Snowy peaks, grilled cheese sandwiches and foul balls

Good Morning, from Bozeman, Montana, our new home for the month of July! The last time you heard from us, we were just settling into our sweet little mountain town in Colorado. We did, in fact, hike another 14000 footer and checked out a very cool beer festival in Dillon, CO, over my birthday weekend. Matthew also found a beautiful campsite for us right on Dillon Lake for the weekend. Dillon was only about 30 minutes from where we were staying in Georgetown, so again, Colorado made it so easy for us to get outside and enjoy the things we love to do! Friday night, our friends Sean and Dani joined us, and we checked out Dillon Dam Brewing for dinner and relaxed around the campfire. We had some very tasty s'mores (hot tip: use Reese's peanut butter cups instead of just a Hershey’s chocolate bar) and a rousing debate about whether we were looking at the Big Dipper or the Little Dipper. Matthew was right, of course, but I’m telling you the perspective was weird.

 

Saturday morning, we had a cup of coffee with lake views and got an early start at the Mt Quandary trailhead. We had one more friend join us there, Brian, which made a solid crew of five for this adventure. This hike started through the woods, but very quickly had gorgeous snowy mountain views in every direction. We came across two very adorable, but very muscular, fuzzy mountain goats still sporting their white winter coats along the way. After a good bit of elevation, you were treated to views looking up a valley with a beautiful ice blue lake in the center of what looked like miles of snowy mountain peaks. You could also see your path to the peak, a bit intimidating, excessively steep, and covered in snow. There were skiers taking the smart way down the mountain and others sliding down around us on their butts. One friendly hiker gave me a great tip that gives you an idea of my pace going up this section. Take five steps, take a breath. Take another five steps, take a breath and you’ll get there. So that was me, counting to myself all the way up, but luckily everytime you stopped to take a breath you also got to take in the most beautiful whitecapped mountain views in every direction. There was no stopping at the summit for a snack, as there was a very windy ridge, also covered in snow, to get to the peak. We took a few quick photos and tucked down out of the wind for a rest instead. As we made our way down the mountain, the temperature slowly increased until it was an absolutely beautiful day for us in Dillon. The beer festival was right in town on the lakeshore. The music was bumping, delicious food trucks were everywhere, and of course, the beer was delicious. Top marks for me go to Outer Range Brewing’s Crux and a caprese grilled cheese sandwich with tater tots from the Mountain Melt food truck. We ended the day at our campground by walking down to the lake. Matthew is compelled to jump into any freezing cold body of water he can find, so he jumped in. He was the only one. We had dinner by the campfire and turned in for the night. We checked out our favorite bike path in Dillon again on Sunday morning. It was a seriously wonderful birthday weekend. 

During the week, we caught a concert back in Dillon at a very cool outdoor venue on the water where two of our favorite bands were playing: St Paul and the Broken Bones and The Wood Brothers. We decided to explore a new Colorado town over the weekend, so we found a campground and picked a hike along the way. We trekked up Berthoud Pass to Stanley Mountain on Saturday morning with our hiking buddies Dani and Sean. There was a good bit of elevation to get to the ridge, but once there, we were treated to beautiful views for miles. Grand Lake was a charming little town that you could tell came alive in the summertime. It was crawling with kids holding ice cream cones and trucks towing their boats, waiting to get out on the water. On Sunday morning, we woke up slowly and made some blueberry pancakes at our campsite. We had a surprise visitor stroll through while Sean was washing dishes. A big ol moose came to say good morning. We found a beautiful trail that followed the lakeshore for a while and chose our own adventure. Some of us ran, some of us biked, and some of us read our books by the water. I'll let you decide who did what.

We were lucky enough to have some friends join us on the weekend of June 19th. On Thursday, we checked out the bike trails surrounding Golden, CO, popped into a brewery or two, and then checked into our spot in Evergreen. Here we learned a few very important life lessons: 1. When making homemade pizzas, be sure to spray the bottom of the pan. 2. Sean can act out the word 'Cheez It' in charades. Friday, the crew found an epic hike and caught our very first concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater. On Saturday, before heading to Denver, we grabbed some sandwiches and took the crew on the hike up to St Mary's Glacier, where we all jumped into the freezing cold lake this time. Turns out glacial water really shocks the hangover out of your system. That evening in Denver, CO, we experienced the quintessential Rockies baseball game. Hot dogs were eaten, beers were spilled, but mostly--Sean caught a foul ball, we made it on the jumbotron, and the Rockies pulled out another loss for us in their record-breaking, terrible season. On Sunday, we explored Denver and saw our friends off after a packed weekend. Always so grateful after weekends like this. There is nothing quite as rejuvenating as a weekend of new memories with close friends.

We took a quick detour to South Dakota on our way from Georgetown, CO to Bozeman, MT to check out Badlands National Park and become South Dakota residents (you can ask Matthew about this one if you feel the need). We stayed in Rapid City, SD, about an hour outside of the park. The town has a ton going on, some awesome breweries, tasty food, and there are lots of trails around. They also really lean into the tourism brought their way from Mount Rushmore (about 30 minutes outside of the city) and have a statue of every single president sprinkled through their downtown streets. Badlands National Park felt like it came out of nowhere, as you are driving through fields and small towns, and then all of a sudden, these massive canyons with incredible rock formations take over. The park itself was very drivable, plenty of buffalo to spot along the way, and plenty of overlooks that offered views just as good as any you could hike to. We had a blast driving around and stopping at each lookout point to take in the different patterns of color through each massive rock structure.

We're looking forward to a month long stay here in Bozeman and some more visitors :) Thanks for following along! We hope your summers are all full of sunshine and memories with close friends, too!