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Jun 17, 2013

Father's Day Hike 2013 - Roxborough Park CO


Our fourth annual Father's Day hike destination this year was at Roxborough State Park in South West Denver. It was a delightful day, even though we had to rush due to an unexpected rain shower.
I really like Father's Day to be low key so, as usual, we all stopped and picked up our choice of "picnic food" before meeting at the park. And we set off on a short journey to enjoy each other and a new, beautiful location in the state where we live.

I had heard about Roxborough Park a couple of years ago, but we'd never made it out there. In fact, based on the description from a friend about where it was, I was not that excited about what it sounded like it had to offer. I was SO wrong. The park is GORGEOUS!

I recently learned that the state name "Colorado" was inspired by the Colorado River, Rio Colorado for the red color and Colorado means something like, "the color red". Another story about the name of the state said the "color red" influence comes from the abundance of red rock formations that are found throughout the state. Well, Roxborough Park is a great representation of this feature that inspired the name of our wonderful, and gorgeous state.

The park has several hiking trails offering a variety of difficulty and distance. I chose the Fountain Valley Trail which features a 2.3 mile loop around the North end of the park at 6,100 ft above sea level. We followed the dirt trail, taking pictures along the way, and enjoying reminiscing about the years and experiences we've all shared. An offshoot lookout trail took us to the top of a small hill in the middle of the park with some great vistas. This is where we paused to eat our lunch. That's when the lightning started in the near distance so we quickly finished our lunch and got off the high point in our journey.
As a gentle sprinkle began to fall, we happened to be at the North end of the trail where there are some preserved historic homes. We enjoyed a wonderful summer rain shower under the covered porch (and of course all checked our phones for email and other interactions since this spot had wireless connectivity).

As the rain subsided we set out and finished the other side of the trail going South. It was an awesome day with my wonderful kiddos! Now, where to go next year?

May 15, 2013

Funny Lizard vs Kitten

Those of you who know me know I seldom laugh boisterously. One occasion was when I saw this video on a friend's Facebook timeline.