Started with a podcast and now we’re here

My husband and I are obsessed with the podcast National Park After Dark and have been loving the trips they have been going on. So when the opportunity to came to snowshoe in Rocky Mountain National Park, we had to sign up right away.

Drink of Choice

Even though we went in the winter, and I love a good toasty and warm drink when it’s cold out, the unofficial state drink of Colorado sounded way less boring than a basic mulled wine. The Colorado Bulldog is basically a White Russian with a splash of Coca-Cola. It sounded gross to me, but I’m always down to try something new and was pleasantly surprised!

Hungover in Colorado

The secret recipe is 1 ½ ounces of vodka, 1 ounce of coffee liqueur, 1 ounce of heavy cream, and 2 ounces of Coke. The name Bulldog comes from the mascot of Colorado State University before they changed to the Rams.

Baby, it’s beyond cold outside

Honestly, I didn’t truly feel the cold in my bones until the first full day outside. We signed up for this trip for January knowing full well how cold it would be, but I don’t think I was expecting quite this cold (we went during a polar vortex). The first full day out, the high was 1 F and with the windchill felt like -13F. The first evening we got in, the weather wasn’t bad, but we were also inside for the rest of the evening. However, what we wanted to do the first day was all outside.

The first hike we did was around the Alluvial Fan where we saw elk roaming around behind a fence, walked over a frozen river, and saw where the flooding disaster of Estes Park occurred. The area was beautiful and you were able to see how the variable the landscape could be. You could see the aspen trees, and the evergreen trees, and the vast difference between the highest peaks and lowest valleys.

Walking in a winter wonderland

Yes, this trip happened in January, but I feel like the best way to describe what I saw (besides through photos) is through silly Christmas songs. Our second hike was to Hidden Falls which is a frozen waterfall about 30 minutes from the first hike. I think when I pictured a snowshoeing trip, this is what I was picturing. Yes, the weather was so cold, but the wind wasn’t blowing, so you could see how the snow had settled onto the branches of evergreens. As someone who has never been around this much snow, I couldn’t help but compare it to holiday movies. I saw what I thought was just for movie sets, come to life around me.

The falls themselves were fun to see for many reasons, but in particular, I had such a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that it was so cold that moving water froze mid-fall.

Tiny Baby Avalanche

Truly, one of the best moments in my life was seeing my husband give me the thumbs up after it all, but I will back up a bit to let you know how we got here. That morning we headed out to the frozen lakes. This was one of the windiest days, but that worked out because for this day, we were going to be hidden behind the trees for the most part which blocked out the wind a bit. The feeling of walking over a frozen lake is so strange. Honestly, it just feels like walking across a meadow, but then you get to the other side and look back, you’re weirdly taken aback by the experience. Honestly, there isn’t much more to say about that hike before the big event because it was not a long hike to that point.

Before the avalanche, we got to a point in the hike that was honestly beautiful with snow covered trees on one side and a wall of snow covered mountain on the other. Unfortunately, given the slant of the wall and the wind, an avalanche was triggered. The moment the snow started to shift felt like slow motion. I saw my husband move slowly down the and he eventually he went from being vertical to rolling with the current of the snow. And even then, it didn’t really hit me what happened but I was holding my breath. Thankfully, because of the small scale and the slow nature of the slide, no one was hurt and it wasn’t nearly as large as it felt to me. When the movement stopped, I saw my husband’s hand lift up and give a thumbs up. I don’t think I realized I was holding my breath until that happened.

Needless to stay, our guide was shaken up and we didn’t continue to Emerald lake (don’t worry, September trip is being planned as we speak). While the experience was scary at the moment, after the initial shock and fear, we all had a good laugh about it. Maybe not our guide, but my husband and another person who was swept away loved seeing the report and pointing out that they were snowshoers 1 and 2.

Sick day, with a view

Because of the early end to the day, we had the afternoon to do a little bit of exploring. This worked out great because I needed a new book. We went to a really cute bookstore called MacDonald bookstore. The vibes were cozy and the fireplace really set the mood. Originally the plan was to only get one book, but I have this problem where I step into a book store and all my willpower leaves the building. I walked out with three books.

The books were great because that evening, I became violently ill. I am not sure if it was very delayed altitude sickness or I got glutened somehow, but regardless, I couldn’t even keep water down. That meant unfortunately for me, cross country skiing the next day was not in the cards for me. BUT reading all day by a fireplace with a view, that was definitely in the card for me.

After some intense medication, by lunch the next day, I had enough energy to enjoy the views from the big window at our hotel lobby by the cozy fireplace. Thank goodness for those three books.

Spooky Scary Stanley

Thankfully, by the time we were ready to go to a ghost adventure, I was feeling better. Beyond its tales of hauntings, the Stanley Hotel is honestly, just a beautiful structure and should be visited for even just its cozy winter lodge vibes. While none of the Shining was filmed there, you can see where the inspiration comes from. Tragically, we did not see any ghosts, but many fun memories were made. I took so many mirror selfies in the hopes of finding a ghost, but despite the trying, no hauntings, but several cute photos if I do say so myself. But take a look at the mirror selfies and let me know if you see something we did not.

Reagan the tour guide made an already great tour into an even more memorable moment. When we started this trip, this lanky boy with long hair from Arkansas walks in talks a mile a minute as soon as he starts his introduction in his southern accent. Throughout the tour he would add in little quips that you would almost miss and the full joke didn’t really hit you until you had time to process it. At one point we were walking from one building to another and Reagan pointed at Venus in the sky and just “Look there’s Venus. Yay Venus!”. And it took us 2 minutes and plenty of reassurance from the people around us to confirm that he said what we heard. I will always think that when I look at Venus.

Summit (Almost) Day

Admittedly, maybe trying to summit a mountain the day after being violently ill was not the best move, but I think I just wanted to prove that my body can do this. I’ve dealt a lot with what feels like my body failing me. Without going into too much detail, I often find myself at odds between what my body wants to do and can do. Mentally, this was the hardest day for me because of that. I often want to push my body because I am tired of feeling like my body is always failing me. I ran my first half marathon because of this feeling. I learned how to SCUBA dive because of this feeling. And on this day. I decided to summit a mountain (Estes Cone, specifically) because of this feeling.

The first part of the journey was hard which scared me for the remainder of the journey. At many times I thought of turning around and at one point I vocalized this feeling. I would not have made it as far as I did without the resounding encouragement as I voiced my fears. Ultimately, I had to listen to what my body was telling me and my body could not go farther when I was 300 feet of elevation from the top. As I sat there with one of the snowshoers while everyone else reached the summit, I dealt with my feeling about this moment. I felt hurt by my body. Not because of the physical pain, but because of the betrayal I felt that my body couldn’t do what I wanted it to do. I spent so much time sitting there recounting how I could have better prepared myself for this journey and questioned why I thought I could do this in the first place. Honestly, if I wasn’t scared of my tears freezing on my face, I would have broken down in that moment. But when the group returned and we started our decent, I decided to reframe (shout out to my therapist for this handy tool).

Growing up when bad things would happen to me and I would ask the universe, “why me?”, father would then retort “why not me?”. Back then, I wasn’t great at the reframing thing. Why not me felt much harder to answer than even why me for some reason. As I climbed down the mountain thinking to myself “why can’t my body do this?”, I tried to think about “why could my body do this much?”. When I got back to the car, I kept thinking about that and I thought about how my body was feeling at that moment. My body was as sore as running my half marathon and that was when I felt some pride. My body was able to climb over 2,000 feet of elevation when we already start at 9,000 feet of elevation. I was able to climb more than I thought my body was initially capable of, even if that point was not the summit. While I think I will always be in constant battle with my body, in that moment, I was truly proud of myself.

Final day of fun!

I am so thankful that after that mentally tough day, we had a fun day with the whole group. The structure of the trip was so that while we all came on the same trip, half of the people were there for avalanche training and participated in backcountry skiing. But for the last day, we all came together for a final day of fun. We had some amazing guides for the week and this was also a great time to let loose with them as well. We were on a well travelled and chill path so we were really able to get to know them too.

If you’re ever in the area, I would 100% recommend the KMAC guides. Reed, Dusty, and Sam were our guides and we got to know them well through the week. But I think this day, we were able to truly have fun with them. Between walking, we would step off to the side to snack and talk, and before we turned around, we took advantage of the perfect packing snow to make snowballs and snowmen. I dare you to find a sexier snowman. Sam (seen juggling below) quite literally asked us to pelt him with snowballs. Reed took advantage of the ice by belly sliding like a penguin. Dusty had so many little quips through the whole day.

Skijor and send it or something like that

While the trip and the goodbyes were technically completed the day before, many of us stayed behind to watch the wild and completely awesome sport of Skijoring. For those, like me, who are unaware of what this is, Skijoring is the action of being pulled over snow or ice on skis by a horse as a sport. Each person was required to complete an obstacle coarse and make it to the end without letting go of rope attached to the horse. The whole event was not only fun to see but also showed me how full the community of Estes Park is. As someone who seeks community, I love seeing communities that embody the love I want to see in communities that I want to be part of. People would greet each other with love and ask how their families were. And while we were a group of outsiders, never once were we made to feel like it. When the event started, you could feel that community come together with excitement. You could feel the love when people cheered on the people they cared for as they competed. I never saw myself as a small town person, but this community helped me see the charm of all of it.

Goodbyes

Goodbyes are always difficult, but I wasn’t sad when we left because I knew these were people I was going to keep up with and see in my travels to come. We met amazing people from all over the states and Canada and from so many different walks of life. I loved getting to hear about their lives and what they wanted to do next. I also loved that most of our conversations didn’t revolve around work but rather what we loved to do, what we wanted out of life, and our favorite memories. That felt like better bonding than you get most places. Yes, it was hard to leave, but it’ll be even harder to forget these amazing people and the rich memories made here.

Rocky Mountain National Park