Canyonland National Park, April 2015

One of the best places to visit any time of the year. We visited the Canyonland in April 2015. It was unusually cold (just above 35 degrees) and rainy for two days. But... I guess it only made the views better and the clouds were amazing there...

Morning walk

It is always a pleasure to spend some time in the morning walking outside. Highland Ranch is a great neighborhood where you can find a nice view and beautiful flowers...

 

Short History of Highland Neighborhood in six mosaics

Highways... They are the veins of the economy and millions of cars are constantly moving people and cargo from here to there. We all know very well how everything looks like from the highway, but very little of how the highway looks from the surrounding area. And mostly they don't look really nice. Gray concrete walls, pipes and columns, dust and water... Quite often the highway needs some additional constructions like soundproof walls to separate the residential areas and noisy, dusty highways. And... as I said, these parts rarely attract our attention. 

But... sometimes it's different, like this wall in Highland Neighborhood.

 

Night walk around the lake

That was a nice warm August evening and why not to go for short walk around the lake? So we did. We made a couple of loops around Bingham Lake in Parker and... what else can I say? It was nice and really enjoyable. We even met a group of deer there and we couldn't see them before they appear just a couple feet off the trail ;) That was nice evening though...

 

May, Botanic Garden, flowers...

Right... This is no surprise and you can always find some flowers in the Botanic Garden in May. And... also... no needs for comment, because the picture of the flower is worth hundreds words about this flower. So - just look and enjoy!

 

Denver, two Art Deco buildings

Architect Temple Buell is mostly known as designer and builder of the Cherry Creek mall – the first modern shopping mall in Denver. But I think there are some more projects he was working on. Let’s see if we can find them :)

Horace Mann Middle School and Mullen Building at St. Joseph Hospital both designed and built in the 1930s and both look really unusual. But first, let's learn more about an architect.

 

Colorado colors - Kenosha and Boreas Passes, Breckenridge - Sept 2016

Our planet is quite old... A few billions years old... And all this time it is spinning around the sun and the same cycle repeats every year - Winter is starting the year, followed by Spring, that Summer and finally the Fall time is taking over the Summer. And every Fall we can go outside and enjoy the huge change in scenery, when the leaves turn yellow and red before the wind blows them away for the Winter.

 

Edgewater Celtic Harvest Festival

 Denver is a home for people from all around the World. Mix of different cultures and languages, lifestyles and habits. And the people who share the same roots are always glad to share their culture and traditions with everyone.

 

Red Rocks Trading Post loop trail

Red Rocks Amphitheater is better known as a perfect concert place. But it is not only one thing you can do here. You also can take a short and easy hike around the cliffs to enjoy fall colors.

 

Old American cars - Classic Rock Cruise-In show in Castle Rock

Old American cars - tons of chrome, lots of details... feeling like you are back in the 70s... 60s... 50s... feeling like you are a kid again and your father just brought home a new car... Maybe this is a reason because these old car shows are that popular?

 

Babi Yar Park - a living holocaust memorial

Babi Yar park is one of the most unusual park in Denver. Babi Yar Park is a 27-acre memorial landscape that provides a place of quiet contemplation to reflect upon crimes against humanity and genocide. Native vegetation and trees encourage solace, and a small grassy amphitheater is available for gatherings and dialogue. In 1969 Mayor William H. McNichols, Jr. designated the land for the purpose of creating “a place that would demonstrate a unified public protest.”

Visitors enter the park via a narrow passage between two inscribed, rough-hewn, black granite monoliths. 

 

Quiet life in Morrison

Denver on Saturday is noisy, busy and full of running people. And wouldn't it be great to escape all this buzz and enjoy some other place, preferably nice and quiet, easy and cozy, uncrowded and ... I guess you can easily find ten more words to describe Morrison, a small town in a foothill area.

 

One snow day in February...

I know, I know... this is not a good time to have this conversation. This is such a nice Fall day and Colorado colors are great and no wind today and it is still warm and nice. And tomorrow is gonna to be another of these days - nice looking and warm...

But... the Winter is coming. Do you like it or not... Do you want it or not... The days will be colder (and also shorter). The colorful leaves will leave the branches and the trees will stay naked and look unhappy. The snow occasionally will cover the surface and everything will look cold and white.

 

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Every year in October dozens of the balloons are taking off and stay in the air for hours. Wanna to see it? Go to New Mexico! Every October the Balloon Fiesta takes place in Albuquerque and this event is the biggest hot balloon festival in the World.

It starts long before dawn... Only cats can see clearly in the dark, but it doesn't stop hundreds of guests who are waiting... Waiting for the sun and colorful balloons to take off...

 

The flights in Frederick

Had you even dreamed about flying as a bird? Have you woken up in the middle of the night just to be disappointed about this being just a dream? Sure you did... But what about flying in real life? I mean flying as a bird, being touched by the wind, seeing the earth far above your feet... Is it possible? Yes it is! There are a few options for doing this and it was so interesting to look at enthusiasts paragliding in Centennial Park in Frederick, CO. 

 

Santa Fe Art District, Graffiti

The time is flying... Just yesterday we were still so young and could not believe we could meet 21 century. Year of 2000 was so far away and the future seemed so blurry blurry and smoky... And now, only a couple days later, we couldn't believe that we are living in 21 century, and have almost one fifth of it behind... Oh my... how the time is flying, how the things are changing over time...

 

Ouray - part 14 of Independence Day trip 2015

Read previous part:
Telluride - part 13 of Independence Day trip 2015

We left Telluride and headed back to Denver. But... we couldn't go straight home, without making a detour :) We love this small town so much and cannot skip it, even if we don't have time to stop by. We always have time to stop and see Ouray ;) Always!

But before we slowed down somewhere in the middle of nowhere just to look at the mountains and clouds.

 

Telluride - part 13 of Independence Day trip 2015

To read previous part:
Ophir - part 12 of Independence Day trip 2015

Soon after returning back on the highway we also returned to our usual pace and were driving faster and faster and faster... Stopped only once just to take a look at the cloudy mountains and soon enough we reached Telluride - our destination.

Today Telluride is a famous ski resort in the Winter and the place that offers a lot of activities at the Summertime. But that wasn't always like this. The first gold was discovered in the area in 1858 and the first gold claim was made in the nearby mountains in 1875. The silver camp became a town in 1878 as Columbia. But due to confusion with a California town of the same name, the place was renamed to Telluride in 1887. It was named Telluride after Gold Telluride, valuable ore compounds of the chemical element tellurium which never were found in this area :) 

 

Ophir - part 12 of Independence Day trip 2015

To read previous part:
From Cortez to Telluride - part 11 of Independence Day trip 2015

If you are driving Highway 145 and tired of seeing just grey asphalt in front of your car, you can slow down and make a turn to the Forest Road CR 630. You will be surprised how quickly everything around changes. In a matter of minutes just find yourself in a different world. You cannot fly low above the highway anymore and need to drive slowly... But now you can enjoy the trees that stay so close to the road you can touch the branches with your arm stretched out of the car window. You will enjoy seeing the mountain slopes running up and this winding road brings you to a tiny town completely lost between high mountains. This is the town of Ophir, a small mining place incorporated in... I don't know exactly when :) The Internet says in 1875, the sign near the town reads 1881...

 

From Cortez to Telluride - part 11 of Independence Day trip 2015

To read  previous part:
Creede - part 10 of Independence Day trip 2015

We woke up at 6AM the next morning and were ready for new adventures to find. We had breakfast in the hotel and continued on highway 145 to Telluride.  

 

Creede - part 10 of Independence Day trip 2015

To read previous part:
Bachelor Loop Creede - part 9 of Independence Day trip 2015

At one point at the end of Bachelor Loop you can see the town of Creede from the bird's eye. And you see small, colorful and nice looking town. 

 

Bachelor Loop Creede - part 9 of Independence Day trip 2015

To read previous part:
Underground Mining Museum in Creede - part 8 of Independence Day trip 2015

Let's talk a little bit about Creede. This is a small town (population was 290 people in 2010), lost somewhere deep in the mountains. The first mine was open in this area in 1869 but didn't last long. Silver fever helped the small town grow in a few months and became one of very important in the area. Population of 600 in1889 boomed to about 10,000 in 1891. And the town collapsed back in 1893 when the Silver Panic hit all of the silver mines in Colorado. But Creede didn't become a ghost town. After 1900, Creede stayed alive by relying increasingly on lead and zinc in the ores. Total production through 1966 was 58 million troy ounces (870 metric tons) of silver, 150 thousand ounces (4.7 metric tons) of gold, 112 thousand metric tons of lead, 34 thousand metric tons of zinc, and 2 million metric tons of copper.

But these times are gone and now this is a nice looking town well hidden in the middle of nowhere.  But the past is still here and even works in the town's advantage. There are a lot of the mines still can be found in the area and one of the attractions is to drive through the Bachelor Loop - almost off road and mostly one way road bringing you close to many historical mines and other interesting places.

 

Underground Mining Museum in Creede - part 8 of Independence Day trip 2015

To read previous part:
Lakes and Waterfalls - part 7 of Independence Day trip 2015

It didn't take long for us to reach Creede, the small mining town with a rich history. It feels a bit sleepy now, but still keeps some secrets and attractions. One of them is the Underground Mine Museum. There are plenty of mines converted to museums all around the state of Colorado and they are real. Visiting them is like stepping back in time. But they all lack one thing... they don't show you how the mining was changing during the time and what tools were used. They don't teach you about life of miners. The Creede museum is different and that is why we wanted to visit it and learn more about everyday work in the mines. The Underground Mining Museum is the place, where you can see and feel what the miners did in the mines.

 

Lakes and Waterfalls - part 7 of Independence Day trip 2015

To read previous part:
Lake City Parade - part 6 of Independence Day trip 2015

We enjoyed the parade and left Lake City soon after people cleared Main Street. We had a good time there but we had some more plans to see places this day. We followed highway 149, which runs up to the summits and down to the valleys. There are a couple of pearls the traveler can find hidden just out of the main road. One of these treasures is Lake San Cristobal, the second largest natural lake in the state of Colorado.

 

Lake City Parade - part 6 of Independence Day trip 2015

To read previous parts:
Cottonwood Pass, Taylor Park Reservoir - part 1 of Independence Day trip 2015 
Lake Irwin - part 2 of Independence Day trip 2015 
Peanuts and Meridian lakes - part 3 of Independence Day trip 2015
Crested Butte - part 4 of Independence Day trip 2015
Lake City - part 5 of Independence Day trip 2015

We still were walking along the streets and enjoyed the town when we heard the bell rung. That was the time and we returned to the main street...