Hanging Out at Hanging Lake

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"Come for the winter, stay for the summer."

How often I've heard those words repeated by the locals (or transplated locals) here! And as winter has suddenly burst into summer (hard to believe six weeks ago I was still snowboarding, and Memorial Day it snowed in Vail!!), I must say I understand their reasoning now. Though I'm still partial to winter (29 years in Florida counts as a lifetime of summers, I think), the summer here is shaping up to be sunny, gorgeous, warm enough to enjoy the great outdoors but still dry and cool enough so that you don't break a sweat. I like it!

So back in May we had a visit from our friends Nicole and Jon, and the highlight of their visit was a hike to Hanging Lake in Glenwood Canyon. Short but steep, you traverse your way through a narrow, heavily forested valley along Dead Horse Creek and arrive at Hanging Lake.The story goes that a miner was searching for gold in the canyon in the late 1800's, when the Colorado River was called the Grand River. The man found a dead horse at the opening of a gulch (hence the name Dead Horse Gulch). When he followed the gulch up through the steep hillside through the canyon, he came around the backside of the lake. This is how he first saw the small bowl-like basin hanging onto the cliffs below - and what a sight! More greens and blues than the biggest box of Crayolas. The lake is impossibly deep, but the water is so pristeen it looks like you can reach right out and touch the bottom. An ancient fallen tree serves as a "bridge" where you can test your balance and walk out to the middle to examine the water up close. Spectacular, highly recommended to anyone traveling in the area!

In other news, we're now settled in our new semi-permanent home (I use the term loosely - we DO plan on staying here for quite a while, but knowing me, the itchy feet will kick in eventually). We're in a lovely two-bedroom lofted apartment right on the river, tucked away in a tiny valley just past Vail (an easy walk or bike ride takes you right into Vail). "Love" is a poor description of how we feel about our new place. IT ROCKS!!!! Every morning we wake up to the constant swoosh of the river raging just outside our window and stare at the ridiculously steep mountainside that looks more like a cardboard cutout than actual scenery. The commuinty has a hot tub that sits on a deck directly over the river...as the nights are still quite cool we've been enjoying that quite a bit! I know lots of you didn't get a chance to visit last winter, so put us on your itinerary for this winter because we are in prime location for a ski holiday! We won't even make fun of you for skiing (though let's be honest...snowboarding is way cooler). :-)

Aside from that, there's not much new to report! Jeremy and I are working together now at the lodge, just like we did in New Zealand, so no worries there. Going to be a busy summer at work - lots of weddings and events almost every weekend. We're having plenty of visitors the next couple months too, with itineraries that include white water rafting, hiking, horseback riding, etc...I'll hopefully have some more fun stories and nice photos for you to enjoy. In the meantime, hope all is well wherever you happen to be reading this!!

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