Denver Part 2

Mt. Evans

On Wednesday I went with my aunt and and uncle to Mt. Evans, one of Colorado’s fourteeners, or a mountain peak with an elevation of at least 14,000 feet. The drive to the top requires a reservation, and we got to the entrance a few minutes early, so we walked partially around Echo Lake, which is just outside the entrance to Mt. Evans:

We stopped pretty early in the drive up to have lunch because there was a spot with a nice view: I was about one bite in to my sandwich when a lady pulled in with a very flat tire and asked for help changing it. I haven’t had to change a tire with the emergency jack in a car in a long time, but how hard can it be, right? Well, it was more difficult than I remembered. It didn’t start well when I couldn’t even figure out how to get the jack out of her car, it was probably just friction fit, but I wasn’t going to be the one to yank it out and break something, so I ended up using the jack out of my truck, since it is easy to access. Eventually I got the car jacked up and had the flat tire just about off when the car started rolling forward a bit and the jack tipping. I didn’t have anything that I could use as a wheel chock, so I had to put the lug nuts back on the flat tire, take the car down off the jack, and have her turn it around and back the rear tires up to the curb so it would stay still. I was able to then jack the car up again, get the spare on, and have her on her way. Overall not terrible, but definitely has me thinking about what tools I should keep in my truck versus my trailer to make changing a flat easier.

With my good deed for the day done, I finished lunch and then we headed up to the summit. It is a winding, narrow road all the way up which also gave us great views all the way up. We came around one corner and had to stop because the goats were swarming the car in front of us: I thought for sure the car ahead was feeding the goats something, but the goats eventually cleared that car and came back and swarmed my truck: Still not exactly sure what they were doing, but it almost seemed like they were licking the bugs off the front of my truck, and once they ate everything they could, they let us pass too. We also got to see a few marmot on the way up, pretty cute for a rodent:

Unfortunately when we got to the summit we were in a cloud, so the views were actually better on the drive up. I can say though I’ve now driven the highest paved road in the US:

On the way home we went to Beau Jo’s for my first “Colorado pizza” experience (I know, it sounded made up to me too). I ended up liking it quite a bit, it had a normal pan pizza crust on the bottom, but a thick, flaky, almost biscuit like crust around the outside and they give you honey to drizzle over, so every slice has dessert built in.

Devils Head Lookout

On Thursday my aunt and I went down to Devils Head mountain to hike up to the fire lookout at the top. It was a relatively short hike of about three miles, but plenty of elevation gained, almost 900 feet. Because that just wasn’t quite high enough, they also built the lookout on top of these massive rocks at the top of the mountain, so you get to do about 140 stairs at the top too: Once at the top of the steps, you get to walk around the outside of the fire lookout: You get a 360 degree view, here is just a part of it:

Unfortunately we did not leave enough time to do this hike right, we had a 2:00 PM whiskey tour we had to get to, and the drive to the Devils Head trailhead took much longer than Google Maps thought it would because it was a narrow, winding, dirt road that was heavily washboarded the last several miles, so it was very slow going. When we realized we were going to be tight for time, my aunt sent me ahead, so I got to the top, grabbed a few pictures, and had to head back down immediately, and unfortunately my aunt didn’t get to see the very top.

Stranahan’s Whiskey

I’ve done a bunch of bourbon tours over the years, but it was still cool to see how another brand makes their whiskey. There were a lot of similarities to most of the bourbon distilleries I’ve been to, but two of the major differences were Stranahan’s used enclosed fermentation tanks, whereas most of the bourbon fermentation tanks I’ve seen have been open, and you are frequently even able to stick your finger in and try some. The other difference is Stranahan’s finishes a lot of their products in previously used barrels, for example in barrels that have been used to create tequila and sherry. Overall they had some pretty good whiskey (for not being a bourbon).

Golden, CO

On Friday my cousin was done with work early, so we went to Golden, Colorado. I primarily wanted to tour the Coors brewery, but I didn’t plan far enough ahead to get tickets for the full tour and they sell out several weeks in advance. Fortunately we did get tasting tickets, so we were still able to go in the brewery, and they had a pretty cool mini-museum with a lot of Coors memorabilia, plus we still got to taste three of their beers from their AC Golden brand. It was also cool to see how many fairly large brands they own:

We bar hopped around the downtown area of Golden, it is a nice, small, and walkable area. We started at the Buffalo Rose, which had a really cool outdoor area, with a retractable roof and door/walls that opened wide. The bar I really liked was called the Golden Mill, they had a cool concept where the beer taps were self-service. When you walked in you linked a credit card to one of their cards, and then you just tapped their card to activate a tap and take as much beer as you’d like. So if you just wanted a sample, no problem, you were only charged for a few ounces. It also showed you a running tab each time you were pouring a beer. They had a nice rooftop area too that overlooked Clear Creek where people were tubing, so we had some entertainment as well.

Pikes Peak

On Saturday my aunt, uncle, cousin and I went down to Manitou Springs to take the Cog Railway up to the top of Pike’s Peak. This is the highest railway in the world, taking you up to the summit of Pikes Peak at 14,115 feet. There are some very steep parts with a 25% grade, which is too steep for normal trains, but the cog trains have a gear in the center that mates with a third track on the ground that has teeth to help pull itself up and slow itself down. It was a great experience because a 14 mile hike with 7,400 feet of elevation gain is too much for me currently, and none of us had to worry about driving the steep, winding, road with sharp drop-offs. We also got lucky with the weather, and while there were clouds around, they were just high enough to not block too much of the view:

On the way home we drove through part of the Air Force Academy campus and went through the visitor center. From what I saw, it looked like a pretty awesome campus, but their famous chapel is under renovation, so it is completely covered up right now.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day for me. I explored the state park I’m staying in some more and came across the RC airplane and helicopter areas. It was more fun to watch the planes than I expected, I thought I would be pretty bored after a few minutes since I wasn’t flying one myself, but I probably spent an hour watching the 5 planes fly around: I went over to my aunt and uncle’s for dinner, and huge thanks to them for letting me do my laundry there too, probably saving me $15 or so.