Great Sand Dunes National Park

Sorry for the delay in posting but I have been busy these past 2 weeks. 2 weeks ago Tuesday morning I got up early and on the road for the 6 hour drive to Great Sand Dunes NP. I passed through Denver, Castle Rock, and Colorado Springs stopping at Cracker Barrel for lunch and onto to the town of Mosca, CO. After arriving at the Park I made a brief stop at the visitors center and headed to the campground to set up my home for the night. Although it was a Tuesday both campgrounds were full. I set up my tent and then changed and hiked up the dunes while walking through the near empty Medano Creek. I sure like the feeling of sand between my toes. I did not quite make it to the highest dune before I was exhausted and realized it would take another 30 minutes to get to the top. I turned around and headed back to camp. I had a wonderful meal of PB&J, Water and a Granola bar. After that I went to the Park Ranger program, and watched the sunset before heading to bed. When I went to lay down I realized that I had no sleeping pad so it was not the best night of sleep especially since I was awoken by the Coyotes in the early morning hours. The next day I got up early had breakfast that consisted of a granola bar and water and went on on Bison Tour near the Park. After the tour it was back to Grand Lake.

Bowen Lake

Last week on Thursday or Friday me and my coworker Emily decided to go for a hike instead of a run. Andrew was going to join us but he was too hungover from drinking with 2 Germans. We leave Grand Lake about 9:50 and drive about 30 minutes to this primitive road that towards the end was filled with rocks and ruts and two logs towards the end. Luckly my old Volvo station wagon survived. So we start hanging up through the woods on a beautiful but warm day. We make good time hiking to the Bowen Lake (4 miles one way) in about 1:30. We hang out at the top for abou 15-20 minutes before heading back down because we had to get back to work.
We were having some deep conversations on the way down and miss our turn to go back down to the parking lot and instead go straight for about 1 mile before we decide to turn around. 10 minutes later we found our turn. We were "lost in the woods" scared for a few minutes but overall it was quite comical. We make it safely back to the old Volvo and back to Grand Lake for work.

Day Trip to Boulder!

Last Tuesday I decided I needed to get away for the day. So I decided to head to Boulder about 45 minutes north of Denver. To avoid the tourist on Trail Ridge Road I left about 8 am for my journey over the highest continuous highway in the U.S. While going up, over, and down there were quite a few elk. (See pictures above) It was nice to return to civilization for the day. Boulder is the 11th most populous city in Colorado and home to the University of Colorado. It is known for being a college town with a fair amount of hippies and outdoors people. Just to the west of the city is the towering rock formations of the Flatirons.
I started the day with a visit to the Pearl Street Mall and the Boulder City Hall. I then had lunch at a local deli before heading over to Sleepytime Drive and going on a tour of Celestial Seasons. I now know more about tea then I ever thought I would. The best part of the whole tour was going into the Mint room. After the tour I headed over to "The Hill" and explored the University of Colorado. I think I might go back to school. I then headed to the 29th street mall to pick up a few things and then went for a run along the Boulder Creek Path.
After my run and taking some pictures I headed back to Grand Lake. I made a stop in Estes Park and saw the Stanley Hotel. The Stanley Hotel is where Stephen King stayed and it inspired him to write The Shining. I then got back onto Trail Ridge Road and up, over, and back to little Grand Lake.