Rocky Mountain Vay-Cay Days 9 & 10: Coors Brewery and Coors Field

Once we departed Rocky Mountain National Park we headed for a very magical place - Coors Brewery!

We took a fabulous, self-guided tour and learned a ton about where beer comes from. Furthermore, Coors told us all about its generous contributions to society - how kind!

Did you know that Coors gives the yeast leftover from the brewing process to Purina make catfood? True! Did you know the Adolf Coors insisted upon aluminum cans which were both recycleable and didn't have the yucky metal taste old cans had? True! Did you really need more reason to drink Coors Light and Blue Moon? Probably not.

After the tour we sped over to Denver and strolled to Coors Field to see the Rockies take on the Padres. Despite a mild rain delay our $4 tickets turned out to be perfectly delightful. We sat in the cheap seat, called the Rockpile. It's actually just like Wrigley's bleachers and we did not have to sit on rocks. What a relief!

The next day we departed for home... but before we arrived in the Land of Lincoln we had to make it through Iowa...

Rocky Mountain Vay-Cay Days 7 & 8: Rocky Mountain National Madness

We spent two days at Rocky Mountain National Park - an absolutely magnificent park with mountains, meadows, alpine tundra, green-blue lakes, and a bit of glacial activity.

We drove up Trail Ridge Road, which snakes high into the mountains. We also took a 4.4-mile hike up to Flattop Mountain. While I'm totally capable of walking 4.4 miles - maybe even hopping 4.4 miles on one foot across Chicago - hiking UP a mountain is terrible. It was hard to breath, every step was a challenge, and seriously I could not breathe. Argh!

Once we made it up the mountain and into the cloud which covered the mountaintop I was a happy camper. I almost skipped the whole 4.4 miles down!

Best part of the hardest hike ever? Seeing alpine tundra and its awesome animals!

We saw tons of lichen-covered rocks, odd grasses and beautiful flowers. And, more importantly, we saw pikas and marmots!

Pikas are adorable rabbit-relatives who love the tundra. They eat tundra grass and organize it in little piles to dry it for eating later. Pikas don't hibernate and according to Wiki these little darlings are seriously threatened by global warming!

We also saw chubby marmots - those guys look like beavers, sort of. They bumble around and
tumble over rocks.

Besides the mountains, we enjoyed a nature path, a ranger-guided tour of an old ranch and all the splendor the Department of the Interior has to offer. Whoo-hoo!

Rocky Mountain Vay-Cay Day 6: Mountains and Moose

We departed Edwards, CO, where BFF Dana lives, early Tuesday morning. Our voyage away from the comforts of couch-crashing was not a simple one.

First we traveled through Glenwood Canyon to hike up to Hanging Lake. Hanging Lake is about a 1-mile hike up through the canyon. The lake is a travertine, which means limestone dissolves and deposits itself on dead trees making something very fuzzy and odd-looking. The hike is lovely - lots of climbing up and lots of climbing down, of course - but very shady with a tumbling creek twisted around the trail.

Since it's a quick hike lots of families climb to Hanging Lake. We heard tons of grumbling kids, thirsty kids (since people really seem to be confused about how much water you need to climb up a miles - clue: you need a LOT of water), kids knocking out parts of the trail switchbacks and other bad-kid-related mayhem.

The hike was beautiful though! And hot! I was sweaty in shorts and a tank when we finished.

After the hike we jaunted about the mountains. We drove Independence Pass, which is twisty and curvy and features the wrecks of old gold-mining communities. We visited Leadville -
the highest incorporated city in the United States.

The drive was also beautiful, but freezing. I shivered in my Turkey Trot hoody. Brrrrrr!

Our drive ended at Rocky Mountain National Park. We pulled past lucky Winding Rivers campsite 29 as the sun set and then we backed up to get back to the spot. We passed a MOOSE. A moose eating grass!

I freaked out, but the moose was nice enough. It crept about eating more grassy stuff and then shooed itself away. What a good moose!

Rocky Mountain Vay-Cay, Days 3-5: Caddyshacking and Rafting

What do Caddy Shack parties and rafting down the Colorado River have in common? Actually, both involve drinking beer. It's true!

The Caddy Shack Party was outright madness - lots of bad plaid, dozens excellent golf shirts, a few dead-on Carl Spackers, some fun dogs, and beer served cold at three homes we stopped at. We had a riotous good time meeting Colorado people, all of whom are so nice and incredibly adventuresome...

The morning after the Caddy Shack Debacle we woke up and prepared for two days of rafting and camping. Seriously. When most people would be nursing hangovers, sleeping in and watching TNT, Colorado's finest pack their backpacks, strap everything else to rafts, buy a ton of domestic light beer and get out in the mountains.

A group of six - four teachers and five people from Illinois (weird!) - met in State Bridge, Colorado to park car No. 1, drove to Rancho Rafting Resort to park car No. 2, drove to Radium to park car No. 3 and hike all our gear up to out campsite. Then car No. 4 picked us up and delivered us all to Pump House where we launched our rafts. Phew!

We rafted to our campsite, right along the Colorado River. The water wasn't wild but we did go through many rapids and braved quite a few in pouring rain. New awesome friends Jason and Dave steered our rafts expertly, even when we all had to stand up and moon passing trains (which is an important Colorado River tradition). 

And, we didn't just camp. We hiked to a hot spring from our campsite - about a 15 minute walk with a big climb up and a big climb down - which is especially tricky when you're carrying beer. We sat in bubbly, warm springs and even took a break from that to jump into the river off a little cliff nearby. 

Today we visited the hot springs, solved the complicated riddle of how to get people and gear back to cars, and rafted down the river for four blissful hours. Then we drove back to Edwards, showered, ate dinner and  now it's time to rest. Phew.

Rocky Mountain Vay-Cay, Days 1 & 2: Driving into Mountains

B and I left at 3 p.m. on Thursday for our Rocky Mountain Vacation. We hit a few snags - rain, Chicago traffic, rainy Chicago traffic and the state of Iowa. But Day 2 (after a luxurious night at the Motel Capri in Avoca, Iowa) was amazing.

We drove through the very dull scenery of Nebraska on I-80 - lots of flatness, some corn, a few interesting farming vehicle - and into the similarly dull (but drier) scenery of Colorado. But we got closer and closer to the mountains and suddenly we were IN the mountains.

We drove up and down and around. The elevation changes were weird, but the little Miata did its best and we made it to Vail well before dark.

We met Dana in Vail's Lionshead Village and took a gondola up to the top of the mountain for FAC - Friday Afternoon Club. We ate burgers, drank beer, listened to a band and gawked at the mountaintops. Amazing!!! 

Now we are staying in Dana's lodge-y apartment right next to the roaring Eagle River. Today we'll walk, grill and attend something called a Caddy Shack Party. Hmm.