We arrived at Devil's tower. This impressive structure is seen from a great distance. At the feet of the mountains there is a small prairie area and if you look close you notice things running around. Prairie dogs, so many of them, sitting in their little holes or just standing on 2 feet looking for predators. Once you pass the sea of these prairie dogs that have no resemblance to dogs you reach the mountain parking and begin the hike. We took the hike that goes around the huge scratched tower, not a long hike but very icy, which makes it kind of perilous. There is no trail to the top unfortunately but we did see climbers on the sides of the mountain climbing up…one day I will find someone to pull me up there.
The hike took an hour and a half I think, mostly due to the slippery ice. We did see some squirrels (not an attraction anymore) and several white tailed deer.
Oh on the way over we did see a bald eagle , baldly munching on road kill, but it flew away when we got closer.
The devil's tower appears as if it was scratched by giant talons and the Indian legends speak of a giant bear that did those so after the hike I purchased a puzzle with the tower and the giant mythical bear, to be completed one day.
We began the long drive to Cheyenne, leaving the pretty black hills area and passing the boring desert (it's boring on the highway) with a slight detour for MacJiffa- I don't know why kids like this place so much, it's not food! Lucky there was a supermarket next door, and ice-cream is the best cure for overly oily foods.
We reached Cheyenne , the Capitol of Wyoming at night fall. The front desk hotel guy tells me that Cheyenne is not the cowboy western looking town people think it is. I didn't have a thought about Cheyenne because it was an unscheduled stop, with no research but he led me to the down town area with the following choices to eat- a brewery, not good with the kids, a pizza place and a burger place. Not many choices for a capitol city but we went to Sanfords, the burger place. When you go to many restaurants, they are always packed with posters and nick necks and random …well crap, sometimes it's cute but mostly looks fake. This place was overloaded with these, but it looked nice and original. They had a statue of a hot dog putting mustard on itself, bicycles, you should see the photos. This place also had the biggest menu , literally and 1$ draft beer, with 55 choices to choose from , I had lemonade and a burger with blue cheese, never tried one, not bad. It was late, everyone was tired but I still wanted to see the town so early next morning at 6 am, I went with Moti for an early bird hike at downtown Cheyenne. I found a walking tour with 70 point of interest, including points that are of very low interest to me, most of them were uninteresting, the house of this guy, the church of someone, the bank of. But the Capitol building was nice and several statues scattered, this was very early on a Monday and the city was empty. You know how certain cities have painted statues- Bern has bears, Cleveland has guitars others have penguins, cows, rabbits and so forth. Cheyenne has cowboy boots, taller than myself so they look impressive, the boots even have spurs. One attraction of the type I like to find is the World largest things, and Cheyenne has the world largest steam locomotive (well one of 8 such machines),, it took us a while to find it, adding 3 k for our trip since it wasn't close to our tour area, its is called big boy by locals. We went to the train depot after that for the statue of the 1st woman to vote in America, only in 1906!. Our 7k morning hike ended and we headed south to Colorado.
Alla was due to arrive later that day and ski was scheduled till tomorrow , and after a walk in the mall while my family shopped (oh, I entered a store called the outdoor world, never been in one, its huge and filled with outdoor things you don't really need, but they have lots of stuffed animals, which I hope died of natural causes, who am I kidding… well lots of bears in various poses, mountain lions, eagles, all manner of deer and antelope, beavers, wolves, a most impressive display and all look live like. )
With 4.5 hours and nothing to do I drove alone (the rest continued shopping and reaching the ski resort) to Boulder, since they had parks nearby . I heard it was very nice but my first impression was ehhh. I went to the tourist information and heard about a hike with a time slot that fitted my tight schedule. A 3 hour hike and I had just under 3 hours to complete. I filled my water bottle and the ranger station bathroom and began to walk up. I am very impressed of how many people hike on a Monday afternoon in the off season, the trails were packed. My trail was a 400 meters elevation with distance of under 2 miles, short and steep and after walking 7k earlier that day, I was a bit tired. But I felt like walking. It was hot, which is so good after the Cleveland winter. Colordo is supposed to be cold as well, this time of year, but this unusual warmth and no snow for over 2 weeks was most welcome. The 1st part was a simple, hike up a wide trail followed by a narrower trail that was partially icy and slippery. Hiking up was not that hard, other than breathing hard. I made it to the end where a large arch looms over the mountain, you go under it, sit on the rocks on the other side and watch the view. With an hour and a half left to go, I began making myself down. I was wearing regular hiking pants, a T-shirt, sneakers and a water bottle, mostly empty by now. Not prepared well for this hike. The Icy trail on the way down was impossible to pass without slipping, I was left with little choice but 'but sliding' parts of the way, the water goes through the thin pants. It was cold. The 1st part down took me a long while, but the 2nd part was a breeze, the wide steep path down took only minutes since you cannot maintain a slow walking pace but must semi jog to be comfortable. I made it on schedule and after a water refill at the bathroom again I drove to pick up Alla from the Denver airport, her flight was slightly delayed , had I known I would have stopped to drink something, I was parched. We then drove the 2 hours to Breckenridge where a dinner was waiting for us with the family including steaks and water (we did stop on the way to drink, but I was still parched).
Breckenridge sit at around 3000 meters high, situated on mountains, overlooking higher mountains at the base of a ski resort, most of my family went skiing, Alla loves it, but I gave up the attempts to ski, I am hopeless. Instead we went hiking some more. Colorado is a huge hiking area but not in winter, unless you are equipped with expensive water proof everything. We did found a nice hike that goes on a snowy road with amazing views of the ski hills , the forests and lakes below. The snow was over 2 feet thick where we walked but it was packed, so for us it felt almost like walking on the ground (as long as you kept at the center of the road). Other than the views the only point of interest on the way up was the leg of an elk perhaps, just the leg, untouched and unharmed in the middle of the road, what happened to the rest of the elk, I have no idea. We walked for 5K up, but this up was continuous but not a major elevation change. The way down was more interesting because we got to see some interesting modes of transport. One hiker was pulling his kid on a tube. So the kid was just sitting there, carried away. One guy was biking! Up the snowy mountain. A couple were skiing down, , some dragged their kids on tiny wagons (you probably saw these carts behind bicycles, this was the snow equivalent). But the most interesting was a guy hiking with 3 big dogs. One of the dogs picked up the leg of elk and ran with it!. On the way you see many tracks, we tried to understand if they were elk, bear, mountain lion, but most were probably dogs. Some were clearly not but we are not Indian trackers. At one point Moti walked away from the middle of the track and sunk knee deep in the snow. Remember, stay in the center.
That evening it was our turn to cook, so I headed to the supermarket while Alla was enjoying the slopes and got what I was asked, then went again since I didn't get the right number of things I was supposed to get (get avocados, isn't 2 avocados are also avocados, apparently you need 6 when you are asked to get avocados, I don't like avocados myself, but they do). After dinner everyone crashed and I watched brave heart for the 6th time perhaps.
Next day we headed for nearby keystone resort, again Alla went skiing and I went hiking, this time alone a 4k short hike at a nature preserve, some parts were on a trail that can easily be a road, and some parts up a small hill with no other hikers and I kept looking left and right for bears, they are supposed to still be hibernating , but perhaps this warm winter changes things, and the big tracks I saw and had no clue what they were scared me a bit. If there were any bears, non-appeared. After lunch with Alla and Beaver tails (beaver tails are these sweet flat breads topped with various toppings- it's not a crêpe , but a distant cousin.) and after that we hiked again, tiny hike to a view point which has the same view as the road next to it!.
After dinner and actual Crepes (there is a famous crepe store here and there is always a line that can last for over an hour) some of us braved the line and got us all crepes, I had it a few hours later, was not that good but again, few hours later they are dry). We played charades and crashed once more.
For all of us its harder to breath in this altitude and I find myself stopping for breath every now and then and the ari is so dry.
Next day was Vail resort, the largest in Colorado. Alla went to conquer the mountain and Moti and I went hiking again. We couldn't find the trail we wanted, Google led us to closed roads and the information center guy said those areas are avalanche prone and showed us a hike to the opposite side of the hills. Because there was no snow for 2 weeks you can really see the difference between the north and south faces, the north is snowy and the south has virtually no snow. We reached out hike and followed the tracks along a river, though there were tracks, it didn't feel like a real trail and we headed back after a little while but not before I took one step and sunk hip deep in the snow (with only one leg). When we got back we saw the real trail and hike up the hills, it was amazing to see that on the south face with almost no snow on the hills, the only areas with ice were on the trail itself, not sure why, perhaps hikers pack it so it melts less. Anywhere again walking on icy areas , but not as slippery as before and other parts muddy, the view is very nice from on top, but with these mountains, you can see the same view from the ground, still you get to feel like you achieved something. We hiked down slowly, doing some mud slides and trying not to fall. Unfortunately I had to leave a gift on the mountain, thank god for Starbucks napkins.
I heard Vail itself was very nice and trendy, but we were to muddy to bland it and we headed back. And in the afternoon I decided to give skiing one more try.
The trails here are so long compared to the one's I tried in the east. I started going down and soon picked up on my skills and made nice turns, though slowly, but after 5 minutes the pains begun again and soon I couldn't turn , or stand in the skis. I hate this pain. So I took of the skis and walked down 2/3 of the way, not a fun thing to do carrying the skis and watching hundreds of adults and kids skiing so effortlessly. The car was parked lower and when I got to the road I took my boots off and walked barefoot the rest of the way (lucky the weather was warm). Why is it so painful for me to ski!! Arghhhhhhh
I relaxed by watching half of legends of the fall and in the evening we went to the bistro , a trendy place where everyone is dressed casual (weird combination) . the place had a live instrument band and nice food.
Earlier today we packed our stuff and headed for snowmobiling, we didn't think there was enough snow for snowmobiling but we were wrong. After circling the training area a few times we headed into the forest in wide winding paths with ok speeds then we started going up to a pass at over 11000 feet and stopped for pictures. The way down was fun, even on the slower parts, but in the end we got to race for a bit and barely passed 40MPH, a short but fun activity.
After that we split , my brother and his family to Dallas , my mom , shay and Moti to Florida. Alla and I with a few more hours to enjoy went snow tubing. You get a tube , with the bottom covered, there is no hole like a water tube and they launch you down the hill on various descents with different speeds, and slopes. Not sure why, but more often than not I was going down backwards which is scary since you don't see what you are about to crash on. We didn't crash, and the speeds were slower since it was mid-day and the ice was slushier, thus slower, but it was my first tubing experience , also lots of fun.
We walked nearby Frisco for a few minutes and had a good cream chicken soup and drove back to the airport.
Right now we are about to land in a few minutes, more photos will come in over the weekend.
Cheers
And p.s today is my 4th US anniversary , the annual report will arrive next week!
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