RMNP again

Our next day at Rocky mountain included a drive up the Old Falls Road and across the Ridge Road, over the tundra above tree line. it was spectacular scenery, and great fun to experience together. The vastness of God's creation was all around us, and moved us all!

Tim, Nikki and Dave climbed to the top of the world along a set of stairs near the Alpine Visitor's Center.

We also saw amazing creatures: many bull elk, in all their finery, pikas, ground squirrels and pocket gophers, tiny chipmunks and huge rabbits, yellow-bellied marmots, and various birds.

And at the end of the day, it was hobo dinners and fried pies over the camp fire. What a delicious end to a delicious day!

More from RMNP

Tim and Nikki joined us on Monday evening, and we had a lovely walk around Bear Lake. The following morning, we hiked to three beautiful alpine lakes, along a raging stream full of rapids and waterfalls. It was a gorgeous hike!




You'll find more photos on my other blog today.
To be continued...

Monday, a week ago

Last Monday, Dave and I started our day with a 4+ mile hike which climbed about 300 feet to around 9700 feet, circled an alpine lake, and then descended about 700 feet into a valley via a huge aspen and wildflower-covered mountainside, on switch-backs. It was glorious!

Lake Bierstadt was lovely, despite the cloudy weather. The clouds made it possible for me to climb without the threat of spontaneous combustion. There were ducks up there that were very used to people, and I thought they might even be trained in picking the pockets of unaware bypassers!

The descent was long and beautiful, with the view of the valley seen below in one direction, and the view of the high peaks in the other.

And the flowers were amazing...wild campanula, Indian Paintbrush, penstemon, rock crop, columbine, billions of asters and daisies and other yellow composites, and the jewel of the trip, the Mariposa lily seen below.

To be continued...

The weekend before last...

Last Saturday, Dave and I drove to Denver, and spent the night in Westminster, celebrating our anniversary with a little romantic get-away. On Sunday morning, our actual anniversary date, we met dear friends CurtAndrew and Natasha DeKoning and their children, Aaron and Eli, at church, and enjoyed visiting over lunch with them at their lovely home. What can be better than an excellent sermon in the presence of God's people and good fellowship?!

We then proceeded in the afternoon up to Rocky Mountain National Park. Here is the view from our camp site:

It was exhilarating to see those 13,000 and 14,000-foot peaks once again, and be surrounded by the amazing beauty of God's creation. And when I say beauty, I mean beauty! I spent the whole week being moved to literal tears at the bigness of God, His creative genius, and His amazing blessings to me. I kept marveling that I was there, doing the camping and hiking, with my husband of 29 years, both of us cancer survivors, neither of us deserving such abundant kindness. God is amazing.

Another anniversary, and blogging break

Dave and I are leaving tomorrow on a week of celebration. We will celebrate our anniversary (see below), followed by camping next week at Rocky Mountain National Park. Tim and Nikki plan to join us for part of the week. Then on the following weekend, we will gather in Estes Park with my parents and siblings to celebrate the upcoming 50th anniversary of my parents, pictured at left. They were married on August 22, 1959, and are an inspiration to all of us.

And, for the first time in literally years, we will be more than a week without any computer. We aren't even taking one! And since this blog is rather low-tech, and I haven't figured out how to tell something to post while I'm gone, there will be a little hiatus from the blog as well. We will have cell phones, but coverage is iffy.

I hope you enjoy a lovely week of summer while I'm gone, Gentle Reader. I'll be back here when we return.

Happy anniversary, dearest friend!

On Sunday next, Dave and I will be celebrating our 29th wedding anniversary. We grew up together, and are on the road of growing old together. I could not have asked for a more patient and gentle friend over all these years.

Of all the earthly blessings that God has afforded me, you are the most precious and amazing one, my best friend. Thank you for loving me so well.

Between the black sky and the blue

Last night we watched the sunset behind the Santa Fe opera, and enjoyed an evening of Mozart. It was Don Giovanni, which is not my favorite of Mozart operas, but he does get his just desserts in the end, which is good. It was a lovely evening of glorious views and music.

And today I had tea with a former student who has become a friend. What a blessing that is.

This road of life is so full of surprises of every kind-- and so many blessings if you have eyes to see them. I am listening to a lovely song by Fernando Ortega which seems to apply:

Storm

Sometimes it takes a storm

To really know the light

The scent of rain

The weight of clouds

Pulling down the sky

Sometimes it takes a storm

To know how you feel

To understand indigo

And the varnished sun

Lighting up the fields



It takes the rain between the lines to know what sorrow finds

The way a cloud divides sometimes

The clearing and the blue

I love you

I was just passing through

And taken by surprise

Between the black sky

And the blue

Between the black sky and the blue

I love you

I love you