Labor Day Heights

On Monday we decided to get out and go for a drive. It was a beautiful day. We dropped Tahoe off to get a bath, since the previous one left him very dry and itchy, and headed west, to the mountains. I didn’t know exactly where we were going, thought we were just going to drive around for a bit. Sean surprised me by taking us to Mt Evans. He’s been before but he said it’s the one place that we need to take our close friends and family to see. It truly was something else. The way to get there was via Idaho Springs. It was funny to see a town down in the canyon, away from the city or suburbs. All they had around them was mountain. The drive up to Lake Echo was out of this world! Walls of trees surrounded us. It didn’t seem real. When we got to Echo Lake, the temperature was already in the 60’s, about a 10-15 degree difference from when we started our drive. There was the lake, surrounded by the mountains, really quite a find. I wondered what the water temperature was like, most likely a little to cold to swim in. We spotted to use the restrooms at the lodge, which I really needed, and made our way up even more. It was $10 to get to the top, and about 6 more miles of driving. Sean had warned me that we’d be traveling up some pretty steep and narrow roads. I was ready for them! It was really neat to see how the land changes from short trees to just brown and rock. Looking back at the pictures its looks like a desert planet, like Mars, only brown. Only about a mile or 2 from the top we spotted some Mountains goats! A solo one at first then a little further along a mother and baby. Now I wish I snagged a picture. We made it the top after climbing and turning up several bends along the way. The summit was breathtaking. I know I won’t do it justice describing it, but it was beautiful. I really felt this sense of adventure as Sean and I climbed to the very top. I felt a little lightheaded and my breathing was not the same. It made me feel like I was actually climbing a mountain, well I was, but from the base! I told him, it’s probably the closest we’d get to standing on top of the world. I couldn’t think of another way to start our new life in Colorado.