THAT TIME I RODE 100 MILES ON THE BACK OF A SNOWMOBILE.

we divirted off our path to seattle specifically for the opportunity to tour yellowstone. now, when i called to ask if the park was open, they said that the way to see it when it is winter is by snowmobile. as in, i thought it was the only way.

so, we put on our warmest clothes and woke up early to get a quick 10-minute course in how to operate a snowmobile and we were off. i was sorely unprepared for just how cold 15 degrees would feel, especially when zipping along at 30 miles per hour.

but! within five minutes, an awesome sighting: a giant elk! photo by b, he is very proud.

my view the entire time.

being inside the park with nary another soul in sight {beyond the other couple with us and our tour guide} was pretty incredible.

and, the bison were hanging out in the street. is this big guy not totally giving us the side eye?!

by noon, we had made it to old faithful. i should mention that by this point, i had seen the "snow coaches", aka buses on monster truck wheels. i have never been given a look so sympathetic than from these folks all warm in their bus as we whizzed by, tears streaming down my face and freezing onto my cheeks.

but, we got an hour at old faithful to go inside and chug two steaming cups of the best hot chocolate i have ever have while waiting for old faithful to do his thing.

and do it he did! it was very cool to see in person. and mind blowing to think that they can time it down to a few-minute window when he will blow.

from there we stopped at paint pots and more geysers. and our tour guide remarked that in the summer you would be jam packed on the trails with other visitors and have to wait your turn to even catch a glimpse at all the things we got to stop and stare at for as long as we wanted.

so, i guess what i'm saying is even though the sub-freezing temps had me the coldest i'd ever been, and subsequently gave me the plague for two weeks, it was all worth it to see the beauty of yellowstone.

YELLOWSTONE.

after a quick day one and an easy day two, we pulled into yellowstone national park! the only place you can stay in the park is the mammoth hot springs hotel. what to say about this place?! ... i'll just let the next photo illustrate the experience:

straight from "the shining", right?! it actually wasn't that bad, although we weren't aware they didn't offer wifi OR any cell phone service, sooo.

the actual hot spring! funny story: we had super researched going to the hot springs in colorado {because it was on my summer in denver bucket list}, so i just assumed that all hot springs are the same and you can, you know, get in them. i had my bathing suit all ready and then we learned these are like sulfur lava pools. so, you don't even get close to them.

obvi these ladies did not get the memo.

i was colder than i appear.

then, we paid $12 for an hour of wifi so we could let our family and friends know that we were alive. and we had a wonderful dinner in the fancy dining house.

but, wait, there's more! here's just a preview of the ridiculousness that is to come tomorrow. i'm calling my fashion sense here "homeless chic". it's about to be all the rage, i am sure.

ROYAL GORGE SUSPENSION BRIDGE.

you know you've waited too long to write a post about something when you can't even remember the name of the place. that's what photos are for! and these ones document our trip to the royal gorge suspension bridge. 

the bridge in all its glory. it's one of the highest suspension bridges in the world at 956 feet high. which didn't terrify me as much as the roads up to mt. evans, but close!

a little history. the elevation is listed on everything here. i'm sure they mean it in a bragging manner, but really i can't breathe anywhere that's above 5,000 feet, so i take them as warning notes.

hmm.
 

train way down below.

though the bridge sways in the wind, it's apparently strong enough to host buses.

and then b made me ride the trolley car of death across the canyon. excuse me, they call it an aerial tramway. they even post a note that the tram has carried more than 5.7 million people and traveled 200,000 miles since being installed in 1969. feeling goooood about that.

engagement pose!

and, just think, this was way back in august! more posts coming soon.

MT. EVANS.

on saturday i woke b up at 4 a.m.to head out to north america's highest paved road, which was one of the things on our summer to-do list!

see, the sign says it all. elevation: 14,260 feet. we should have taken notice of this before we were at the summit.

here it is: the road! so, i'm not going to lie. i groaned and screamed and acted nuts the entire way. i'm not a huge fan of heights and the road was so skinny, there were no guardrails and you could see where portions of the road had broken off and fallen into the valley. because, you know, the road is on the edge of a mountain. also, in a bunch of areas there was still ice on the road. DANGER!

and, you all, we saw three bikers and a runner hitting the pavement. i have no words for the fitness-obsessed people that live here.

it took about 30 minutes to get from the start of the park {that sign} to the very top. it was about 70 when we left denver at 4:40 a.m. at the summit at 6? 39. 39 degrees! i had packed a sweatshirt, which b had made fun of. neither of us were laughing when we got out of the car. the winds were raging at 50 miles per hour and we could see our breath. when i couldn't open the car door on my own, i realized we were very unprepared.

one of three photos i snapped at the top. amazing, right? we should have heeded the warnings on the sign. both of us were instantly affected by the complete lack of air and ran around the top like total whackos. literally, you could not breathe, the gusts was blowing even b around and while there are some walls up as wind protection it was a cyclone no matter where you stood. we were out there for approximately two minutes.

after a quick respite in the car, we jumped out and had another visitor shoot a photo. this was the best one. check that hair!

one of the reasons we got to mt. evans so early was because we read that the animals are out and about in the morning. they were right! we didn't see a mountain goat, but we saw a deer, a fox {walking on the highway at the base of the mountain} and this cute little guy! i rolled my window down and yelled "work it!" and he looked right at me. too cute. 

i think this shot of the helicopter illustrates how deep the mountain range goes. doesn't it look like we are in a foreign country?

and a win for self photography! just a couple of turns down from the summit and 20 degrees warmer and weather more supportive of a good hair shot.

mt. evans, i'd recommend it! just don't forget your snow jacket, winter hat and oxygen tank.

ROXBOROUGH PARK.

memorial day weekend was amazing. more photos coming via the phone later this week, but i did manage to take the big camera on one outing: a hike at roxborough state park.

b was especially interested in these cacti. pretty, right?

wildlife! we had heard that this trail was a good place to see animals {including mountain lions, which, not so much on our agenda...}, but this butterfly was the coolest thing we saw on the actual hike.

 the view from the top. {of the world. it feels like that right?!}

looking the opposite direction. see the red rocks?

and the stunner: a look over downtown denver. do you see the skyscrapers?

and, on our way out, we got a show: three baby boy deer. outside the park limits, just hanging out on the side of the road.

and, the view our moms were waiting for: us! such a happy weekend - hope yours was just as great!

chautauqua.

last weekend we once again spent saturday out hiking. {yep, we wore tons of sunscreen.} we planned to go to a trail in boulder, but never did find it. instead, we ended up driving to the top of the mountain for this view.

um, i saw an episode of "i survived" where a woman had her face in the jaws of a mountain lion, so i won't even make a joke about this.

we did see some wild creatures though. look at this little guy doing his best kamakamakarma chameleon.

on the big rock. i mean, do we not look like natural coloradans already?!

hellooooo boulder! 

then, we came down to the bottom of the mountain to walk around the park. we read that in the 19th century a chautauqua was an organized gathering to introduce people to new ideas. there are only three left in the world, one of which being in boulder! this field used to have a ski lift in it.

there's the big rock we took photos by!

up the trail we went. it totally was even harder to breathe in boulder than denver. but have you ever seen such a clear, beautiful sky?

it's supposed to be perfect weather this weekend and we'll be out hiking again. somebody pass me my inhaler.

green mountain.

this weekend we were colorado legit: we hiked! green mountain trail is less than 15 minutes from our house and promised good views. it was not a lie.

the start of the trail. have you ever seen a sky that blue and clear?

straight up and super rocky.

the very top of the trail. everyone puts a rock on the pile. you-know-who put a tiiinnyyy pebble on the very tip top.

seriously one of the most breathtaking views ever.can you see the snow peaks? in real life it looked like the clouds were coming right out of the mountains.

his favorite thing about the trail? breaking rocks to see if they were shiny inside. he had a scientific word for it, though.

yeah, we picked up this brochure at the end of the trail, after we had gone the wrong way twice {err, my baddd} and realized we had gone at LEAST six miles. ouch! that didn't hurt as bad as the second degree burns i am still aloe-ing. lesson learned: the sun in colorado is STRONG. we will not leave the house without sunscreen from here on out.

 

here's hoping that this little saying applies to our hiking skills. green mountain we will be back!*

*with real hiking boots, sunscreen and the trail map.