Hiking adventures

I wanted to share some of my photography from a couple of hikes Travis, Cleo, and I have done since being up here in Colorado. It's been really nice to drive to the mountains on the weekend and see some beautiful scenery! I love being able to get out of the city so easily to go and get some fresh mountain air. It really helps to silence my brain....which is something that is not easily done, but much needed!

These photographs were taken from two hiking trails during the last two weeks. One of the trails is called Cerean St. Vrain trail, which followed a beautiful little creek for about 2 miles in. Before you actually reach the trailhead, however, you are blessed with these amazing mountain and valley views as seen above and below. Below are also some photographs of the creek that we hike along as well. 

 

 

And of course there were beautiful little wild flowers everywhere that we picked and put on our kitchen table at home. I couldn't help myself....I just love flowers!

The next weekend we were planning on going on a hike to Brainard Lake near Boulder, but when we arrived it was so crowded! The park rangers had us wait on the road until groups left the parking lot so that they could make sure there was enough room for every car going in. Well, there was about 8 cars in front of us when we arrived and after talking to the park ranger who said there was at least 380 people on the trail at that moment my husband decided that did not sound relaxing or fun at all. So he pulled the car around and was out of there before I could even say a word. :) He tends to not like crowds at all! As we were driving back down the mountain we ended up seeing a little sign that said Rainbow Lakes trail with an arrow pointing right. So instead of continuing our trip home we went down this little dirt, extremely rocky and bumpy road, for about 4 miles in our little Toyota Corolla. I was very proud of our car to say the least. It ended up being a 30 minute drive to travel maybe, at most, 4 miles. But we made it and it was well worth the trip. Upon arriving at the trail head we were able to see glaciers and even more spectacular mountain views!

Along the trail, about 1.5 miles in, you come across the first of a series of 4 lakes along the hike. The water is crystal clear with mountains and clouds reflecting above. To me, it really looks like heaven and this is when I kept saying to myself "I can't believe I get to live here." It makes me almost feel like I'm on vacation when I see these mountains. Someone on the hike also told us that these mountains were the continental divide and that we were about 10,000 ft up. Well, I knew we were high cause I could feel myself breathing much harder than usual when walking as well. Anyways, here are some photographs on the lakes along the hike below.

And here are some wildflower photographs from that hike as well....

 

Hope you enjoyed!

Settling in....one month later

It's been one month since my husband and I moved to Colorado and I finally feel all settled into our new apartment. It's on the 10th floor and overlooks downtown Denver with a beautiful view of the clock tower, which has lights shining on it that change colors with the months. Right now they are shining Red, White, and Blue for the 4th of July...but in May it was all Pink! My fav!!

Even though I'm all settled in, sort of, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't homesick. It's the little things I miss. I miss my little grocery store 5 minutes away from my house, not that there are not great markets here...it's just a bit more difficult when you live downtown. I miss having a quiet night where I don't hear all the cars and random crazy people on street :). I miss having craft stores nearby...so far I haven't found any in downtown Denver. I guess people don't really do many crafts here, too many things to do outdoors to keep you busy I'm guessing. But most of all I miss my coffee dates with all my girl friends back home and my family. I miss spending my entire Saturday morning with my best friend just having coffee and talking about anything and everything. And I miss my Sunday night dinners with my Dad where my crazy little dog would play with his dog....the only other dog she gets along with. Now she barks at every dog we see. 

Although I feel homesick, I have tried my hardest to make our little apartment feel like home. I'm cooking more...cause the smells of homemade food always makes me feel more at home. I'm trying to do little things and make more of a schedule for myself to make it feel more like home and hopefully soon I will make more friends to have more coffee dates.

I'm not trying to feel sorry for myself or anything. Believe me, I feel so blessed and happy for this move. Everyday is a new and wonderful adventure and I can't believe God has made all my dreams come true. It truly is amazing and feel extremely blessed. And I'm sure in time...I will have more coffee dates again. It just takes time to settle in. In the mean time...here are some photos of our place. Hope you think it's cute :)

Good bye Phoenix....hello, Colorado!

Moving to Colorado! What a whirlwind of an adventure these last two months have been. We found out we were going to move one week before a vacation to Napa Valley, which I will post pics of soon. My husband’s company was offering him a relocation package to Denver, Colorado. We couldn’t pass up on this offer! We had been dreaming and talking about moving since we met. We decided not to cancel our vacation as we figured we would likely need this one-week of relaxation before craziness begins.

After our trip we came home and immediately started packing, booked a plane trip the next weekend to scout out places to live, and I put in my notice at work that I would be leaving. I was sad to leave my job, family, and friends, but overjoyed with the realization that our dream of moving was finally coming true!

On our way up to Denver, we passed through a small town called Trinidad, Colorado. I couldn’t help but take photos of this adorable little place. I loved that they even had the town name on their street bricks. I actually grabbed a loose one off the street to place in our apartment….ssshhh, don’t tell J Anyways, below are some of my photography of this town. Hope you enjoy and as always if you would like any prints please e-mail me for pricing at Heathergauthier02@gmail.com.