A slice of regional history behind us, we drove into Boulder for a week of relaxing and laundry with a pet sitting gig we had arranged. We drove right next to the Rockies the whole time, with gorgeous mountains to the left and the expanse of the midwest to the right.
Boulder
We didn’t do much blog-worthy stuff, mostly going to the downtown library with Fin (Boulder’s main library is awesome), fixing that coolant leak at a proper mechanic (the last one proposed something so ridiculous I couldn’t agree to having them touch the van), and attending class from one of USA’s most sought-after do instructors. All of it was lovely.
Also, Boulder is just such a phenomenal town. After a week, we were fully ready to live there. It’s small enough to not feel the crush of a larger city, close enough to Denver to go do the big city things if needed, and just a really cool place (though whiter than Seattle, which takes some doing). We’ve been to a lot of cities and it wouldn’t take a lot convincing to make us move to Boulder.
Rocky Mountain National Park
We took one day to drive up into the mountains and visit Rocky Mountain National Park, as it is so close that you practically have to go. The main portion of the park consists of a loop drive with lots of pull-offs for hiking and views. We took the smaller, winding road through the forest, stopping the first time to refresh ourselves in the cool, crisp waters of the Rockies. That kind of sounded like a beer commercial.
They were so invigorating and crisp, I could feel the difference from Northwest water.
We kept driving up, up, up until we reached the peak of this mountain, where vistas welcomed us with open arms.
Tee drive is cool, just make sure to avoid weekends and holidays, because I could see that place getting very crowded. Also, we took the simple hikes, but it felt like the meat and potatoes of this park is in the hikes. That would give you more connection to the place and probably a higher chance of seeing wildlife.
Not that we didn’t see any.
On the drive home we apparently drove through a storybook, because we literally had to stop for a mother duck and her ducklings to cross the road. It was pretty neat.
Our trip through the Rockies and Boulder wasn’t mind-blowing in any one particular way, it was just all-around great. Again, if anyone has a house in Boulder that they’d like us to live in long-term, contact me, please.
