The Longest Winter

adventure Great Sand Dunes National Park New Mexico Santa Fe Tent Rocks Travel

The Longest Winter

uyguguygu   08.25   Comment  

It's really, really cold here in Denver. It's been below freezing for almost a week now, which is pretty amazing considering that almost never happens here. I don't mind it at all, because I'm used to the cold. I do much better with extreme cold than with extreme heat for whatever reason.

I have some good news and some bad news for you - the good news is that I have a lot of wonderful blog post ideas and outfits to shoot. The bad news is that I left my camera charger in a hotel in Indiana and have had to order another one online. I'll be getting new outfit posts up as soon as that charger comes!

In the meantime I'm going to borrow from my instagram account - we hiked a slot canyon in New Mexico and stopped at Great Sand Dunes National Park on the way home. It was completely amazing. I've never seen a sunset like that before!

Under the Shadow of Denali

Under the Shadow of Denali

uyguguygu   17.29   Comment  

It's so wonderful to blog about the trip after you get home because it's kind of like reliving the trip, in a way. You get to reflect on it when all is said and done, and really think about the way it went. 

We left Anchorage and drove to Denali National Park. The sky was so blue, Southwest blue, the color of the turquoise found in bracelets out here, that it was startling and almost oppressive. I hadn't expected it to be so hot or humid.  

The roads up there have lower speed limits than the roads we have here so it felt like we didn't so much drive to Denali, we ambled. And I think it was a good thing. We stopped wherever we wanted. We took in the view again and again and again, and we watched as Denali loomed closer and closer, finally becoming clear in the distance, floating on that blue sky like a mirage or a dream or a reflection of something bigger than everything.

"That," JR said to me at one stop where we looked at it "is bigger than anything I've ever seen that's been made by a person." And indeed it was, towering over us, omnipresent in the way that only God's creation can. 

After we got into the car I thought to myself, "It's good to be awed. It's healthy. We don't do it enough." I thought about what awe was, about awe as a transformative process. To be awed is to allow ourselves to be humbled and that's a tough thing to do. Humility, at it's core, is making ourselves lesser to become greater people and I don't want to be lesser. I struggle with that and it is a continual process I have learned to at least allow myself to be humbled by the experiences I have and the people I love, and yes, even the things I see. 

Adventure Time: A One Day Colorado Itinerary.

Adventure Time: A One Day Colorado Itinerary.

uyguguygu   19.02   Comment  

We went adventuring yesterday, JR and I. We got in our tiny car, packed with a little bit of cash and my knitting project, and headed out south and west to see what we could find.

(I needed a day off from reality - reality has been so difficult lately!)

As we were driving through the backroad of Colorado we stumbled upon vineyards. In a bit of glory, these vineyards were attached to Mount Holy Cross Abbey, a former boy's catholic school and monastery. The grapes are partially grown on the grounds and other people in the community (including the inmates at a nearby prison and people who live around the Abbey) contribute the rest.

 

Even in the middle of a desolate spring the vineyards are beautiful, and the Abbey itself was gorgeous having been built in a style of architecture that is not commonly seen in the West, especially a rural area.

 

After wandering around the grounds for awhile we continued up into the mountains, stopping at The Royal Gorge Bridge park. This was a pretty huge tourist attraction and I imagine it gets a lot of visitors in the summer but since it's not quite tourist season yet we got to wander around a nearly empty park. I'm not a huge fan of heights but I enjoyed myself regardless, sweating it out as I crossed the gorge in their cable car and the bridge. We also took the incline railway down to the bottom, and then back up.

Finally, we had a very late lunch and went hiking at Hellen Hunt Falls on our way back. I love Hellen Hunt Falls area because it's one of the lushest places along the front range. Colorado is incredibly dry and I struggle with how brown it looks most of the time. I miss the humidity and the water and the moss and the way a damp forest smells so I head to Hellen Hunt for a bit of that every so often. It's an old park area that used to be the grounds of a hotel and so there is a little bit of infrastructure in the park - old bridges and buildings and crumbling water supply systems - that you can stumble upon as you hike around. At the top there's a beautiful waterfall and at the bottom there's a great visitor center with the history of the park as well.

(The only picture of me on the Royal Gorge Bridge. If you want to see pictures in and around Hellen Hunt Falls you can check out my instagram here.)

***

Scarf: Unknown (similar here)

Earrings: Unknown (similar here)

Jacket: Barbour

Shirt: Lands End 

Sweater: Unknown

Jeans: j. crew

Shoes: Sperry Topsiders

Handbag:  Longchamp Le Pliage

Your heart is like a ghost town...

Your heart is like a ghost town...

uyguguygu   16.46   Comment  

It's been a while since I've blogged. School started and that's kept me busy. Mountain biking season wrapped up and for those of you following me on Instagram you might have picked up that I won the series in my category, earned a few medals, and really got to know every single inch of the mountain bike trail system whether I liked it (Serenity) or not (WTB). 

Our favorite camping partners and their new puppy came with us to Ouray, Colorado last weekend for a little trip to celebrate the long weekend. We stopped the first night in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, looked around the second day and declined to go into the canyon once more and then drove on to Ouray, which is probably the most beautiful place in Colorado...and I do not make that statement lightly. The mountains there have an incredible amount of Iron in them and they are a gorgeous rose color. Finally, the forest is lush and green and filled with Blue Spruces and mosses and it just smells delicious. 

The second and third nights we camped in a legit Ghost town. Irontown, an abandoned mining town, is part of the National Forest so you can simply camp anywhere in the town. At one point the town had 2,500 residents but now it's reduced to a few standing houses and a lot of collapsed outbuildings. 

Southern Comforts

Southern Comforts

uyguguygu   00.03   Comment  

I was in Tennessee last week, in the swelter and humidity of the South. We honeymooned in the Smokey Mountains three years ago and it was good to return.

We drove the backroads through the mountains, out of the park, stumbling upon old houses dissolving into the greenery. We found farm stands, stocked with beautiful homegrown produce. We found rivers with lazy white blossoms floating downstream. We found Appalachian folk music and trails winding through the mountains to waterfalls

We found that blessed kind of slowness and easy living that the south forces upon you whenever you go to visit.. 

Shirt: Handmade in Senegal

Shorts: Diane Von Fustenburg 

Sandals: Birkinstock