The Mile High City

A week after we visited Wyoming, David and I were back in the air and headed to Denver.

David traveled non-stop last fall for work, and I tagged along as much as possible. Because my birthday fell on the same dates as his Denver trip, we decided to celebrate together in Colorado.

David arrived in the Mile High City earlier in the week, but I had to be in the office for meetings, so I flew in on Thursday evening after work.  David picked me up from the airport in the rental car and we headed to dinner.

I’d read up on Denver’s best eats beforehand, and was craving a burrito from El Taco de Mexico when I landed.  El Taco is a hole-in-the-wall in downtown Denver known for its cheap burritos.  The green chile smothered pork burrito is its best seller, so for only $6, I stuffed myself full of marinated pork, cheese, and green chile sauce.  The taqueria definitely lived up to all the hype. 

On Friday, David and I worked remotely from our hotel next to the Denver Convention Center.  It was such a beautiful day outside that we decided to have brunch on the patio of the nearby Denver Biscuit Company.  The DBC was started after the success of Denver’s first gourmet food truck, the Biscuit Bus.  The owners decided to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant off Colfax Avenue, once dubbed ‘the longest, wickedest street in America’ by Hugh Hefner.

The weather was perfect.  I had packed mostly sweaters, thinking it would be chilly in the mountains in October, but Colorado was experiencing an Indian Summer.  As we sat outside, sipping sweet tea, and waiting for our meal, the family next to us exclaimed, ‘I can’t believe we’re eating outside in shorts in October!’  They were so happy.  We had to laugh because back in Texas, everyone is in shorts, enjoying the great outdoors through December

Meanwhile, our biscuits arrived!

I ordered the crowd favorite, the Franklin, with buttermilk fried chicken, bacon, and cheddar smothered in sausage gravy.  David opted for the DBC Club, which was a lot like mine but stacked with lettuce, tomato, and chipotle ranch instead of gravy.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and worked for the rest of the afternoon.  And I managed to make a quick trip downstairs to the gym before my birthday dinner at Acorn.

This contemporary American restaurant is located inside the Source in Denver’s River North District.  The Source is a reclaimed foundry from the 1880’s, converted into a gourmet market full of restaurants and epicurean retailers.  Acorn was named one of America’s Top 50 New Restaurants by Bon Appetit magazine in 2014. 

The menu changes weekly, and features sharing plates.  Of course, we ordered way too much.  Our eyes were definitely bigger than our stomachs, especially after eating those giant biscuits earlier in the day.  But we wanted to try a lot of different options, so we went with the fried pickles with green goddess aioli, the kale and apple salad with candied almonds (which was one of my favourite dishes of the night!), the tomato braised meatballs, and Mediterranean mezze platter.  And then I had to order a cocktail and dessert.  It was my birthday, after all.

On Saturday, David and I visited Estes Park for Elk Fest.

Before leaving town, we stopped at Habit Doughnut Dispensary for some delicious, creatively-flavoured doughnuts and coffee.  After satisfying my sweet tooth, we started our two-hour scenic drive along Colorado’s Fall Foliage route from Denver to Estes Park.

We drove from Denver to Golden, then north to the quaint mountain village of Nederland. 

There, we stopped for lunch at an Italian deli.  We took our sandwiches to-go and parked at an overlook to eat, taking in the breath-taking scenery of snow-capped mountains and lush, green valleys dotted with bright yellow Aspen trees.

When we arrived in Estes Park, we were greeted by dozens of elk.  It’s funny that we’d never seen an elk before visiting Wyoming, and within two weeks, we saw hundreds across Wyoming and Colorado.

It was still rutting season, so the males were loudly calling out to the females.  And just like in Yellowstone, they preferred the manicured lawns and perfect turf of the local golf course.

On the drive across Colorado, we listened to the UT/OU football game on the radio.  I warned David that we were going to turn it off if it was going to put him in a bad mood, so imagine my surprise when we turned on the game during the second quarter to discover that we were winning!  We arrived in Estes Park just as the Longhorns clenched their victory over the Sooners!

Even though I wasn’t in Texas, I still had to show my school spirit with my Longhorn shirt and horns up!

After we walked through town, admiring the elk, we visited the Stanley Hotel.  This historic hotel hosted a very special guest back in 1974 … Stephen King!  King and his wife were the only people at the hotel that night.  After being served dinner in the empty dining room, they went to bed in Room 217.  Stephen had a dream that night that inspired his famous book, ‘The Shining.’

Because it was October and the Stanley is known for its eerie association with ‘The Shining,’ the hotel was preparing for its annual Halloween Masquerade Ball.  It would be so fun one day to stay there and attend the ball.  Guests lucky enough to stay in Room 217 are gifted with a copy of the book, and can watch ‘The Shining’ on a continuous loop via the hotel’s creepiest movie channel.

We escaped from the Stanley and drove just a short distance to Rocky Mountain National Park.  This was the year of National Parks for David and me.  After visiting two in Wyoming, we came away with an annual park pass that allowed free access to all national parks across the US for a year.  (We felt very special as we skipped ahead to the ‘VIP line’ and presented our passes.)

We discovered this grove of Aspens just inside the entrance to the park

We parked at the trailhead to Bear Lake.  The looped trail is only about a mile, so it’s accessible to everyone, making it one of the park’s most popular attractions.  We arrived late in the afternoon, but found plenty of available parking as people were beginning to leave.

Although the lake is named Bear Lake, a black bear siting in the Rockies is very rare, as there are only about 30 bears known to inhabit the park.  Grizzlies were wiped out by hunters and no longer reside anywhere in Colorado.  We didn’t know this at the time, so as we decided to hike deeper into the woods, I felt very unprepared without our trusty bear spray.  I proceeded to talk David’s ear off to make as much noise as possible, so we wouldn’t accidentally stumble upon a bear and spook it.

Starting our walk in the woods...

We wanted to extend our time in the park, so we decided to hike from Bear Lake to Bierstadt Lake, three miles away.  Then we got a little lost and ended up hiking another two miles to the shuttle parking lot instead of back to the trailhead parking lot.  Altogether, I think we hiked over six miles that afternoon! 

I began to panic a little, hoping we would make it back in time before it got too dark.  I didn’t want to be alone in the woods at night, but then we met a nice couple that showed us the way, and offered to give us a ride in their car if the shuttle was no longer running.  When we arrived, there were other groups waiting at the bus stop, so we thanked them for their offer and waved goodbye. 

The shuttle dropped us at our car just as the sun was beginning to set  

We drove back through Estes Park and then opted for the faster route to Denver on the freeway.  We didn’t want to be driving through winding mountain roads in the dark after a long day.

On the way back to the hotel, we grabbed a quick dinner at Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs. 

The owner, Jim, was a repo man who ditched his job to make hot dogs for a living.  I ordered the elk jalapeno cheddar dog with the ‘classic’ cream cheese / caramelized onion topping.  It was really good, but I felt a little sadistic eating elk after observing them up-close-and-personal earlier in the day.  After a few bites, I gave up and finished our vegetarian sides of biker baked beans and fried mac and cheese instead.

By Sunday morning, I was hungry.  After checking out of the hotel, we had breakfast at Rosenberg’s Bagels.  While we waited for our food, we watched the employees make bagels.  It was crazy how fast they could spin them into shape.  The bagels were delicious and satisfying.  We were fuelled up and ready for another hike.

We drove to Littleton, about 30 miles outside Denver, to visit Roxborough State Park.  This park reminded me of the red rocks I’d visited on a trip to Colorado when I was younger.  But unlike Garden of the Gods or Red Rock Amphitheatre, visitors are not allowed to climb on the rocks at Roxborough.

Instead, David and I did a quick two mile hike through the park, admiring the rock formations that interrupted the landscape.  From there, we drove to the airport and flew home.

I had a great birthday weekend!  I love that I was able to celebrate the start of my early thirties in beautiful Colorado with my adventurous husband.

Happy birthday to me!