Skip to main content

Day 58 - Denver

Today was a city day. The weather forecast at Rocky was high of 50, 20 mile-per-hour winds and rainy, and I had plans for dinner and drinks with a friend in Denver, so I decided to drive back to Denver and go to the movies. 

I saw Ex Machina, an excellent sci-fi thriller staring three unknown-to-me but exceptional actors, and telling the story of an engineer sent to a remote estate of a brilliant Google-like tech company CEO to evaluate the artificial intelligence of a robot. I loved this film.

And for the double-feature I saw Mad Max Fury Road, a distopian-future, two hour long car chase of a movie I thought I wouldn't enjoy but was captivated by. The visuals, the lead acting by Charlise Theron, and the stupendous, ever-escalating action stunts never got old to me. I found myself exhausted by the end of this movie-good exhaustion. 

I then drove to two parks in Denver, Confluence Park, where the rivers were overflowing their banks (pic), and Washington Park, a small but peaceful joggers park. I then met a friend, Georgia, at her house near the last park and we drove downtown to Biker Jim's Gourmet Hotdogs to try a Rattlesnake and Pheasant Hot Dog topped with roasted cactus and curry jam scallions!  It was surprisingly delicious and will hopefully ward off future rattlesnakes. 

We then ate ice cream at a famous Denver joint and drove back to Georgia's house were I crashed on Her comfy futon. Denver must be the gateway to the West because Georgia says countless wanderlust, vagabond friends come visit and stay with her.   So many in fact, she was thinking of naming her house "hobo house".  I guess that officially makes me one of the hobos.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day 170 - JMT Forrester Pass

The mountains had a surreal glow this morning as we climbed up towards the 13,200 foot high Forrester Pass.  One of the wonderful things about the mountains is that they change appearance as the sun changes height, creating a movie-like experience as you walk. I felt so free and happy this morning--just in love with this light.  After sixty minutes of walking, we stopped in the first sunny spot we could find to thaw out and rest. Another hiker came bustling up the trail behind us and stopped at the sunspot to shed a layer of clothing. Sly was a Canadian hiker, just turned 40, who seemed happy to see us. We struck up a conversation about travels and when we pushed off Sly asked if he could join us. We said yes of course. We hiked quickly up the trail, reaching a high plateau with epic alpine views. Selfie time! We skirted around a high alpine lake and then went up a ridge line ever further higher. We were at 12,000+ feet now and the world began to look small y...

Day 62 - Colorado National Monument

Established as a national monument early in 1911, Colorado NM is known for its high canyon "rim road" and sandstone spires of Monument Canyon.  The canyons of west Colorado are pretty--as they have more green trees and shrubs than the more famous Utah canyons. This gives them a more alive feeling, although the sandstone spires were formed many thousands of years ago by erosion.  Rim Rock road curves up the the top of the canyon cliff, goes through several round tunnels and is lined with scenic viewpoints. The best views were in he Monument Canyon section, and included in sequence, the Coke Ovens, The Kissing Couple (behind my head), and the most famous of all: Independence Monument, the tall spire in pic 3 and viewed from the side in pic 4.  The original promoter and caretaker of the park, John Otto, was the first person to climb Independence Monument and now it's a climbing right of passage. Every July 4 climbers ascend and mount an American flag at the summit. Fun! ...

Day 82 - Yellowstone to Montana

My alarm sounded at 5:30am, a time early enough for me to arise before someone found me secretly camping. The geyser prediction said Grand at 6:15am so I set out toward it.  I ran into geyser gazer Jim there and he said it likely erupted at 4:30-- missed it. Early morning eruptions are hard to predict as someone needed to have seen the previous overnight eruption in order to make a prediction. I walked on toward Artemesia, an unpredictable geyser at the far corner of the basin. I had seen her erupt from a mile away and wanted a closer inspection. The early morning setting was momentous, yet I didn't see a geyser erupt up close until Grand at 10:30.  Then Sawmill erupted with its twirling thirty foot action (pic).   The only remaining geyser left to experience on my mental list was Beehive up close. With a predicted window of 810 to 1210, I arrived at 1030 and waited until 1pm, before giving up. The sun was hot, I had read the geyser book cover to cover, and while seeing e...