Colorado & The Midwest
February 10, 2021
Real time update: we are spending the last month of our sabbatical in sunny Florida in full vacation-mode. We’ve been kayaking, snorkeling, and laying on the sand like beach bums. We have all of our RV parks booked for the rest of the sabbatical, which is both relieving and is giving us month-long Sunday scaries.
Now back to where we left off: end of August.
Rocky Mountain National Park
You can’t do a tour of the U.S. without hitting Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park in particular. We picked a series of intertwined short trails leading to many beautiful lakes in the same area.
Bear Lake
First we stopped at Bear Lake which was just steps from the trailhead.
Nymph Lake
Next we went the opposite direction to Nymph Lake which is dotted with lily pads.
Then we carried on another mile to the next lake enjoying the mountain views along the way.
Dream Lake
There were lots of brazen chipmunks begging for food along the path.
Emerald Lake
Emerald Lake is surrounded by mountains. The day we went it was a bit hazy due to the Colorado wildfires. There were bits of ash raining down from the sky.
Next we backtracked to the fork halfway back to the trailhead. We paused here trying to decide whether to hike an extra couple of miles to Lake Haiyaha. A couple of hikers noticed our indecision and simply said “it’s worth it”. So on we went.
It was a steep, exhausting climb up, but there were some breathtaking mountain views along the way.
Lake Haiyaha
Finally we made it to Lake Haiyaha and it was gorgeous.
There were only two other hikers when we got there and they left shortly after we arrived. So we had this oasis all to ourselves.
Interactive photo – click and drag to look around:
On our hike back down the mountain, the sky was orange through the smoky haze behind the mountains.
We stopped at a little Czech biergarten in Boulder so that Sean could relive his study abroad glory days.
Next we moved the RV to Frisco, CO. We walked the dogs on the little Sapphire Point Overlook Trail right by our parking spot.
While we were staying in Frisco, we spent some time with Sean’s family who were staying at a condo in Breckenridge on their quaran-cation.
The slopes weren’t snowy but they had a couple of rides set up outside.
We all rode the slide. Thankfully they thoroughly drenched the slides in disinfectant after each rider.
It felt a lot faster than it looks.
We said goodbye-for-now to everyone, but we all headed in the same direction to our home state of Kansas.
Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park
Sean, the dogs, and I stopped in Western Kansas, near Scott City, to visit Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park and Monument Rocks.
We started by hiking the 2.4-mi Life on the Rocks Trail.
It’s pretty crazy that these huge canyons exist in Kansas and neither Sean nor I had ever been there.
Monument Rocks Chalk Pyramids
Just down the road from Little Jerusalem Badlands is Monument Rocks.
On the way we saw a bunch of grazing cattle. What’s more Kansas than a bunch of cows roaming around a landmark?
It was pretty blazing hot so after we got out of the truck for some initial photo ops we put the dogs back in the air-conditioned truck before Sean and I meandered around the Monument Rocks.
The rocks in this area are chalky limestone and chalky shale. This is where the inferior state college in Kansas gets its chant “Rock Chalk.”
We continued East and met back up with family. Since we only get a few weeks of vacation from work, we don’t get to see everyone as much as we’d like; so we knew we wanted to spend some extra time with them this year.
We tie-dyed some shirts with my mom and her boyfriend, and we all wore them to play Sean’s new-favorite game: frolf (AKA frisbee golf). It’s nice how at some point in life you no longer care again how uncool it is to wear matching outfits.
After visiting our families, it was time to scoot quickly across the country to see the autumn leaves on the East Coast. Along the way we stopped in Ohio.
Cuyahoga National Park
In Cuyahoga National Park, we hiked the 2.6-mi Ledges Trail.
The huge mossy rocks jutting up around the trail at times reminded me of the slot canyons of Arizona.
We also hiked the 1.4-mi Brandywine Gorge Trail which featured the Brandywine Falls at the end.
Back at our tiny home, the dogs have been enjoying raw marrow bones. I recently learned that they are a good natural toothbrush, and the dogs loved them.
Meanwhile Sean has been doing small, side engineering design gigs and justified buying a 3D printer on the road.
Next stop: Niagara Falls
I was wondering where y’all were on your travels! Glad y’all got to go to the East coast to see the leaves change colors. Enjoy FL!