Things to do when you live in Denver...

Day road trips are easily within reach when you live in the Denver metro area. Sometimes we get so busy working we forget the mountains are just a few short minutes away.

A Visit to Mt. Evans

Today we decided to go to Mt. Evans, the majestic peak that can be seen everywhere in the metro area. In fact Mt. Evans can be seen from a hundred miles away or more!

From Denver the trip is about 47 miles to Echo Lake, the entrance to Mt. Evans. We didn't know it at the time, but the road to the top is closed, but still the trip was worth it. Here's a map.

We stopped along the way to take in the scenery, listen to the roar of water falling down the mountains and the happy chirping of birds.

The best place to spend some time is at the Echo Lake Lodge. If you are lucky enough to get a table by a humming bird feeder, you can marvel just like I did at these awesome creatures.

Be sure to take a break at Echo Lake Lodge

Every time we stop at Echo Lake Lodge, we have the pleasure of meeting someone new who is totally in love with the place. For instance today we met Carol, who has been coming back to work every year now for 15 years! Carol is approaching her 65th birthday and has so much energy and enthusiasm it's hard not to catch it! Carol explained to us each year the Lodge hires college kids from all over the country and some from the Czech Republic as exchange students. They all work together like a big family serving the visitors the swarm to the mountain, all season long.

There is such a warm and welcome atmosphere at the Lodge, when you leave you know you just have to return again someday soon.

Leaving we headed east towards Evergreen, enjoying the views along the way. Both my husband and I were a little envious of the strong cyclists who were climbing this hill. The cyclist traffic was heavy, so we took care to give them a wide shoulder. I wish more drivers would be so considerate.

At Evergreen we headed south through the town and on toward Kittridge. There are many good places to eat along the way, so we tried out a new Mexican place. The food was good, but the service was less than wonderful. We decided to just "let it go" after the young waiter brought us the wrong order twice! I asked if it was the first day the place was open, but he said no, they were just busy! I suspect the cook would be busy if he had to prepare repeat orders all day long! Oh well! I don't recall the name of the place...guess that's ok!

We headed downhill and ended up in a traffic jam in Morrison, a quick right turn took us by a Falcon Park. Neither of us had ever been there before. We both gasped at the beautiful site in front of us...Red Rocks Park.

Enjoy the embedded slide show of our day in the mountains. I hope you take some time off soon to enjoy the benefits of life on the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies!