The Overlook

Well, here they are, another group of pictures from the past weekend. Since I’m late on putting these up, the pictures from this weekend in Aspen shouldn’t be too far behind.

We drove up to The Overlook above the Broadmoor after talking to our friend Maria about it at Pei Wei. She had been up at night and was interested in going up during the day. So on Sunday, Maria and Sandy joined Jeremy and I on our trip to The Overlook.

A lot of the aspen leaves were beginning to change into their beautiful fall colors and the weather was fantastic. After bumping along in the 4Runner on the washboard-like dirt road, we arrived at the top. We all hopped out of the 4Runner and made our way to the edge. The entire city was down below us. We followed the hiking trail for a while, and it was then that Jeremy noticed a cave. We now had a new focus: getting to the cave. We went back down the trail and made our way towards it.

The mouth of the cave is quite large so we walked right in. The drop in temperature was the first thing to hit us. After our eyes began to adjust to the cave’s darkness we saw that it didn’t go very far. The back had collapsed. But none the less, we climbed down to the bottom to take pictures looking up out of the cave.

The cave ended up being the highlight of the trip, even though we had no idea that it was there. I guess you never know what’s out there until you get out and do some exploring.

A Visit to James' Ranch

It was almost 5’0clock by the time Jeremy and I got to James’ Ranch in Peyton. The shadows were just starting to become long, stretching out over the landscape like fingers caressing the earth. A terrific time to grab my camera and set out to find my voice through the lens.

As I set out I am greeted by 2 horses, Grace and Garrett. I hang out with them for a bit, the light from the setting sun illuminates their backs and manes. The remaining rays of sunlight plays around them and shows the definition of their muscular bodies. I follow them through a passageway in the fence and they go back to their grazing. Only once in a while acknowledging me. They slip past some heavy brush and trees, and they are gone. The guys have come out by now to see what I’ve been up to and mention a dilapidated barn just down the road a bit. I’m in, and we all board the 4Runner.

In a few minutes we see the barn. It is severely battered and must have seen many harsh Colorado winters. It doesn’t appear to have many left, but what do I know, it could stand forever. While we’re standing in front of the barn, I decided to have some fun with the light and do some cowboy silhouettes...we were in Peyton, weren’t we? The guys kicked up some dust in the barn and the light filtered through and gave us a surreal effect. We decided to stretch our legs a bit by walking around the prairie. It’s amazing how small you start to feel when you are able to see for miles. But alas, all good things must come to an end, and it was time to head back to the ranch for dinner, prepared by James himself.

Everything was quite tasty that night, grilled corn, baked potatoes, steak and a few other things. Everyone sat around the table and enjoyed dinner and the cool air from a September night in Colorado. A great end to a perfect day...

Hiking at Rampart Reservoir with Andre & Dakota

Over the weekend we drove up to Rampart Reservoir with Andre & Dakota. (Andre is a 7 year old shar pei and Dakota is a 2.5 year old lab.) It's been a while since took them up there, last summer actually. After leaping from the 4Runner wa are on our way. It's about a half hour hike down to the reservoir. Since we're usually the only ones up there it's a great time for them to have some off-leash hiking. Even though they stay pretty close, I think they love the freedom. At the first sight of water Dakota starts running, and there is no stopping him. It's too bad we're in the middle of a square state and water is few and far between. Andre stays close to the shore and waits for us to keep moving along. She is usually the first one that is ready make the hike back.

Enjoy the pictures, I enjoyed taking them.

Labor Day weekend

This past weekend was a busy one, but Jeremy and I had a blast! On Saturday morning we went to the Colorado Balloon Classic and than went up to the Garden of the Gods to see the classic cars in the Tour d'Elegance. On Sunday, we went to the classic carshow at the Broadmoor: The Rocky Mountain Concours d'Elegance. So many beautiful cars there.