RoadTrip Day 3: Mountains!

We finally get to play in the mountains!


We slept in today, Thursday, as we had had a few beers the night before.  The days are already starting not to matter, Monday, Saturday, Wednesday, Friday, they were all the same.  It was going to be a great feeling not having to dread Mondays.

Boulder Mountain Park

The weather had passed through while we slept and the sky was bright blue and the sun already high as we showered and packed the car.  The Rodeway Inn Boulder had a decent breakfast, some cereal, fruit, pastries, and juices.  We filled up on that and took a little something extra for a snack that we might want on a hike later in the day.

Over breakfast we discussed possible activities for the day and decided on doing a hike in Boulder Mountain Park.  We also had read about Boulder Falls, possibly going to Estes Park or trying to get a tour at New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins.  But Boulder Mountain Park is close to town and we could do some light hiking as we got acclimated to being at 6000 feet.  We drove over to the park and found the office because we needed to find a map of some trails.  We had read that the Royal Arch was a pretty decent hike and you can make it a big loop trail instead of an out and back.  The guide in the office agreed and if we went to the Flatirons first you could hike along the base of the giant rocks as you approached the Royal Arch.

The Flatirons

Boulder Mountain Park is an awesome city park with a lot of locals using the trails.  There were a few people running, a couple others taking their dogs for walks, and some more just heading out for a leisurely hike on a beautiful day.  We made our way up to Royal Arch, which was more strenuous than we had expected.  Luckily, I am super annoying when it comes to elevation and staying hydrated, so we had packed enough water to refill Lake Superior if we needed to.  We took lots of water breaks and there were many times when we stopped to rest because the scenery was so pristine that it deserved a picture.

When we arrived at our turnaround spot, the Royal Arch, there were a couple other groups enjoying the views created by the large natural arch.  We were happy to follow along and find a spot to relax and take in nature.  We snacked on a few granola bars and fruit snacks as chipmunks played around us hoping to get a snack for themselves.  All the signs said "Do Not Feed Animals" but a few people were happy to feed the little guys whatever they had with them.

I tried as hard as I could without hurting myself to get on top of the arch.  It is what I do in situations like this when anyone can get to a spot on a trail, I want to find a way to get to the place that others can't reach.  This time I was stuck looking through the arch, instead of looking down from the top.

Looking Through the Royal Arch

We made our way back to the car taking a different much less scenic route and thoroughly enjoyed the downhills as our quads had received a pretty good workout on the way up.  We were starting to get hungry but wanted to go check out Boulder Falls which was just going to be short detour before having lunch.

The Falls are a few miles outside of town and only a few steps off of the road so the trip to them only took 30 minutes roundtrip.  But this little guy got us started for some much bigger falls that we were expecting to see later on the trip, like the ones in Yosemite and Yellowstone

The parking situation at the falls is not ideal leaving you to cross the 1 lane state road with cars going pretty fast up and down hills and around curves.  There were a lot more cars parked than what we saw walking around the falls so there might have been other stuff to see in the area but we were hungry and I get cranky when I'm hungry, so we headed back towards town to find a place to grab a late lunch.

In town, we decided that a filling Italian meal would suit us best after hiking and walking a fair amount to start the day.  We found a place that had some outdoor seating in the sun, which felt great as the air was a touch cool.  We split a salad and then both got an entree which was a lot of food but as we were coming to the conclusion that we ordered too much food we also figured that we could keep a box of leftovers in the cooler and could snack up on the remains for dinner.  We also decided that even though we couldn't get a reservation for a tour at New Belgium Brewery that we should still go up to Fort Collins to check out that town and we could still stop by New Belgium if only just to get a souvenir.

As we started driving the 45 miles or so up to Fort Collins, we used the All Stays App on my phone to find the campsite at Horsetooth Reservoir just outside of town.  We took some back roads to get up to Horsetooth and made it by late afternoon.  We had our pick of campsites and choose one off by itself with a beautiful overlook of the Reservoir. It was a great place to relax and we both tried to take a little nap and read some of our books.  We needed to get some supplies, like firewood and ice so we left our site and headed towards town.

Dusk at Horsetooth Reservoir

We got our essentials at the gas station on the way in to Fort Collins but decided that we wanted to check out the main drag in town.  As we were driving, we spotted a mini golf place and I love a game of Putt Putt so we stopped.  After a demolition of Megan during the first 18 holes, we decided that a bet was in order.  I beat her by 8 strokes so I would give her an 8 stroke lead to start the second round of 18 holes.  I knew I was in trouble as Megan started making putts off the bricks, with her eyes closed, and I think one time she tripped as she was approaching her ball and it went in.  She also drained two hole-in-ones that easily propelled her to victory even without the 8 stroke handicap that I had given.

Pizza Cowboy Style

After my poor performance on the golf course, I was not going to have any more fun in this town so we went back to our campsite to have a little late night dinner.  We got the fire going and after reading some more I cooked up the leftovers from lunch and the remaining pieces of pizza.  I dubbed this meal Pizza Cowboy Style.
After filling our bellies with hot leftovers and enjoying the fire a bit longer we turned in to have a peaceful night under the stars.