flops. Ha ha. Lesson learned! We definitely picnicked in the car!
Braving the wind and the cold arctic tundra temperatures, we hurried and snapped some shots of the spectacular views!! Holy cow!! You could literally see for miles and miles and miles.
You can see Pike's Peak, Mt. Bierstadt, and Denver in the distance, as well as most of the Continental Divide in Colorado.
Apparently there was a restaurant and observatory built in the 1940's that caught fire and burned down in the 1970's. You can see the remains there in the background. Brrrrr! That wind was cold!
There were the cutest mountain goat friends there to welcome us up at the top. The kids loved them!
They'd come right up to you, but there were signs everywhere saying not to pet them of course, so we just took pictures.
Cute little baby goat looking for his mama! Leah loved watching this one climb. They are so quick and agile!
More goat friends on the mountainside! We counted about 8 or 9 at the top.
By this point we'd been out of the car maybe about 10 minutes, and Jon, Leah, and Zach were FREEZING and ready to call it a day. It's pretty amazing we'd traversed 3 seasons in about 45 minutes-- summer, fall, and winter.
Lucy and I wanted to go to the very tippy-top (right here in the background) which is literally the highest point on Mt. Evans, but you have to hike up to it. This was the last weekend of the season that the top 5 miles would be open, so while Jon and the kids headed back to the car, we booked it up there, preggo belly, flip flops and all!
She is one tough cookie! Lucy has always been impervious to the cold, and with my bun in the oven I'm always uncomfortably warm. Plus with the added exercise we warmed up pretty quickly! The only problem was that it was hard to breathe! The air was so thin. Here's looking at the parking lot down below as we started up to the "peak."
We did it! We "bagged the peak," as Jon would say and officially made it to the top of the world at 14, 264 feet. (Notice the gathering snow clouds in the background...)
Oh man!! The views were AMAZING!!! It was so fun to literally feel on top of the world. The clouds however were moving super fast, and before we knew it, we were caught in a snowstorm! It started snowing like crazy, so Lucy and I booked it back down to the parking lot, driven by freezing rain and snow pelting us in the face and with our bare toes. What an adventure!
We waited maybe 20 minutes for the storm to pass, and then I made Jon "goat" it up to the top so he could see, and of course the entire round trip took him maybe 10 minutes. We saw this herd of mountain goats off to the side of the road on our way back down, plus a few marmots.
About halfway down there's a forest called the Mount Goliath Natural Area, with trees dating back to 442 BC. Yes, you read that right! This area features bristlecone pine trees, which are the oldest living organisms on Earth.
Ancient bristlecone pines! Lucy loved how gnarly looking these old trees were!
We headed back down the mountain and stopped for some souvenir crystals at the old Lodge located at the base of the mountain. Idaho Springs is the city right at the base of the mountain, and come to find out, it features a famous gold mining museum, Buffalo Bill's grave and museum, and a hot springs!! Hello! Jackpot for the bucket list. We'll totally be back....
We stopped for a quick bite to eat at the second Biker Jim's location in Highland's Ranch because I wanted to Jon to taste them, plus the Baby was really craving that hot dog again!
This time I got a dog with french fried onions, blue cheese, and bacon red onion marmalade. Jon got the spicy jalapeno cheddar with elk sausage. And both were a hit! We LOVE Labor Day!
