Four seasons in one day

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Colorado has been amazing, and continuing with the American spirit we have experienced thus far, the people have been really friendly too.

We arrived in Denver Colorado at 5.25pm, almost three hours later than we were initially scheduled for. Although it may not sound too much a lot happened in that time; for one, what was a sunny afternoon three hours earlier had begun to fade into the night, and secondly a front was coming in, which meant the one full day we had in Golden Colorado will probably be a miserable one.

We were picked up from the airport by Jon, a work colleague I befriended last year in Sydney and his wife Julie. They proceeded to check us into our accommodation before inviting us to join them for some dinner at a local steak house. The four of us hit it off right away and we had a fantastic time just exchanging stories and getting to know one another, they really are a great couple.

The next day after being somewhat well rested (as much as one can be from a late flight, a later dinner and three episodes of back to back Criminal Minds) I headed out to visit Epilog and take a gander of their factory where they engineer and assemble some of my favorite office toys.

Golden has so much to offer its community, and many work forces recognize this by extending the lunch break so workers can enjoy the great outdoors that Golden has to offer. On a clear day Golden offers anything from hiking, fishing, mountain bike riding, photography, on a winter’s day, there is skiing and even more photography. Golden also caters for hunting, long interesting Sunday drives into the mountains and even gold panning (though this is mainly a tourist thing). After all that, why not stop at the Coors Brewery for a free beer or three? Yes, FREE! Oh, did I also mention this is the largest brewery in the world?



Right now every bone in my body is saying ‘move to Golden’, and perhaps I am jumping the gun on that a little - there are a couple of down sides, though none to do with the county itself, moreso the country. For instance, 2 weeks annual leave a year! I am still trying to figure out how I managed to score 8 weeks annual leave this year, there is no way I could go from 4 to 2. At the very least though, Golden has just skyrocketed up my list of destinations; return perhaps a week earlier next year and hire a car and spend a week around Golden; take day trips to Aspen and South Park. Hire a bike and go riding through some of the most majestic scenery I thought only existed in Europe, and then when the snow comes in, trade the bike for skis.

The day started cold and damp with heavy cold drops in the streets of Golden, little did we know however that as it was raining in the Valley, the alpine trees on the mountain side were getting laced with fresh powdery snow! Around midday we headed for lunch at the Red Rock Amphitheatre / Café well over 6000 feet above sea level. The view was phenomenal - the mountain range extended as far as the eye could see, from the base of the escarpment the vegetation changed from red rock formations to green alpine and then further above that a white snow line running across the mountain side, and everything above that was snow.
Shortly after that we headed up into the mountains. The rain was coming down quite heavy at that stage and it was almost as if we were driving into the storm. The rain pelted onto the wind screen with quite a bit of noise, then all of a sudden the noise was gone - the rain drops had morphed, dancing across the bonnet and wind screen in the form of snowflakes. You have to understand, the day before we were in Phoenix in high 40’s heat, on the evening of our arrival into Golden it was still at least 28 with clear skies, in the morning raining, and now snowing - four seasons within a 20 minute drive - Fantastic!

After spending some time just wandering in the snow and poorly dodging the snow balls my girlfriend was pegging at me we headed back down into the valley of Golden, but not before coming across some giant Elk.
We pulled the car up on a private drive way to get a closer look at these massive creatures, as the lay in the snow. I took a few photos from the car with the window down before stepping out to take a closer look nearly tripping over Michelle in the process whom by that time was crouched down beside my door more interested in handling the snow rather than photographic these majestic creatures.



The vegetation continued to change as we drove back down towards Golden, changing from its white frosting appearance to almost autumn one of light greens and oranges. We then made our way to the Coor’s Brewery for free beer from only the largest beer brewery in the world. I mentioned it was free didn’t I? Oh well, it’s worth mentioning twice, three times at least.

Finally the day ended with a Mexican meal with our new found friends at a very authentic Mexican eatery - the food was spicy and served to us by a real Mexican!

We both had a fantastic time in Golden, it seems to be the central hub for everything related to outdoor activity. You really do feel alive - or perhaps it’s the high altitude making me feel high.

Next stop New York City! The Big Apple.

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Comments

[Karen]

At last
Thanks for finally getting this going...... I love reading it and dreaming

[saorrento]

Hope you enjoy it... I've been meaning to publish these for a while, it just took me a while to figure out how this Travel Blog works :)