We made it back to Memphis this afternoon safe and sound. The heat and humidity welcomed us back as soon as we stepped off the plane. Most of us slept during the trip back to Memphis as we were exhausted after 3 days of ISTE and our amazing trip up to the top of a mountain range near Estes Park, CO.
Tim drove us as we were determined to reach the summit. Up, up, up we went, wide eyed and amazed at every turn. Our first stop was well above the quaint streets of Estes Park to get a closer look at a beautiful mountain stream. As Nancy, Tim, Heather and Tamika soon found out, the water was freezing. I decided to stay and take pics, which I did, but was almost carried off back down the mountain by mosquitoes big enough to make our Mid-South mosquitoes look like wimps.
The views were more amazing around every turn. We were all in awe of the beauty and majesty that surrounded us.
Every stop we made, was noticeably colder. The temp. in Denver when we left was a comfortable 84 degrees, at the top (12,184 ft), the outdoor temp was a very very cool 53 ! on June 30 and of course, we were dressed for typical June temps.
Standing 6 ft. from an elk grazing in a mountain meadow, and watching a moose near the Colorado River, playing in the snow in June, standing on the Continental Divide, I just don't have words to describe.
The trip back down the mountain was just as adventuresome. It's getting dark, we are starving, the van is low on gas, and guess what, our map ran out! Heather was a great navigator even when the map ran out. Thanks to the nice lady at Betty's Home Cooking, (I don't know if it was Betty or not) we were able to get gas for the van, have a nice meal and get directions for getting back to Denver. OK, to put our location in perspective, the waitress told us the nearest Wal-Mart was 100 miles in any direction!
We finally returned to our apartments around midnight exhausted but certain we had just enjoyed the most humbling yet fulfilling experience ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment