Colorado

Summer in Colorado

Published on by Casey

Summer in Colorado is just as schizophrenic or bipolar as any other season in Colorado. Funny thing about these mountains is that they decide what the weather will be, whether it’s been forecast or makes sense.

Case in point: September 12, 2014. Season: still summer. However, it snowed. That’s right folks, it snowed in the summer. At my house, it was only a trace amount and thus cannot count as the “official” first snowfall of the season. For that, 0.10″ of snow needed to fall and be measured. It’s quite possible that much, or more, fell, but this early in the game accumulation is sparse. The ground is still too warm.

However, if you don’t believe me that it snowed, here’s a picture of my car. See that white stuff? That’s snow.

SummerSnow

Santa Train

Published on by Casey

Last year we rode the Santa Train up in Georgetown after Christmas, this year we decided to go before. There was less snow on the ground this year, but that also meant it wasn’t as cold, either. Still, we were able to enjoy the lights, cookies & hot chocolate. Logan even got a bell, a la The Polar Express.

Believe it or not, this kid is excited to ride the train…just not excited to be the subject of a photograph.

Santa Train 1

See, excited to be ON the train.

Santa Train 2

Santa Train 3

Not every train gets Santa as a conductor!

Santa Train 4

Smart Elk Don’t Become Food

Published on by Casey

This year Noah entered the draw for either a deer or an elk tag, and actually received an elk tag. Yay! In Colorado, large game hunting licenses are distributed via a lottery draw, so there’s no guarantee you’ll get one. So you can imagine our excitement, and the tag was for the first season (rifle).

Noah’s dad flew out to go with and spend some quality time with his youngest son. I stayed home with Logan and attempted to get my child to sleep at a decent time so I could concentrate on homework.

After a week of hiking up and down mountains, sleeping in the camper, and trudging through snow, the guys saw plenty of deer but few elk. Unfortunately, the elk had not really started to come down from their high summer grounds. Thus, no yummy elk steaks will grace our table this year. 🙁

Hopefully, next year Noah can get another tag and have better luck. At least he got to enjoy some time with his dad and Logan got to spend a couple of days with Grandpa.

It’s that time of year again

Published on by Casey

Fall entered Colorado, and two week’s later we had our first snow. Yup, it’s that time of year again. The forecast was only for a dusting, maybe we were lucky, on grassy surfaces. As often is the case with Colorado weather forecasts, especially of the white variety, I wasn’t going to hold my breath. However, I was very much surprised when I let the dogs out on the morning October 4th and saw not only large flakes falling from the sky, but a decent coating of the white stuff all over my lawn. I was even more surprised that morning when I had to brush 2″ of it off my car before I could drive to work! Incidentally, there was zero, zip, zilch accumulation at my work, 20 miles away. I didn’t even see any snow fall the 8 hours I was there.

Well, be that as it may, we started our snow season off with a decent 2″ of heavy wet snow.  If you want to follow our snowfall season, and keep up with how much we accumulate between now and May (yes our “winter” lasts that long), bookmark this page: Snow Totals 2013-2014

The Camper’s Inagural Trip

Published on by Casey

Labor Day weekend equals a prime opportunity to take our camper out on for it’s first foray into the mountains. Since we’re (me more so than Noah) new to camping in Colorado, we have been selecting a different area each time we go camping. In May, we went to Granby. For this trip we went to Yampa River, near Craig and Steamboat and invited some friends to come along.

 Boys & dirt

Smore kids2

If you pay attention, you may also notice some changes we’ve made to the inside of the camper since we purchased it. And no, we didn’t get a new truck. That one is a rental, ours was in the shop for an extensive repair.

Yampa Campsite

 Logan in camper

And of course, more spectacular sunsets!

Yampa Sunset

Sand Creek

Published on by Casey

You know what’s comforting in Kansas? When a collection of storm chasers are staying at your hotel…and there’s a tornado watch. Thanks, Kansas!

Ready to leave tornado alley and return to the sanctuary of our mountainous land, we headed back into Colorado. But before returning home, we made one more stop, in the middle of nowhere at Sandcreek, in Kiowa County.

The Sand Creek Massacre, a precursor to the attack at Washita in Oklahoma, was another unprovoked massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. These tribes were peacefully encamped on their newly assigned lands in eastern Colorado when a militia comprised of of some 700 white men, attacked on a snowy morning in November 1864. The tribal residents, at the time, numbering around 100, were mostly women and children. Their lives were not just abruptly ended, but their bodies were mutilated and maimed, all in the name of Manifest Destiny. Reading the accounts of the massacre were stomach turning.

The National Park Service, in collaboration with the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, have made an effort to preserve the area and ensure the sacred ground is honored and respected. In fact, the area is so revered that visitors can only look down upon the massacre site from a bluff.

 Sand Creek Marker

Sand Creek Site

If you want to read more about the genocide of the American indians, I recommend Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. You’ll never think of American history the same again.

When California Comes to Colorado

Published on by Casey

My parents and sister came to visit this year in July. Although Noah and I had to work during the majority of their visit, Logan was able to spend a lot of quality time with Gramma, Grampap and Aunt Gretna.

He got to celebrate National Bubble Day in Old Town, complete with snow cones…

BubbleDay

He got to go berry picking…

BerryPickin

He traveled back up to Trail Ridge Road…

TrailRidge

And he conned everyone into reading him books…

GrampapLogan GretnaLogan

 GrammaLogan

I’m On Top of the World!

Published on by Casey

On our way home from Granby, we opted to take the scenic route through Rocky Mountain National Park and it was a great decision! Not only did we get to see some moose establishing a pecking order,

 MooseFight

but Trail Ridge Road was cleared! Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous highway in the continental US, and takes up to over 12,000-feet in elevation. CDOT tries to have the road cleared by Memorial Day, annually, and often it still closes at night due to runoff icing. This is not a road you want to slip and slide around turns! But the views at the top are spectacular! And how often does one have the opportunity to stand next to a 10-foot plus wall of snow?

View

 

SnowWall