How was your 4th of July? We had the best time in Colorado! The weather was beautiful and we did a lot of hiking, reading books, making yummy dinners (this one was a big hit) and going on little day trips here and there. This picture, above, is one of my favorites. Adam and I snapped it on our way to Grand Lake which is about two hours from Estes Park and you take Trail Ridge Road almost the whole way there. It’s a really windy road that goes to the highest part of the mountains. I was white knuckling it when we were at the tippy-top, on this tiny little two lane road without a guard rail! The views were beautiful but I breathed a sigh of relief when we started heading back down the mountain and had some trees between us and the horizon.
More pictures from our trip below if you care to see!
These two photos are from our hike to Sandbeach lake. It’s a 4.5 mile hike both ways and you have to be extra careful of bears in this area. A little nerve-racking at 7 AM when you are the only ones out there! I was convinced we were going to have a black bear showdown but luckily we never did. We were so happy to arrive at this beautiful lake after a long morning of hiking. We promptly sat down and ate a lunch of turkey sandwiches and Doritos at around 9:30 AM in the morning which seems a little odd in retrospect but when you wake up that early a sandwich and chips seems completely normal at that hour.
Loved this view from our cabin porch. I sat out there and drank my tea every morning and just listened to the birds chirping and the wind blowing in the trees. I love to watch the Aspen trees and the way their leaves flicker in the wind like falling confetti.
We took this trip with Adam’s family and it was lots of fun to spend so much time with each other in such a beautiful place.
I love the perspective and peace of mind that a trip and a beautiful place in the world can give you. In one of my instagrams on the trip I mentioned a poem by Mary Oliver that’s one of my favorites and I’d love to share it in it’s entirety here, although I think I’ve posted it multiple times before:) It’s a wonderful reminder to simply try your best, not dwell on your worries and to identify your place “in the family of things” as she puts it. It always calms me when I’m having a bad day or am feeling guilty about some small (human) mistake that I’ve made. I hope you love it as much as I do.
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Wild Geese, Mary Oliver
