Hiking Back from Hanging Lake

Colorado Travelog #38
Glenwood Springs, CO - Friday, 8 Jul 2022, 12pm

When we're not careful the hike back from an amazing place can devolve into putting one foot in front of the other. Our hike down from Hanging Lake and Spouting Rock (previous blogs) was at risk of that happening. Indeed, there were some times on the hike down that we did forget to look around. But often enough we stopped and made ourselves look because there's still so much beauty to see.



This stony lookout (photo above) is just below Hanging Lake, on an extremely steep part of the trail. Noobs might stop here at length on the way up to appreciate the far-off vistas. We knew the lake and falls were even more impressive so we saved it for a stop on the way down. 😅

The other thing that kept us— well, me at least— mindful of the hike back down is that last time we were here, 4 years ago, I wrecked my ankle on the trail. It did get better within a few weeks... though today, as if to remind me to be careful, it started throbbing again. I was careful on the way down. There was no need to rush.



The final leg of the hike is the return along the Colorado River through Glenwood Canyon. The don't-get-hurt part of my "no need to rush" plan was no longer relevant here on the broad, nearly level paved trail, but I still went slow and walked over to the river multiple times to take pictures. Hawk pressed on ahead. She was ready for lunch. Speaking of which, I'm hungry, too. I think we're about to cause some damage at a restaurant back in Glenwood Springs.

Taking it Easy in Glenwood Springs

Colorado Travelog #39
Glenwood Springs, CO - Friday, 8 Jul 2022, 10pm

I've written before about weekends fast and slow. Today is a day with both fast and slow. This morning was pretty busy. We hiked to Hanging Lake. We were there for 4 hours, and I wrote five blogs about it. Now it's been over 9 hours since we left, and I only have one blog about that. Because we're taking it easy now.

Our first order of business after the hike was to get some lunch. We decided on Village Inn, a diner in town. Though it's a chain I'm not sure I've been to one before. Inside the teal and orange motif is reminiscent of the old Howard Johnson's from 40+ years ago. I imagine that's deliberate as this kind of restaurant caters to people who remember fondly the restaurant scene of 40+ years ago. I found the menu uninteresting... unless you want breakfast all day or a burger. I'm not much of a breakfast person, especially at 1pm, so I ordered a burger.

After lunch we did a bit of shopping in downtown Glenwood Springs. And by shopping I mean browsing. Everything was expensive. For example, an outdoors store had all the same brands I can buy at REI, for 25% more than REI. And a salesguy there asked me if I was going hiking at Hanging Lake later today. "Nah, man, I already did that this morning," was fun to say.

Mid-afternoon we holed up at the hotel. We soaked in the hot tub for half an hour or so then lazed around the room. Hawk took a nap for a bit while I caught up on got less behind on my blog.

This evening we ordered in food from a Chinese restaurant near the hotel. We ordered big on purpose to have leftovers for breakfast tomorrow. Tomorrow will be another early day, like today, with alarms at 6:30 or 6:45am and a need to be rolling in the car by 8. We're going to Maroon Lake, to make good on a bucket list item I've had for 30+ years!

At Maroon Lake, 32 Years Later

Colorado Travelog #40
Aspen, CO - Saturday, 9 Jul 2022, 10:30am

This morning we got up early, packed our bags and loaded the truck, checked out from our hotel in Glenwood Springs, and drove an hour south to Aspen. It's part of an audible we called a few days ago to realize an aspiration of mine since 1990, thirty-two years ago, to visit the place in this picture:



Just getting to Aspen wasn't the end of the story. From there we had to park and ride a bus 25 minutes up to the lake. Bus tickets are limited; Saturday was the only day this trip I was able to find 2 seats at a reasonable time, which meant extending our trip from Saturday to Sunday in addition to rebooking a few nights of hotels. But we did all that, and now.....



Boom! 💥