The Rockies, Elk, and So Much More

This past week, Wes and I went on our official honeymoon to Colorado. Yes, we did marry back in June, but to see the Rockies in the Fall is to fall in love. It was just amazing. On Friday the 7th, we headed to St. Louis to catch a flight to Oklahoma where we would, the next day, see the Sooners totally cone Miami and where I would get a pretty bad sunburn. On Sunday, we then headed to Denver by plane for my first Colorado experience. I was impressed with this big city. It was quaint yet commerical, busy yet suburbia. We had some time to kill before we needed to head to our final destination, so Wes introduced me to the U.S. Air Foce Academy in Colorado Springs where I got to see a real B-52 Bomber plane that was once used during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. It was pretty amazing to stand right under a plane that actually flew during actual wars.

From Colorado Springs, we headed into Loveland, Colorado. Such a cool place. I swear, even their Storage Units were fancy. The Lowes looked spectactular, the restaurants, immaculate. I could live there, but one of my favorite places we passed through on our way towards our honeymoon stay was Boulder. I loved Boulder! It was Everwood meets Big City. The denizens of Colorado are extremely health conscious, so there were all of these neat little cafes that were nutritionally driven--lots of Sushi, smoothies, natural grocery stores. I could live in Boulder and be incredibly happy.

But alas, I must spend most of my post actually writing about Estes Park, Colorado. Part resort, part small town, part awesomeness. This town is considered the "Gateway to the Rocky Mountian National Park" and has so much to do, you don't really know where to start. When we arrived, we first headed to our hotel where we came across two of the largest male elk Wes has ever seen. These beautiful creatures traversed the road as if they weren't stopping taffic and headed towards a residential area. I mentioned to Wes how frightening it would be if the owner of one of those homes who was just minding his own business, doing lawn work or just taking a quick walk around his home, came around the corner and ran into this huge male bull. Once we have downloaded our pictures to this IBook, I will post some pics we took of Elk. They quickly became one of our favorite attractions to the Park.

Once capturing the elk on film, we headed to our hotel room where we had a fireplace, two very nice large queeen-sized beds, and, humerously, where Wes and I brought down the average age by atleast thiry years. The next day, Monday, was our first day to spend in the Park itself. It cost only $20 for the whole week, so we could come and go as we pleased. We started our honeymoon off driving Trail Ridge Road up through the Rocky Mountains, ascending to atleast 13,000 ft above sea level. What was so cool about this first day was, as the clouds lifted slowly through the air, we experienced driving up the mountians without actually seeing the mountains. At one point, as we took pictures at one of the many rest/viewing areas, Wes looked as if he was just standing in thin air with nothing behind him. What was actually behind him was huge, cold mountians that extended for miles and miles. Once we finally reached the Bear Lake parking lot, Wes and I headed out for a nice two mile hike. Reaching Bear Lake, which resides in the mountains, was quite easy, and we headed on to Alberta Falls (waterfall) where we climbed rocks, took lots of pictures, and made friends with a very gregarious chipmunk. However, as easy the trek to was, the trek from heading towards our car was excruciating. Please keep in mind that the oxygen level is sparce when you're so high, and if you're not drinking water regularly, you find yourself in much trouble. It's what the doctors like to call "Altitude Sickness." I got it. I hated it. I don't ever want it again. Our trek back to our car was all uphill and I didn't have enough water in my body, so once we got back to the car, I felt ok, but as we descended on the winding roads, I started to fell like ridiculously awful. I couldn't look out the windows for fear that I would get sick on the spot, and I had to put my head between my legs to ensure I didn't pass out. I was just praying the whole way down, "Please, Lord, get us down as quick as possible and just get me to the hotel room." Once we hit ground level, I didn't fell any better and upon reaching the hotel, I felt worse. Wes left to get me some Gatorade (something about needing electrolites) and I then proceeded to upchuck five times. I'm like Sienfeld...I hadn't pucked in like seven years. My streak is broken. Lame!

So yes, this was just the first day of the honeymoon and I was sick. But it soon passed and we then experienced an amazing six days in the Rockies, Estes Park, and in the beautiful state of Colorado.

For the sake of this post being way too long (oops! I think I'm already there), I'll break it up a bit and post later. But I just want all to know how beautiful this place is and how creative God can be with colours, animals, mountains, the Tundra, the Fall and everything else.

Stay tuned...