Backtracking in Colorado

Entering Colorado, we started with Colorado Springs and decided to head north afterwards. For a midwest girl who has only seen mini Michigan mountains and Appalachian mountains, the first sight of any mountain out west was incredible. Driving down the road, with wind turbines on either side of us, miles off in the distance you could see small white capped mountains. It’s safe to say that they were indeed not small. At first I thought I was just imagining them – that they were just clouds. That is, until Michael pointed them out.

Driving through Colorado Springs surprisingly reminded me of home. The layout of the city is very similar to the Detroit Metropolitan area. First stop once we got there, you guessed it, Garden of the Gods. I’d like to say we drove around the loop a few times just to take in the scenery which is true, however it was more so to find a parking spot. Once we had a few snacks we strolled through the walkways, watched rock climbers scale the formations, and took in the views.

Here’s where the adventure gets a little funky. Deciding it was time to continue our journey after a few hours of exploring, we headed towards Denver. We had no real plans so I started browsing the inter webs to find some cool places to hike around. Low and behold many of the things I found were all south of us and we didn’t really want to backtrack that far. Going back and forth about what we should do, we just said “oh well, we’re here anyway” and turned back. Let’s not forget that we’re in Colorado in early May at this point (don’t miss the foreshadowing). I’m a sucker for the views so once I saw the hike to Devil’s Head Lookout and realized it wasn’t too far in the opposite direction, that became the destination. Fast forward to the point where we’re only about nine miles away and the road was closed.

Heading back towards Denver, we passed the city and caught a glimpse of the Red Rocks Amphitheater. Arriving in the small town of Idaho Springs, Michael wanted to take me to a place close by that he had previously been – St. Mary’s Glacier. The hike is located in the Arapaho National Forest and is about 2 miles with 800 feet of elevation gain. The road to the trailhead includes quite the switchbacks too. Reaching our destination in the evening, the sun already seemed to be setting behind the mountains. One thing I’ve come to learn on this trip is that mountain sunsets go quick compared to back home. We got our gear on and embarked on our hike up the road, and just like that we were caught in a blizzard. We went back to the van and thought it would be better to just camp there for the night and do the hike in the morning. That is until the snow stopped and the sun peaked out from behind the clouds again. Hopping back out of the van we set off on our hike once again. This time making it to the top. I had never seen a glacier/snow field before so it was a pretty cool experience for me, even though it was covered in many feet of snow. The last time Michael had been there was in August so it was a new view for him as well.

Now it was time to find a real camping spot. We drove up this mountain near the town that made it feel like all the screws in the van were coming undone. Apparently people make this climb up the mountain to camp all the time or to go to the gun range at the top. We found our spot to park, made a few white Russians, and called an end to our little eventful day.