But Colorado

Colorado is beautiful country. Grant you, it's no Alaska - but it's got it's own brand of spit and shine. So, whenever we've the chance to get away, if only for a few days, we pack up the clan and head out to some as-yet unexplored nook of the Centennial state.

Our latest trip was especially notable, though, because of the absence of what otherwise makes for a busy trip: our three children! In honor of our 15th trip around the sun, we headed to High Country for some days away from the normal grind.

I love High Country: most recently, I wrote about it's beauty on our annual summer trip to Dillon.But, this year, we headed even higher to mountain views yet seen...in Winter Park. Neither Craig nor I had been, and if ever there was an occasion to embark on a new adventure together...

The drive was beyond words (but, since this is a blog, after all, I'll give it a whirl). The best one-worder I can contrive is crystalline. They'd just had a massive dump of snow and, being as how they're ski country in the off-off season (think winter's answer to a western Ghost Town), it was absurdly quiet. Silent, even...much like I'd imagine it would be inside the glass of a snow globe.
And when I say we were in the mountains, I mean we were in the mountains.

That's the Continental Divide below. (In case you're not familiar, the CD is the line of demarcation running north-south that separates water flow between the Atlantic and Pacific. Rain or snow runoff to the east heads towards the Atlantic; to the east, the Pacific.) And, considering you can't be just anywhere to see it, it's pretty cool when you actually do.

There's nothing more breathtaking on the initial stretch than this shot.

 Because, until you see it, you're climbing in elevation all gradual like...until boom...Hello, Rockies!

Along the way, we ran across these...my pictorial homage to the Colorado brand of mountain humor.

That's a moose beneath the sheeting and a watermill starring as Jack. Yeah. We shame our landmarks here.

Like Alaska, you can't let Colorado's snow or cold or otherwise challenging weather snafus hold you back: you'll only become a sad hermit if you do. Besides, why else do we have cocoa and toddies if not for nipped noses and tingly toes? So, lest we surrender to Old Man Winter, we spent an afternoon on this gorgeous hike. Think the forest scenes in Narnia when first they leave the wardrobe and you've just about got it.

  We hiked about four miles to the sound of Adams Falls...

Agh! A rare glimpse of me...and just me...I really do appear in photos without my friends or family...I think.

Until we came upon this.

And heard this.

Yeah.
You heard it right.
Nothin' but the water.
Absurdly quiet.

Crystalline.
Like the inside of a snow globe.

But Colorado.