After a long nine hour flight to Denver from London we were blessed with gorgeous Colorado sun as we raced home to Boulder.
Our nephew in his new Chelsea soccer jersey, working up an appetite for burgers on the grill. With a backyard like this we wondered, um, why did we move away from the States?!
The purpose of the visit back to Colorado was to celebrate the marriage of Nate's college friend. The wedding was at the top of a chairlift in Crested Butte, so we had to get on the road early to make the late afternoon wedding. The five hour drive through Colorado country was amazing. We've done numerous roadtrips all over the UK and continental Europe and every square inch seems to be marked and manicured. Colorado and its huge expanses of unsettled space made it easy to imagine covered wagons and frontier life. We had to go through the Cottonwood Pass over the continental divide to get to Crested Butte. The continental divide is a hydraulic divide where to the west the river systems empty into the Pacific and to the east the river systems empty in to Atlantic.
With barely a half hour to spare we made it to Crested Butte Mountain. There, along with a wild coyote, we witnessed this!
After they kissed and made it official we went back down the mountain where Shana + Brian had a wedding reception dinner with BBQ chicken, pulled pork, and mashed potatoes. Best wedding spread ever.
The next morning we headed back to Nate's parents home in Boulder, taking a different route. After Mexican breakfast burritos and a quick walk through the Crested Butte Farmer's Market to collect Rocky Mountain honey and local sweet cherries we drove through a gorgeous aspen forest.
Recent summer thundershowers meant everything was green and in bloom.
After multiple stops for small hikes and waterfall viewings we made it back to Boulder. The next day Nate took me up a series of dirt roads to a special hike. We would be missing my favorite holiday, the 4th of July, as we were returning to Europe, so Nate took me here:
The hike included the crossing of this waterfall...
these gorgeous Columbines...
and, no Colorado hike is complete without the grunting of bears and their shaking of trees as they scratch their backs. Yikes! I was freaked. Sorry, no pictures of bears - If I stuck around to capture them on film I'm certain I wouldn't be posting right now. Especially when packing these Colorado Cowboy Cookies. Bears love cookies.
COLORADO COWBOY COOKIES
- 1 c whole wheat flour
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 c butter
- 1/2 c brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 c rolled oats
- 1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 c butterscotch chips
- 3/4 c chopped walnuts (or pecans)
Combine drys. Beat butter and brown sugar till light and fluffy. Add egg and extract. Combine. Fold in drys. Fold in oats, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and walnuts. Refrigerate dough for at least 3 hours and no more than 24 hours. If your not a fan of butterscotch chips (gasp!), leave them out and double the amount of chocolate chips. I didn't realize my husband was not a fan of 'scotch chips until I found little piles of cookie covered 'scotch chips all around the kitchen.
Serve with milk or coffee. Cowboy coffee if possible.
Cowboy coffee uses no special devices (filters, etc.) and with all the ranch land in Colorado, cowboys still very much exist!
