Mountains...

Today started off with a splitting...and I mean SPLITTING headache! I woke up early because I knew we wanted to get up into the mountains today. I changed Max's diaper and got back into bed...where I couldn't fight off the urge to close my eyes and try again later.

When I woke up the second time, my headache was still there, only a bit more dull. So we got up and around, packed a lunch and headed up to the mountains.

As soon as we got on the canyon road, the winds changed. The temperature dropped about 15 degrees as we started up in altitude. We were only about 20 minutes away from the house at this point! As we started curving up the familiar roads to the area we wanted to walk around, it was so nice to see the Aspen trees flittering away and the pine trees swaying back and forth. It was like a procession line welcoming us back home! This is the same road we've traveled up since arriving to Denver 8 years ago. Coal Creek Canyon is a bit of a hidden treasure to us. There are usually very few cars traveling up there, and yet, it is so close to us!

Once we got up there, we stopped at Brainard Lake Recreation Area. It is somewhere we hadn't been before, but had read about it and wanted to check it out. It is only about 35 miles away from Rocky Mountain Natn'l Park, so we figured we'd give it a shot and if it was too remote, or inaccessible for Max we could just head up there.

We were pleased with the easy access to the lake, but not so impressed with the amounts of people there. There were a lot of people, and it had started raining as soon as we pulled the picnic out...so we got in the back of our car and ate there with the back hatch open, watching the rain. It was so lovely! We haven't had a good rain since arriving back in Denver!

Here are a few pics of the afternoon:









And here's a shot of Max's new shoes...he likes to prop his feet right up there by my head!


I'm glad to be back...to the mountains and the trees!