2022 Westcliffe

For years, we drove past the valley of Sangre de Cristo Mountains and marveled at the beauty of the looming tall mountain range. This year we booked a stay at the foothill of Sangre de Cristo and ventured into the relative unknown part of Colorado. 

Sangre de Cristo Mountain

Our cabin on Venable Creek is from Sunday to Sunday. To get out of the 105+ heat from Dallas, Will booked a campsite on Davenport campsite -- the oldest campsite for the National Forest Service for Saturday. Two days before our drive, the weather forecast predicts heavy rain on Saturday night. We did a last minute change of plan and booked a hotel in Colorado Springs. 

We booked a night at the Hyatt Garden of Gods location. The agent told me he got me a mountain view room and we did get a mountain view room with Pike's peak as the backdrop. We left home around 8am and arrived at the hotel at 6:30pm. There was a Chick-fil-a in the same plaza as the hotel. We picked up our dinner at Pueblo Chick-fil-a. 

Our plan for Sunday morning is to visit the Garden of Gods, have lunch and drive 2 hours to check in right at 3pm. Garden of Gods proved to be tons of fun for the kids, not for the parents as our two kids climbed everything in sight and caused some palpitations of poor parents. To get the kids out of the hazards, I proposed to go to Cave of the winds. I came across it the night before browsing interesting places. 

We signed up for the cave tour. And waited for the tour at the amusement park section. There is a climbing wall, zipline, bat-a-pult, a maze of obstacle course walking and more. Jackson and Norah couldn't take their eyes off the park. The tour lasted about 1 hour and was educational and fun. We checked out stalagmites and stalactites, and also experienced absolute darkness. Norah got to be the tour guide for a few minutes and she was very serious about her job. 

After the cave tour, Norah and Jackson spent about 2 hours on the park portion and practiced their balancing skills. We delayed our departure to about 3pm and checked in at Alpine lodge around 5pm on Sunday. Somehow the Venable Cabin's own was associated with Alpine Lodge. Our cabin was just as we imagined, right by a babbling brook, hummingbirds weaving their ways around and a painting of forests at every window. Cabin showed its age but it was well maintained. We spread out in the 4-bedroom house and were ready to explore. 

Will chose the music pass to Lower Sand lake trail for Monday. We passed the normal car parking lot and drove another 30 minutes to the jeep road trailhead. A local family was there picking mushrooms. It had just rained and the forest had an abundance of mushrooms. I tried to learn from them but it turned out they don't know much either. We hiked in two groups with Jackson and I hiked ahead. Rain has increased the flow of the creek. When we arrived to cross the creek, it didn't look possible. While waiting for Norah and Will, we explored a fallen log option and crossed the rapid stream! We had an adventure with log crossing and cave crawling. When we were having our lunch, rain started to come down. We decided to abort the lake fishing plan and head back. The coming path looks too treacherous so I took off my shoes and socks and carried Norah over the frozen stream. That water was so very cold! On the way back, I saw 20-30 red with pocket dots mushrooms like a smurf village. This mountain looks majestic and magical. 

Tuesday we planned to drive to Great Sand Dune National Park through Medano Pass. We thought it was a short cut but it took us about 3 hours to reach the national park. The seven creek crossings were at their highest level and we were worried about our jeep's clearance. Luckily our jeep stood the test and we made it safely to the park. Sand had already reached a very hot temperature by the time we arrived. Norah insisted on climbing to the top of the sand dunes. Since we entered through the backdoor, we couldn't rent the sandboards at the front entrance. I borrowed one for Jackson to try it out. It appeared to be too much effort moving the board up the sand dune. The kids spent the rest of the time in the Medano Creek over the sand dune. We had plenty of water this time.

Wednesday we booked a raft tour at Cotopaxi. We hiked near our cabin on the Rainbow Trail in the morning and drove towards Salida for our rafting trip. We drove past the Arkansas River Tour office many times before. We had our own raft with Max. Our rapids were class 2.5. It was a perfect difficulty level for our family and we all had tons of fun paddling and bracing for the seemingly large rapids. Norah now wanted to become a raft guide. 

Thursday we fished at Hermit Lake and Jackson caught a trout! We enjoyed the fresh fish at dinner except for Norah. Will and Norah went camping at the Alvarado Campground. Jackson and I walked over to say hello. There was a deer near the campsite and we found ripe raspberries near the site. 

Friday we played around the house and went to Lake DeWeese to fish. We didn't get any fish.

Saturday we drove to the Wet Mountains. We checked out Davenport Campground, the one we had to cancel last minute. And visited Bishop Castle. This castle is so astounding, especially since it was built by one person for 60 years. It has high towers, fire-blowing dragons and a draw-bridge. We climbed to the highest spot which is 160 feet. Norah was fearless when exploring the chambers and towers. Will saw the builder Jim Bishop talking to visitors. The castle reminded me of  Gaudi's touch. After the castle, we went to Lake Isabelle for some fishing and picnic. Lake Isabelle is a manmade lake and was very busy when we visited.

Sunday we checked out at 8am and arrived home at 7:41pm. Total drive 2010 miles and 42 hours driving on the trip. 

 

Hot Air Balloon Ride

After a long delay, we finally took our family hot air balloon ride.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!

Early morning rendezvous

Sunrise over Adriatica

Lost in the Clouds

2022 Rough Creek

 Last weekend, we braved 108 weather and checked in Rough Creek Lodge once again. We went with two same families last year. This time we chose a house instead. 

Despite the weather, kids did tons of outdoor activities during the day. And went way beyond their regular sleep time. 

Zipline buddies

dinner is served!

2022 Tahoe summer

We knew we had a great trip when Jackson asked: Why didn't you choose a career that allowed us to live in Tahoe? 

The anticipation for this trip was growing before we realized it. It started with longing for time with friends, tending the wanderlust of the family and calling of nature, then escaping Texas heat. Saturday June 25 we left 104 degrees of humid heat behind and came to Tahoe's 70 degree bliss five hours later. (3 hour of air travel + 1 hour of getting on the road + 1 hour drive from Reno) Robby and Marianna started planning our week long getaway early and meticulously. Delicious home meals are planned, camping trips are booked and hiking trails are carefully chosen. There was also a surprise activity at the end of the trip.  

Sunday morning after devouring Robby's home made cinnamon rolls from his sourdough starter, we went to town to get live bait to fish in the Sawmill pond. It was formed during the construction of the local airport and is stocked with fish for kids. Adults are not allowed to fish there. Well, after Norah gave up the hope of fishing, I followed a successful fisherman's advice and covered the hook with more worms. Right after I casted Norah's rod, a trout took the bait!  

In the afternoon, we hiked to a mountain stream with a rocky bottom. The day before when we took a stroll in the state park at the doorstep of Randolph residence, Jackson expressed a strong desire to play in a creek. This destination is on the other side of the neighborhood and chosen for all of us including Buttercup and Berkeley to play in. Buttercup and Berkeley are two of the cutest dogs that filled in our lives during the week. Buttercup is four years old and Berkeley is just one. Jackson associated himself with Berkeley and, interestingly, Buttercup and Norah have certain similarities. 

Monday we packed up for our camping trip. After watching Sing 2, we were getting ready to check into the Fallen Leaf Campground. A brown bear was climbing on the neighbor's car across the street! We watched in awe from the safety of the porch and the bear quickly moved away. The campsite is only 15 minutes away. We marveled at how such a breathtakingly beautiful place is only a short drive away while it takes us at least 12 hours drive from our Dallas home. Our first night campsite is #84 and right across the lake entrance. A peaceful meadow backs up our site. We felt we got the best site in town! 

We had fun at the lake and came back to enjoy Marianna's bean and cheese burrito and cheese quesadilla. And kids were excited to have S'mores around the gas fire ring to mark the end of a camping day. Evie suggested Pop-Tart stories. It's going-around-fire each-person-one-sentence kind of story telling. It's addictively fun. We told our stories about good and evil, solar system annihilation and knight redemption till 10pm quiet time. 

Will woke up early Tuesday morning and took photos of the serene Fallen Leaf Lake. We did more paddle boarding and returned to Site 84 to move to Site 53. We checked out Site 53 the day before and were so happy to find Taylor Creek right next to it. We also found a huge sequoia tree with a hollow trunk that could fit all of us. The time under the sky in perfect weather goes by so quickly. We ended our day with another round of S'mores and Pop-Tart storytelling. 

Wednesday morning the lake was windy from the start. We reluctantly broke camp and got ready for our Truckee River rafting in the afternoon. We drove to the other side of the lake to Tahoe City and hopped on a guideless raft. Will insisted on our own raft and we (me mostly) nervously started floating our way. Gradually my nervousness subsided and I started to enjoy the smooth ride. We stopped at a couple of places and some of us chose to float with the current down the river with freezing water temperature. 

Will enjoyed being a white water rafting captain and I liked being the engine of the raft. I declined his offer of switching roles since I liked the balance. Close to the end of the trip, we came upon a big rock in the middle of a rapid and saw a dog bounce out of the raft in front of us. The rescue mission went fast and it was pulled back to the raft. I was still watching the scene like a movie when our raft went sideways on the rock (perhaps that's why we didn't have enough "engine power" to get to the right side of the rock! - Will). Next thing I knew, I saw Will sitting in the river with a shocked look on his face. Once I saw he was okay, I had a bigger problem at hand. I was suddenly promoted to captain without any training! I jumped to the back and started steering while pretending that all was okay to calm the kids. Luckily the current pushed our raft to a small beach before hitting the next rapid. By that time, Robby's raft rescued Will and dropped him to our raft. We docked safely to the end point of our trip. 

After the adventure we had, we drove to Squaw Valley to roam and have dinner. Squaw Valley had recently changed the name to Palisades. I always enjoy checking out a ski resort in the summer. The base area is much less crowded. Moving around without ski boots on was such a treat! 

Thursday we headed out early to hike to Lake Winnemucca from Carson Pass via Pacific Crest Trail. I loved Bill Bryon's book A Walk In the Woods and fantasized about through-hike Appalachian. And we came across the Continental Divide Trail a few times on our trips to Colorado. The PCT trail, together with the Appalachian Trail and CDT are the triple crown of hiking in the US. We met a few through hikers on our hike. At Carson Pass, there were volunteers serving burgers and brownies for through hikers. They also fed both our kids a brownie. 

Our hike started immediately in the tall mountains with beautiful vista. We stopped by Frog Lake for rock skipping and snow play. About 2.3 miles in we reached Lake Winnemucca. Snow was melting around the lake and waterfalls were forming. the kids found a path to hike to the melting snow field and slide down again and again. We had our lunch at the windy shore. When we headed back, I helped the kids finish a quiz to become junior rangers. We moved from signs to posters, plaque back to signs to find the answers for Carson Pass. Both kids earned their badges and certificates!

In the afternoon, we played tennis in Tahoe Paradise Park while Marianna stayed back to prepare a yummy chicken dinner. Robby was a tennis coach for many years and he coached the kids patiently. Then they started to play King of the Court and Jungle Ball. I had never enjoyed watching tennis so much before. We didn't want to leave the court, but hungry stomachs and a delicious meal changed our minds. 

Friday morning we arrived around 8am at Vikingsholm parking lot, which still had plenty of spots. When we drove by midday earlier in the week, we saw the miles of cars parked illegally north Emerald Bay, so coming early was key. We took turns paddle boarding to Fannette Island. Jackson paddled most of the way with me. After the paddle boarding and sand play, we bought ice cream and hiked to the Lower Eagle Falls.

After we had an early dinner at Lake Tahoe Aleworx, we headed to our surprise activity -- Oliver was starring as the Tinman in the Wizard of Oz at the high school theatre! This production was put together in two weeks with a big number of cast members. The stage design, costume selection and the performance of the summer camp kids were top notch. We all enjoyed watching the theatre show. 

Saturday after a king's breakfast prepared by Marianna, we dragged our feet to the airport and 8.5 hours later, we arrived home.