Summer Colorado Trip

 Day One, Wednesday, July 30th

Load and drive to our family cabin near Pike's Peak, between Divide and Woodland Park, Colorado... We arrived about 1:30 am (on July 31st), unloaded, made beds, and went to bed

Day Two, Thursday, July 31st

Games and hiking around the cabin, grocery shopping in Woodland Park, Bear near our cabin road, Taco night

On our hike back behind the cabin, in the Pike National Forest, we saw several fresh piles of poop like the one pictured below. Then we saw this bigger foot/hoof prints in the mud. Our best guess was an Elk or Moose.

Day Three, Friday, August 1st

Mushroom hunting, hiking the Crag's and Pike's Peak trailhead areas, Cripple Creek and Victor, a bear and her two cubs, games at the cabin, Foil dinners

In the selfie below, on the main street in Cripple Creek, we all squinted into the sun for the picture...accidentally leaving Phoebe out of the selfie. Sorry Phoebe.

I had a very hard time getting back down off this humongous tire. Everyone thought it was hilarious, (it felt like I was so far up off the ground) but I thought I was going to fall. Eric finally just grabbed a hold of me from down below and lifted me down off the tire.

Below, in the middle of the picture, you can see one of the big Mule Deer in velvet that we spotted just outside of Victor, Colorado.

Below, in the middle of the picture you can see one of the Bear cubs that Sarah spotted as we drove back to the cabin, just outside of Victor, Colorado.

Day Four, Saturday, August 2nd

The Manitou Incline, Guffy Gorge and Paradise Cove, baked potato dinner

As we hiked back to Paradise Cove, we wondered what we would find.... Would the water be deep enough for jumping in this summer? Owen and Sarah both wanted to jump this year (none of us had ever done this before. We had just watched other crazy people do this). As we hiked down to the water below, we watched a couple other college-aged boys climb the rocks and shimmy down to the edge and jump. Owen and Sarah decided that they would jump too. Once up on the rock edge, Owen didn't hesitate. He just jumped. Sarah followed him but had to talk to him and us a little bit from up on the rocks before she took the leap. They both climbed up and jumped in 3 times.

Day Five, Sunday August 3rd

Manitou Springs shopping, meeting some of Jase and Missy Robertson's family (met, talked to, and got our picture with Missy and Mia Robertson), hiking around the cabin, hotdogs and smores around the campfire

Day Six, Monday, August 4th

Hummingbirds, The North Pole home of Santa's Workshop, Eleven Mile Canyon, another bear (no picture this time)

Day 7, Tuesday, August 5th

Pack, load the truck, clean the cabin and drive back to Kansas

Below, I wanted to include this picture of a giant bulletin board that my Dad hung in the hallway at the cabin last summer. He wanted family members to contribute "family cabin pictures" for this board. It looks so good. I loved just standing in front of it looking at the pictures and remembering all of the fun family and friend times we've shared in Colorado, in and around this cabin. A cabin that was built over fifty years ago and was born from a dream that my Grandpa, Howard Hastings, had and his love for the beautiful Colorado mountains. Some of my most cherished memories are from times spent at this cabin.