Chautauqua Park

We recently made a goal to try to get out every weekend and have a new “adventure”. Through websites and guide-books I learned of a town up in the mountains, west of Boulder canyon, named Nederland. It had a quaint little historic mining town feel and a coffee shop housed in two converted railcars. Given Ian’s obsession with all things train, it sounded like a good little day trip.

But Colorado decided that today was a good day to remind us that we live in the mountain west- where it DOES actually snow. I was beginning to wonder if we accidentally forwarded all our snow to Virginia. We’re due to get 4-6 inches over the next 24 hours, but this morning it had just started snowing. We set out anyway, hoping to be able to see at least a few sights along the way.

Our first planned stop was Chautauqua Park, a park maintained by the city of Boulder. It is located at the base of the Flatirons- huge granite slabs that jut at an angle out of the ground and serve as the front range of the Rocky Mountains.

The snow made driving to Boulder a bit slick, but nothing too treacherous. As you can see, there was still less than half an inch on the ground. The scenery was well worth it.

The hiking was very good exercise, since the path is definitely not level and it starts at 5,400 feet above sea level. Having to corale and, occasionally, drag, the boys up the path helped stretch our muscles as well.

Having to stop and gawk at the mountains and the beauty of the snowy countryside didn't help our pace any, either.

After an hour and a half hiking out in the snow we piled back in the van and set out for Boulder Canyon. I doubted we could make Nederland, since the snow was coming down harder and the van doesn’t have 4 wheel drive. Turns out we couldn’t even make our half-way point of Boulder Falls- there was a sign before we left Boulder warning of icy conditions. We decided we’d had enough adventures for one day and headed home to a warm fire and a hot lunch.