|| Summer time in Colorado of 2012

Lakes in high mountains and alpine tundra are the prime notes for 2012 summer.

We flew into Denver on a Saturday morning.  When the plane landed, the predominant view coming to sight was the forever winter grass on a forever open land.  The vision was super country and highways stood out to be some impressive human achievement.  The plan of stopping by two small towns, Breckenridge and Veil, was quickly dismissed after waiting in a very long line for rental car then meeting with the familiar traffic congestion on a Saturday afternoon.  I had to pass through quickly on I-70 and headed west directly to Glenwood Springs.  The Chevy Malibu turned out to be a quite efficient vehicle, highs and lows, curves and hairpin turns, fast and slow.  It maneuvered swiftly inside the mountains and got us to our first destination, the hanging lakes at around 5pm on the first day of the week long excursion.

But we were wrong in seeing how difficult the road was ahead of us.  There was no road, only the rocks.  We ignored the warning signs at the trail head where people breathed heavily, exhausted out and almost deprived of water.  So we climbed up wearing our cool sandal shoes with half bottle of water, roughed the entire way up and down.  Several time we looked for encouragements from the people who came down the trail, half-way, almost-there, one-stair-up ... In the end, the hanging lakes are somewhat disappointing.  They were a scene to be seen, but not quite the most impressive.  1.3 miles one way and the way down wiped out all I could have for that day and overdrawn the next two days'.

We finally came down at 8pm and found our first night lodge at the Frontier's Lodge.  A clean and simple place, a motel that serves hot eggs and watermelon for breakfast.

The next day started with 3.5 hours drive down to the tiny town of Ouray.  I was drawn to the place because of the jeep tour that takes people to the top of mountains that don't have paved roads, but little was researched beforehand what type of a town this was.  I looked over my GPS, 10 miles to destination, 5 miles to destination, 2 miles to destination and 1 mile to destination .... worried as there was no sign of a living community at all until 0.2 miles to destination.  This lodging place, the Hot Springs Inn, became a little wonder of the next two days.  Situated along a river that runs through some of the old mining area, it was beautifully designed and maintained with lots of little details that transformed the country inn into a contemporary version of it.  Every morning and every night, I would walk along the river, surrounded by mountains, in the wind, and was greeted by people who did the same walking.

Ouray was a quiet little town, attracted to some adventurous people.  There were several jeep tour companies, and we chose the oldest one, the San Juan jeep tour company.  The young boy at the front office had a strong accent, but seemed to be genuine, told me that his favorite was the imogene pass.  I confirmed my attendance and went to the hot spring public pool.  What a wonderful experience to be soaking under the overheated mineral pool water, right under the black-ored mountains and a quick shower passed us by at 7pm.

The very next morning, we went on our jeep journey of the imogene pass.  The more adventurous people rode themselves in jeeps, ATVs or some kind of a heavy motorcycle.  Shall I describe who they are, the adventurous people, some were really confident, big beard, earthy clothes, driving up the entire family even with the dogs, the others were the no-fears, young, good looking, a dark hair and a blonde, fast and furious ... for those who don't fit the above two profiles, they ended up turning themselves back.  The jeep (or the truck) took 12 people up 11000 feet to overlooks that opens up the entirety of the region in the front of your eyes.  These overlooks offered the most memorable high mountain scenes of the trip.  The landscape was amazing in lines, in colors and in the varieties of grounds that grew what I now know as alpine tundra.  Keith, our driver, was the kindest driver in the field, always yielded to anyone who came before or behind him.  The most memorable was a young and restless couple who flew by us on the way to then came back down like thunderbolt while my neighbor said, "here comes the no-fear".  There was also a middle-aged couple who learned quickly that the sports wasn't quite theirs and turned away to downhill.  Everything surrounding these San Juan high mountains was more pure in form, less particles in air, none pretentiousness in attitude and more.  On the way down, a quick shower came through and we had to use the canvas cover.  Our raincoats became quite useful to stay dry and cool.  We had a traditional American meal at the GoldBelt bar and grill, sitting outside, among the many mountains close-by.  The town was the reminiscent of the one-time silver/gold/coal mine town with small shops having hundreds of years' history.  It was very simple and very comfortable.

On Tuesday, we hit the road heading towards Aspen.  There were many towns on the road, and at one of them, could be Hotchkiss, I was stopped by a police patrol who clocked me at 37 miles at a 25 mile speed limit zone.  I was upset but tried very hard to stay calm and sane.  I was struck by the charms of the small town, as I said with one kind of a smile.  The patrol guard took my license and the insurance paperwork from the pocket on the passenger side.  It was a good wait of about 10 minutes and finally I saw him coming back to me from the left side mirror.  Let me explain these thing to you, he said, holding a bunch of papers in his hand.  First of all, the insurance on the car is expiring on that day of July 1st, not sure how I should address this one.  Then it comes to my speeding problem, he gives me a written warning of no consequence.  I really don't want to brag anything, 'cause it is my responsibility to abide by all rules and I bear all consequences for the choices I am making.  But it was back to being delightful for obvious reasons.  After the incident, my mother starts to report every speed limit she saw on the road.

We entered the snowmass village path.  I was then realizing what it meant to be a village.  The village was an organized crime, hotels, condos, villas, mansions all over the low mountain areas, rodeo, gondola, recreation, post office, gas station (that had outrageous prices), ranches, bus stops, mall etc.  I was immediately disinterested, and felt the same when I drove into Aspen that same afternoon.  It was contemporarily arranged, most architecturally modernized, much to an urban taste, mostly for an international look.  Because, it was different from the contemporary SF or LA, where a lot of the Spanish influence remained visible, and it was also different from the contemporary NYC, where it was piled with money and grandeur.  The Aspen contemporary was what you get from the magazine, balcony, window, entry way etc. it was contemporary, in some way, to my liking if I were in urban right now.  However I was looking for country so the Ouray country suited me much better for a vacation, that's all.

Parking was difficult, but I managed to do a parallel parking on the busiest street, not knowing that I still need to pay the smart parking meter which was about 10 cars behind me.  I got a parking ticket without penalty, but it was annoying.  We rode the gondola up the silver queen cables to get to the Aspen mountain.  There was a sun deck there with food etc., but the afternoon day got cloudy therefore visions were not exactly there.  However, I could imagine (or maybe not) a sunny bright day in the winter time when all mountains are covered by snow and riding up the cables would be such a thrill.

We came to the Aspen area but the main object was a place called Maroon Bells, one of the top attractions (real attractions) of Colorado for picturesque views and wild flowers.  Because of the traffic conditions, we set out early the following day and parked our car right beside the reflection lake.  The view was indeed gorgeous, long horizontals with low and high mountains all reflected into a calm and clean pond of water.  The green plantations at low mountains were so beautiful that the reflections made the river truly colorful and full of life.  It was said that visitors wouldn't be able to appreciate the real beauty if we didn't hike up to the Crater Lake.  I would agree, it was a moderate 3 miles round trip but it was quite an enjoyable journey and the lake was well worth the time and energy. It happened to be the 7/4 national holiday.  We went back to the hotel for a nap then into the Aspen city for a 7/4 concert.  We couldn't get a seat into the Benedict Tent, but the orchestra music was powerful enough to be entertaining.  Summer time, marching band, etc., it was a thrill.

Leaving the Aspen area, we entered into a tough day or driving, taking the 82 south to independence pass then to the east until back to 70 east, eventually going up to Mt Evans.  It was a very very long and tiresome drive.  The independence pass, though, was well worth the drive, beautiful hairpin curves, colorful plantations, coal mines, and alpine tundra.  Mt Evans was the highest of our conquer, 14000+ feet altogether.  The drive was all the way to the final peak point then on foot.  The high altitude kicked in, felt the head was all congested, and tired of course.

Mt Evans and the Rocky Mountain national park belong to the system.  I would've loved them dearly if I hadn't been this tired.  The Estes Park right beside the park was family friendly and loved the several shops I'd visited, there was one specialized for fishing, lots of t-shirts, lots of small eating places.  We chose Thai and Vietnamese, and they were not disappointing.  There was a lot of decisions to make for a day's time into Rocky mountains, but we seemed to be on the right track.  The morning was mostly spent in the Bear Lake area, bear lake, nymph lake, dream lake and emerald lake, four little hidden treasures along the mountain lines.  The afternoon was mostly consumed with finding our way on the ridge way drive.  As usual, the afternoon was full of clouds, thunders, storms, fogs ...

The way back to Denver was surprisingly, once again, congested.  It was already almost 7pm when we checked in and we had a short but noisy night of sleep and at 4am, we were on our way back ....