A Coloradoful Weekend

Last weekend, we had some extraordinarily Spring-like weather here in Southern Colorado, and the hubby and I decided to cultivate our outdoorsy side and go for a couple of hikes.

We started out at my place of employment, the Glen Eyrie conference center. There are several miles of hiking trails there that I hadn't tried out because, you know, I'm usually working while I'm there. I've liked where I work from day one, but this little hiking excursion solidified the absolute awesomeness of Glen Eyrie in my heart. Here's the view a few minutes into the hike (my apologies for the picture quality -- I forgot my camera, so we had to use Daniel's phone):


Maybe this is why I've had "For the Beauty of the Earth" in my head all week?

Then the next day, we headed an hour or so west to Mueller State Park. We picked a trail with several overlooks and were not disappointed (again, I forgot the camera - story of my life - so these are from Daniel's camera phone):


We were, however, surprised to find snow on a fairly hefty percentage of the trail. Apparently Mueller State Park is a couple thousand feet higher than Colorado Springs, so it gets kind of cold there.


Also surprising was the sudden appearance of a ski slope on what had previously been a pretty mild trail. Fortunately, the foot+ of snow on the ground eliminated any fear of injury in the event of a fall.


After this hike (which, for the sake of full disclosure, also included half an hour of wandering in the wilderness because someone - okay, I - forgot to bring the trail map), we went to an old mining town called Cripple Creek to behold their majestic Ice Festival. What we beheld instead were a handful of cool ice sculptures and several handfuls of drunk people with missing teeth. As it turns out, Cripple Creek is now home to what is surely the country's highest number of small casinos per capita, so the town attracts some interesting visitors. Add to that the fact that the temperature suddenly dropped to way cold, and we didn't last long after seeing a couple of these:


Lest you get the impression that we've suddenly become cool and started doing things that are actually fun, I should mention that I haven't left the house or taken off my pajamas all day today. You can take the girl out of the boring (sorry, Lawrenceburg), but you can't take the boring out of the girl.