Aspen Ridge Telluride

... zilla all weekend. And she was. But it was all in good fun! The hike up to the lake was STEEP and strenuous, and there wasn't a lot of oxygen at 12,000 feet, but it was worth the pain. The upper and lower Ice Lake basins were incredible! There were so many vivid colors... rolling hills carpeted in green, red, and yellow... lichen covered boulders... silver creeks... jagged gray peaks... and the bluest lake I have ever seen ...

So I just get back from Colorado where I hung out with old friends for a buddy's bachelor party.

It was an amazing trip. We were very blessed to have a free condo to stay in which was plenty big enough for the 7 of us. A special thanks to the Jays for letting us stay there.

We did a ...

... s Gulch' in Atlas Shrugged. Ouray is completely
surrounded by mountains around 10,000 ft high. It has a real old
mining town feel and lots of character. Just to the north of town
there are hot mineral springs where you can swim, one of the pools is
almost as big as Caringbah pool. The water comes out of the ground
hot because of geothermal activity underground.

We then drove on to Montrose, Colorado
where we visited the Ute Indian Museum ...

... goes into a pot and the person who bet on the car that wins gets half the pot. A couple of differences we noticed from other demolition derbies we've been to are that, 1. There was no beer garden!! A demo derby with no beer?! And 2. The crowds in Montana are ROWDY! (Of course the presence/absence of beer probably plays a role in the rowdiness of the crowd)
One last thing that happened at the demo derby that I thought was hysterical was ...

Family and Grandma Connie went to Ouray to drop of some tile work for art show. On the way, we stopped at a couple of abandoned mine sites and explored. Founds some cool rocks with imbedded crystals. Stayed at Box Canyon and soaked in spring fed hot tubs made from old wine barrels ...

... water in this river! (of course there is- it's the Colorado!)  The rapids themselves weren't bad- there was so much water that there really weren't any rocks to have to manuver around (that's what I don't like) but the waves were HUGE!!  The distance between the crests of the waves (What's that called?  Wave length?) was huge!  I don't think we'd ever been on water quite like that- it was really fun!
I think we were on the water until about 4 or so, and then we all ...

We were hoping to camp a few nights in Silverton, however, when we arrived it was raining. It had been raining since late afternoon and hadn't stopped. We chose not to put up our tent and sleep in the car hoping it would clear up the next day. It didn’t clear up the next day so we took a mining tour. The mining tour was very cool. They took us about a quarter of a mile into the mountain ...

... but the railway buffs and photographers in the group spent most of the 3 hour ride in the open sided car behind us. Jack spent the whole ride with Gil's video camera, sticking his head out of the window and shooting scenery till his eyes were watering from the smoke and cinders coming back from the engine. The scenery was fabulous, despite (or perhaps because of) the rain ...

Another great day of skiing. Skied from 10am to 4pm, and we were literally some of the last ones off the mountain after they kicked us off the lift. In the morning, we skied down "The Plunge." Dad told us stories of his younger days and attacking this same run. he says it's a little easier these days, but we were all ...

... saying anything, she approached the van and started looking in the windows inspecting the interior. I felt a little uneasy. The inside wasn't the way I wanted it yet. The pimping of my ride had not yet been fully realized. I was embarassed. "Does it look the same as yours?" I asked for lack of anything better to say and to relieve the awkwardness of the moment. "No mine's gutted. It doesn't have the whole kitchen set-up." My kitchen set-up is ...