This morning I woke up around 6AM and read at Starbucks for a couple hours. At 8AM, I walked over to Howard’s house for breakfast and for the day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. Howard prepared an oatmeal breakfast and played a 30-minute DVD about Rocky Mountain National Park to provide a preview of the day ahead.
After setting out on our day trip, we stopped at Oasis Marijuana Superstore (http://www.oasissuperstore.com/) The superstore is approximately 5,000 SF of space solely dedicated to recreational marijuana sales. Legalized marijuana has had a huge effect on Colorado’s economy by attracting businesses, attracting residents, increasing tax revenue, and probably reducing prison expenses. Howard purchased some Marijuana pills and gummy bears for personal consumption and for his family that he was planning on visiting in Nebraska.
After the Marijuana tourist attraction, we drove to Red Rock Amphitheater (http://redrocksonline.com/about/history-geology). Red Rock Amphitheater is a legendary music venue and park. The natural rock formations were created through geologic processes over millions of years into the current amphitheater-like setting. The venue together with its natural surroundings makes this a truly special, unique and sentimental venue to experience a concert. Especially with the acoustics and awe-inspiring views of the sunset and Denver city lights. Since it’s opening in 1941, artists ranging from Vanessa Carlton, the Lumineers, the Beatles, Ed Sheeran, John Mayer, and many more artists have performed at the venue.
In the Red Rock Museum, the walls are decorated with a chronological list of each of the artists that have performed at this venue since it’s opening in 1910, and it’s eventual full capacity opening in 1941.
Today, there were people exercising (running, sit-ups, ab workouts) on the amphitheater benches, enjoying the beautiful sunny day which was following a rainy, cold weekend.
From Red Rock Amphitheater, we drove along the foothills of the Rockies toward Chautauqua Park in Boulder, CO (https://bouldercolorado.gov/parks-rec/chautauqua-park). The park is located at the edge of Boulder with amazing close-up views of the Flatirons. It was a beautiful scene, and after a few minutes of enjoying the scenery we continued on up another road in Boulder which quickly ascended the foothills.
After a few minutes of driving, we came to the entrance of a state recreation area with a lookout point offering great views of Downtown Boulder and Colorado State University.
After stopping for lunch in Estes Park (a gateway town to Rocky Mountain National Park), we continued driving up to Rocky Mountain National Park. Because of the heavy snow in the past couple of days, Howard was saying that we had a rare opportunity to view the Rocky Mountain Range almost completely covered in fresh snow.
Although the snow provided great, unique views, we weren’t able to fully experience the park. Many of the roads above 10,000 feet were still closed due to the weather. Also, most of the hiking trails were fully covered by snow. However, we were able to take a short walk to Bear Lake. Bear Lake was completely frozen and covered in snow but it was still a beautiful sight, especially with Harlette Peak towering in the background.
We also stopped to take in a view of Moraine Park, a glacial valley which now looks like a meadow and is used as a campground/picnic area. The area of the relatively flat and barren glacial valley is vast and awe-inspiring.
Apparently, there are several ideal times to visit Rocky Mountain National Park. My early-summer experience, provided accessible roads but still plenty of snow and very few hiking opportunities. A late summer, August experience would provide a much more green landscape with full hiking and road access. A fall visit would offer beautiful fall-foliage but limited hiking opportunities. If I was to visit Denver again, I would probably want to visit during August so I could take full advantage of the greenery and hiking opportunities.
Howard and I had deep, philosophical, meaningful discussions about our upbringings, experiences, religion, and more. I really admire the guts that he had to move to Colorado when he was 25 years old and live life on his own terms. He seems to be doing a wonderful job at staying social and active, especially at the age of 65. He is a perfect example of the potential of cohousing and couchsurfing for senior citizens.
On the way down through Estes Park, we also stopped for an exterior view of Stanley Hotel. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stanley_Hotel) The historical hotel has a similar exterior design theme to Hotel Del Coronado.
Heading down from Rocky Mountain National Park, we stopped at Runza Sandwich shop, a local Midwest sandwich chain which specializes in tasty (and extremely unhealthy) ground meat sandwiches. I ordered a Runza Mushroom Swiss Sandwich with french fries and a cappuccino shake. It was amazing, and I don’t feel too bad about how unhealthy and heavy the meal was, especially since I ended up staying up about 8 hours after I ate the huge meal.
After eating at Runza, we attended a Couchsurfing Meetup event at Bicycle Cafe in Denver. Coincidentally, there was a real estate Bigger Pockets Meetup event taking place at the same time at the same bar. It was a great experience meeting adventurous, free-spirited couchsurfers. Also, I socialized with the real estate investors and learned a little bit about the types of deals they’re doing in the Denver area. Apparently, there is 4,500 units of inventory on the market in the entire Denver area. Any property that is listed received around 50 offers, and very few of the offers even receive counters. It will be interesting to see how the supply/demand fundamentals affect the Denver real estate market over the next 10 years.
During the many hours of driving, we listened to some of Howard’s favorite songs about nature, friendship, and more specifically Colorado. Here are some of his favorite songs:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5FkhFf4RUY&w=560&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y1IF8A9XN4&w=420&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GaMBE7XEEo&w=560&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLWD2WIvRQk&w=560&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcUE0EZMswU&w=420&h=315]
