Colorado is Colorful...thought not as colorful as the east! Sorry Colorado. We hit Colorado at peak Fall season. Its nice and the leaves are changing color though it is only one color...yellow. It makes me miss the east and all the colors at this time of year. Vermont during the Fall kills it! They got reds, yellows, purples, oranges and sometimes even blues. Its like being in Dr. Sues' backyard. But one thing Colorado does have is HUGE mountains, never ending ridge lines and awesome alpine climbing! Overall we like it here. Blindman is thinking about moving here and I said go for it.
Though Blindman's eye sight has been diminishing in the higher altitude the rest of his senses have heightened. I saw him about to step on a snake but then grabbed it by the tail and gave the snake a lesson on manners. I could hear him yelling from down the trail, "You always move out of the way when elders walks by!"
We spent some time in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) outside of Estes Park. There we hiked into alpine territory to scope some cool rock climbing. Though I did not get to climb in Estes I found some awesome rock that I half to get on. Below is a picture of Blindman in front the 1000ft Hallet Peak, which contains tons and tons of climbing routes. Bomb, I know!
One of our stops was in Pagosa Springs, CO where Blindman's cousin Marty Borges lives. Pagosa Springs has got some sweet ice climbing and skiing in the winter and in the summer has two great rivers to raft down. Not a bad spot to hang out, uh!
The Butterfield's and the Borges' meet up in Pagosa Springs to discuss life's complexities and adventures down nature's path.
Our last stop in the "Colorful" state was Ouray and Telluride. These two place are right next to each other but so far apart in reality. Ouray is probably the best place to train for ice climbing in the US. From downtown you can walk to the ice park and climb all day. Below is a picture of the ice park I found online. Sweet stuff!
Complements of Marauder Mountain Photography.
Some local Muckle Crunchers climbing off road in Ouray. Its hard to see but I'm in the red hat climbing as Murph belays and Emily rummages through the car.
WOW...look at that ICE! Just stare at it and appreciate it for a moment!
SO sweet and so purdy, and it wants me to climb it! Bridalvail Falls, Telluride!!!! YEA! It is in walking distance from the town. I want to move there and climb it period!
Overall Colorado was pretty rad. We hiked some sweet peaks and scoped out some awesome climbing destinations. We circled the square state and left our mark. (Blindman peed on every corner of the state to warn the animals that this was now his territory.) A saw some paragliders take off from atop a mountain in Telluride and let me drive their truck down the whole mountain. I picked up Blindman on the way down cause he was too slow and tired to make it to the top. The whole drive down the mountain Blindman was hooting and hollering at all the poonanies in the Gondola.
Side Notes: Blindman is in love with Telluride but he refuses to move there because of all the poonannies. If you didn't already know Telluride has the second home of the biggest poonanie of all time Tom Cruise! Blindman and Tom Cruise met each other in the 90s at a party in LA. Cruise was spun on something and ran around the party naked humping inanimate objects and howling like a horse. To this day Blindman has never seen a Mission Impossible movie and refuses to call Scientology a legitimate religion.
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