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 161 - JMT Purple Lake and Tully Hole

We got our first glimpse of smoke far across the valley as we climbed higher. Up on a ridge after a morning climb, we followed a side trail to an open viewpoint beyond the trees. Selfie:) The smoke, while visible, seemed to give the mountains a blue glow-- like a highlighter to a sketch. You could still see the edges of the mountain ridges, the story of their creation. We could hike in this. But the smoke looked worse farther south. Or it was getting worse as time rolled incessantly forward.  On day two we had ran into a northbound hiker we nicknamed Speedy Steve. Speedy Steve had hiked 18 miles a day through eight consecutive smoke-filled days, including atleast three "very bad days" when he couldn't see the surrounding mountains, the sun glowed a haunting orange and ash accumulated overnight. On the way to Purple Lake we ran into three dirty, beat up, tired north-bound hikers with a similar story. They had to spend one night in an emergency hut at Muir Pass to avoid the...

Day 172 - JMT Mount Whitney

Our day began in silence, at 315am in pursuit of the summit.  We walked carefully, looking for slick, sandy rocks and icy sections--not wanting to fall. Hiking along a cliff edge in total darkness was thrilling, vividly black and white.  By 5am, we had reached the three mile marker and the turnoff up to Whitney summit. We removed the heavy items from our bags and set off towards the summit sunrise. The trail was spectacular, a special creation of this nation, winding from one side of the mountain to the other, going down and around one side before coming up to another, creating anticipation with each turn. Looking back, the sloping ridges caught the early sunset delicately.  As we hiked along the two mile upper trail, the views east would open up for the narrowest of moments.  This opening was my favorite.  14,000 foot cathedrals of nature thrusted towards the heavens at each turn. The summit was almost in sight, the highest peak in the lower 48 states nearly at...

Day 52 - Mesa Verde

The Anasazi first settled on the mesa tops of Mesa Verde in 500 AD, then moved into the cliff dwellings this park is famous for in 1100 AD, then mysteriously abandoned the area entirely in 1300 AD. Like the other tourists, I was interested in seeing the cliff dwellings!  Unfortunately many sites are closed in Colorado until Memorial Day, so I wasn't able to go into the two largest dwellings, Cliff Palace or Long House, settling instead for Balcony House.  Balcony House is a small cliff dwelling built in a defensive posture on an inaccessible cliff. You have to climb a 30 foot ladder to enter the dwelling and then you have to crawl through a 3 foot wide hole and up more ladders to exit. Adventure and history are a nice combo. The ranger taught us about building techniques, spiritual structures and customs, and theories about the Anasazi culture and disappearance (draught or war). Pics.  After the guided tour of Balcony House, I did self-guided tours of a historical museum,...