nat’l-park

Nat’l Lampooning up Pikes

Published July 11, 2015

Bowling, “Toy Story” Uno (family game night), Louisville Street Faire – and blink…it’s time for all to go home. Always goes so fast.

HOLD ON – we still have Saturday. Today’s destination: the Springs – Garden of the Gods, followed by mighty Pikes Peak.

Visitors Center, drove the Garden loop, hiked 2+ miles around the God’s infamous boulders – finished at Balanced Rock. Top 10 Colorado destination. LOVE LOVE this place!

Elk burger in Manitou, then a mile drive UP to tram parking – had purchased 6 tickets on the 1:20pm train. Ash & Tom were engaged on Pikes two years ago. Good memories.

Lotta traffic, hmm. Arrived to find our train was cancelled – actually STUCK 12,000ft UP. Argh.

Plan B? Hiked Barr Trail to Pikes (28 miles round trip) in 2013. Rode the railway UP same year – but have never driven. Pikes & Evans are Colorado’s 2 14ers accessible [in summer] by car. Tough on the brakes – glad Sis brought the rental 🙂 Outside temp dropped from 91 to 39 degrees within the hour-half ride up to Summit House. Truly stunning views!

My 2015 memory? Sis at the wheel hugging mountain curves while Tori & Jack screamed/jumped & waved their hands wildly in the back. Apparently we picked up a wasp while at Garden – a wasp not interested in resettling outdoors at 14,000ft in glacial snow. No room to pull the car over. Nat’l Lampoon vacation memory. Pretty funny in hindsight.

Ultimately parked without injury, purchased Pikes’ infamous high-altitude donuts & snapped a few pics before clouds moved in & pellet’d the car with snow. Ranger stopped us 20 minutes into our descent – brakes were smoking hot, 30 minute mandatory wait while they cooled.

Jetted back to Denver – WAIT, day’s not over. Sis bought tickets to Colorado’s MLS team, the Rapids. Been a tough year for the local team, last in our division. This day however, the soccer gods shined on Colorado: a 3-1 victory over Real Salt Lake. All scoring happened in the last 4 minutes. If you haven’t attended a soccer match – GO! Lotta energy, lotta noise, super fun.

2 Nat’l Parks, 2 14er summits, Garden of the Gods, a glacier hike & glissading, mineral springs swim, train ride thru the Rockies, MLS game (professional soccer), geocaching, shopped Boulder’s pedestrian Pearl Street, hiked Chautauqua’s Royal Arch AND toured a silver mine nearly 1,000ft underground.

For monsoon season, this family filled their days. Miss you already sis 🙁

: beautiful faces, beautiful places

: Balanced Rock

: next Colorado adventure: rock climbing

: Pikes Peak, AMERICA’s mountain

: long stretch of highway UP

: outside temp dropped from 91 to 39 degrees

: inspired “America the Beautiful” in 1893

: SNOW cloud ahead

: Rapids 3, Real Salt Lake 1

: soccer selfie

: amazing family vacation — miss you guys already!

vacation extras

: Jack & Ro

: bowling at Fat Cats

: Salvadoran pupusa at Louisville Street Faire

: Chautauqua’s Royal Arch in Boulder

Posted in 14ers/13ers, Family, the Springs/Pueblo | Tagged nat'l-park, sport | Leave a comment

Mammoth Cave National Park

Published April 24, 2015

Late night flight to Indianapolis, followed by a 2 ½ drive to Louisville ($200 cheaper than flying direct), made for a sleepy Friday morning start. Today’s destination: Mammoth Cave Nat’l Park.

Started the day with a scenic trip of Kentucky (iPhone mishap) – past multiple horse farms, thru Kentucky bluegrass, ultimately entering the backside of Mammoth. Ferried over a rain-gorged river to the Visitors Center – 2 car ferries in 3 weeks, awesome life!

My friend Dawn booked the 9:30am ranger-led tour a month in advance. Lucky for me – ‘cause when we arrived, I saw most tours were sold out (all day). Double lucky? Arrived 30 minutes early…only because we gained an hour slipping into Central Time Zone. Whew!

Quick bus ride, short walk past our sink hole surroundings, ranger prep talk – then down, down, down we descended beneath the surface. This was my 2^nd caving adventure – explored South Dakota’s Wind Cave Nat’l Park last September [day before Nebraska marathon].

No two mountains are the same – I can now say the same of caves. Wind Cave was aptly named – strong winds blew from its entrance; cavers greeted by spectacular rock formations & colourful mineral deposits. Mammoth, while void of exotic mineral veins, boasted its own eye-stunning formations. Mammoth Cave runs deep (twice the depth of Wind Cave), water dripping down the park’s narrow maze of metal stairs cut for tourists. Shared space with cave crickets (resembling spiders) surviving deep underground.

Highlights: Moonlight Dome & Frozen Niagara. 2 hours was not enough – I’ll be back. HUGE fan.

Back on the road, enjoyed home-cookin’ in Elizabethtown before a self-guided tour of the Jim Beam Stillhouse in Clermont. Appreciated the science behind processing Kentucky bourbon – but that’s as addicted as I’ll get to “fire water” 🙂

Bib pick-up downtown, followed by an amazing dinner at Lilly’s (celebrated Dawn’s birthday).

Weatherman says 90% chance for rain – rain jacket, hat & a lotta patience – Kentucky Derby Marathon tomorrow morning.

: quick bus ride, then down down down 450 feet

: do’s & don’t speech

: dark, damp & super narrow in spots

: Moonlight Dome

: drip, drip, drip – water escaping from the surface

: creepy cave cricket

: limestone

: Frozen Niagara (130 feet below surface)

: flowstone

: light at the end of the tunnel 🙂

: 7 generation family-run business

: the Rackhouse (bourbon barrel aging)

: as close as I’ll get to “fire water”

Posted in South | Tagged caving, nat'l-park | Leave a comment

Monticello

Published April 3, 2015

11:25pm – boarded my last red-eye flight ‘til August, when I travel to Kathmandu 🙂 Landed in Boston at 4:45am EDT, hour half later caught my connection to Washington-Dulles. Rental car pick-up, 30 minutes to Leesburg to see my Aunt Joyce – before the 2-hour trek south to Charlottesville, this weekend’s marathon destination.

IHOP breakfast, hot chocolate at Starbucks – think I talked out my dear Aunt. LOVE, LOVE time with family. 50 State Quest has been great for seeing family & friends in 2015 🙂

Late start to Charlottesville, compounded by heavy Good Friday traffic – lotta folks travelling home for Easter. Starting to feel sleep-deprived, channel surfed ‘til I locked on a local bluegrass station. Nothing spells Appalachia like bluegrass – FAAANNNTASTIC!

Bib pick-up in historic Court Square, 15 minutes further to today’s pre-race destination: Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.

Thomas Jefferson has long been my favourite American President, expanding our shores from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. Having always been enthralled with the American West, Jefferson best supports my present day life – commissioning the historic Lewis & Clark expedition, exploring modern day Colorado. Jefferson was a mega-mind, a thinker, an inventor, an agriculturist.

Entering iconic Monticello, one is immediately impressed with the dome architecture – first of its kind in Colonial America. Jefferson’s Grand Hall greeted visitors with exotic North American treasures – Native American art, buffalo hides, elk/bighorn/antelope/moose antlers, mastodon bones PLUS maps of all known continents (surveyed portions of Africa & the Americas).

Absolutely incredible all this existed in early America – before roads, before D.C. was built/created as our nation’s capitol. WOW!

Took the tour – Jefferson’s Book Room, his gardens, Parlor, Dining Room, bedchamber, wine cellar & Monticello Graveyard. What an amazing journey! Grounds closed at 7:30pm – yikes, time to go.

Quick shut eye, tomorrow will come soon enough. Marathon Day.