Colorado

Over the Fourth of July Chris and I went out to Colorado to visit my friend Amber who has moved out there from Michigan. I was SO happy to be back out west, I just love it there. My heart is in those mountains. Chris took off when we landed to go spend a couple of days in Wyoming with his friend.



In the meantime, Amber and her boyfriend tried to kill me with some crazy scrambling climbs in the mountains. And I LOVED it. Wish we had rocks I could blimb like this here in Michigan.

They also took me to the top of Mount Evans, which was simply stunning. 14,265 ft! The views were amazing, and we saw big horn sheep and mountain goats!!
When Chris got back to CO, he and I took off for a couple of days in Utah to check out Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. I hate to say we were both a tad dissapointed by Arches.


The arches were neat, but not much in between and once you saw one or two, nothing else seemed much different. I did love the little hike to Landscape Arch, which was the most beautiful by far. And there were a lot of neat lizards running around - whiptail liazards and leopard lizards (we even saw a leopard lizard eating a whiptail). (Leopard lizard pictured left)




Canyonlands, however, was breathtaking. I've never been to the Grand Canyon to have for comparison, but I can't imagine anything bigger. There was actually a canyon within the canyon - which was GINORMOUS in and of itself. Just amazing. Even standing there, I felt as though I couldn't comprehend how big it really was. We headed back to Colorado, stopping along the way at a Dinosaur Museum (which Chris was very excited to find), a winery, and Colorado National Monument. I had known nothing about this park, but it was a nice surprise. A 27 mile scenic drive through a canyon with nice stops and views.
A couple more days with friends. Amber took me hiking up to Lower Mohawk Lake while Chris enjoyed the apartment AC and recovered from the intense desert heat.






It was a beautiful hike up the side of a mountain along a waterfall. Near the top of the mountain was Lower Mohawk.
On our last night we went out with our friends Jay and Sarah. They took us up a little hike to Boulder Falls.

We also went to a bar in Boulder where Jay said they have the best margartias. I must admit, they were VERY good margaritas! Last stop - CASA BONITA!! Chris had been dying to go here eversince he saw it on a Southpark episode. So we went. And it was.... entertaining! The food was MUCH better than we had heard (we were expecting catfood burritos). You are given a little flag to raise when you want more sopapillas (YUMM!). Their margaritas - not as good, but by this point it didn't matter, lol.
And the best part - they have high divers! What an unusual place - almost like a Chuck E Cheese for drunken adults, but for kids too. Lol.


We had a wonderful time and I really hated to leave. I'm already anxious to get back.