When you sleep outside, you don't really get the benefit of curtains. Pete and I could have probably slept in longer from all of yesterday's activities, but at 6:15 a.m. (ish), the dogs were up and ready to go. Anyone who has slept with a dog knows that when they're up, there's no calming them down (as is usually evidenced by Lucy walking on my face in the mornings.) So, we decided to pack up, leave the "state park" and head back over to Boulder to hike the Flatirons.
And hike we did. I'm not sure exactly how many miles it was to the top of Royal Arch, but probably somewhere around 3-4. Combine that with two dogs pulling you along the way, the elevation (and therefore lack of oxygen) and lots of upward elevation, you get a good workout. (And an pretty darn okay substitute for marathon training for the day.) We encountered a lot of beautiful and interesting things along our way -- like the tree bark you see above. Here is more of the beauty that lined our way up and back down.
On our way back down, we encountered several artists spending their morning trying to put the beauty of the mountains onto paper. As you can see at Pete's blog, this woman, painting in pastels, did an excellent job.
After a long hike, nourishment is definitely a must. One of the things that we planned before heading out was to find that nourishment at none other than Casa Bonita: the home of cliff divers, (bad) skits, and over priced Mexican food. But hey, it's about the atmosphere, right?
Pete obviously enjoyed his time at Casa Bonita. Unfortuantely, I couldn't convince him to bring a little piece of the magic home with him by purchasing this sombrero for his personal collection.
A small stream of water dropping into a barrel (in the new, expanded part of Casa Bonita) led to this picture.
After filling up our tummies with free sopaillas, we headed into Denver to take in a Rockies game. Although we left after the 7th inning stretch when the Rockies were down (we had to get up early to drive home in time for church), the "hottest team in baseball" pulled out "W".
We head home tomorrow, but if you could give a trip a "W", this one would certainly qualify. Hopefully it won't be too long before we're back again.
