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 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.
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.
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.
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.