When we went up to the mountains on Saturday, we tossed around the idea of driving through Kenosha Pass to see the aspens, but decided against. Our friends told us that was the right call, as apparently all of Denver was driving through the pass that day! Traffic was terrible. So we decided to go up on Wednesday instead. We had planned to head up after our weekly video call with Lover’s parents, but they canceled first thing in the morning. So, we did breakfast and chores, made lunch, and then headed out. We had the brilliant idea to just bring our lentils in the pressure cooker, and we were confident they would stay warm and yummy while we drove.
We drove up 285 and saw a few golden aspens here and there, but not a ton. It’s still a beautiful drive, but we agreed we needed to head up a little higher to find the aspens. We drove up towards Fairplay, taking Guanella Pass. It was so pretty! Fairplay is at about 10,000 feet, and it was dry and brown up there. We stopped for bathrooms and lunch, and discovered that our pressure cooker had tipped over and coated the whole back of the van with lentils! Boo! It also covered our coats which were back there, which was a bummer. It was chilly up at 10,000 feet, so we only stopped long enough for lunch and the kids to play for a bit. Then we loaded back up and drove towards Breck and back down the mountain.
Once we hit I-70, we started to really see some beautiful aspens. We also hit the smoke from a wildfire just north of us, and as we drove through the mountains, we commented on how beautiful the sunlight through the smoke was. We stopped at a beautiful grove and took some pictures while the kids napped/listened to music in the van. Kind of last minute we decided to take a detour up to Echo Lake, which is on the way to Mt Evans. The road to Mt Evans never opened this year, which was a bummer, but we had never been to Echo Lake. We stopped and checked it out, and let’s just say that it was at its most beautiful. 🙂 We were all tired by then, so we headed back down into Denver. Unfortunately, our detour meant that we were crossing Denver at rush hour. Poor planning! We stopped one more time on the way home for bathroom breaks (thank you pregnancy!) and got home tired and happy. We’ll deal with the lentiled van once it dries out and we can vacuum and scrub it. 🙂 We did Bible Project (book of Mark) and then went to bed. Everyone was ready to be in their beds.
