Colorful Colorado - March 2014 vacation day 1 and 2

Since we are moving this coming June we decided that it was best to see Colorado before we moved.  It does have some pretty spectacular scenery and fun stuff to do.  Cade had to work, and Makae got back together with Toni and decided not to come.  So Jace, Ethan and Shawn and I took off.  Ethan wasn't to thrilled at first.  He really wanted to spend the week with his friends, but by the end of the trip I think he enjoyed it.

Our first stop was Hanging lake.  This is a beautiful 1 mile in hike to a lake that seems like it is hanging.  It is along 1-70 on the way to Grand Junction.  Ethan decided he was too sick ( upset at not being able to be with girls, and a little bit of a cold) to join us.  So the three of us took off.  Jace was great and didn't complain in the least.  He was a good trooper.

A look over the river back at the highway.

The trail to begin  with

This picture is a little mistaken.  It lies.  Doesn't it look like a nice spring hike.  About 1/4 of the way up the canyon it doesn't get much sunlight an the trail turned into slush and ice.  We fought out way up the mile and did pretty good.

at the lake, resting just a bit.

The lake

The colors were amazing.

On the way down we decided that the lake wasn't as pretty as it looked.  It got uglier every time we fell on our butts.  The way down was treacherous. At least on the way up we were pushing against gravity, on the way down it was pushing us and boy we went down a lot.  In a couple of places we just gave up and slid down on our butt.  This little hike of only 1 mile took us about 3 hours to complete.  My suggestion..... Go in June, but not March.

Jace at the bottom.

Looking down the canyon.

We continued on to Parachute that night where we stopped for the evening.  We were pretty tired. We couldn't wait to get in the hot tubs, and of course they were out of order.  The next day we travelled to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  This was spectacular.  It was such a deep canyon completely cut by water.  The pressure at the river through this area was spectacular.  They had a nice museum and a bunch of info on the history of the area.  It wasn't until about the 40's that this area was finally able to be used for the water in it, before that no one had been able to make it through as the river is so wild. One of the amazing things is that when we drove up to the area we couldn't believe that there was a canyon anywhere because you certainly couldn't see one.  We were on top of the mesa's and then all of the sudden there it was.  It was pretty amazing.

May not look like much but that river is moving really fast.

Ethan was much better this day and actually enjoyed himself quite a bit.

I loved the color variation in the rock formations.

After that we headed to Durango for the evening.   We passed through some beautiful country.  One of he prettiest places we passed was this little community.  It is called the alps of America, and when you see the mountains to the south of this picture you know why.  It was the prettiest little town.  It was one Shawn and I said we would have to go back to. This place was called Ourray.