The next stop on the trip was Steamboat Springs. It’s about a two-hour drive northwest of Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s a really pretty area. Down in a valley – as you make your way over the mountain pass you can see the whole city from above.
The first few days were really all about playing golf. We found this really nice links-style course and we played it a few times. We had to play in the later afternoon though. It was just too hot to do much of anything before that.
The sun in Colorado is already super strong because of the elevation. But when it gets up to near 100 degrees it’s nearly impossible to stay outside for too long. So that was the deal. Hang out by the pool or somewhere inside and out to the golf course around 4 or 5 o’clock.
Mom and I did a short hike the second day that we were there. Nothing too crazy. Just a two or three-mile loop. There were some decent views of a valley but besides that, not much going on. There were a few streams to hang out around and that helped cool us down.
I did make a mistake though and Mom wasn’t too happy about it.
When we got to the point where the turnaround was supposed to be I chose the wrong path. It was a really hard right to stay on the loop but I picked another path that seemed to go in the direction that I wanted.
Within a few minutes, we got to a small stream, and, still figuring that this was the right way, I asked Mom to cross it. After another 5 minutes or so it became obvious that we were on the wrong path. So we had to turn around and cross the stream again. She was a bit nervous but she did great.
I did another hike the next morning at Fish Creek Falls. Woke up super early, maybe 5 AM, to make it over there so I wouldn’t have to hike in the heat of the day. The popular tourist attraction is the large falls at the base of the mountain. It’s only a five-minute walk from the parking lot and I will admit, it is fairly impressive.
The hike itself was somewhat challenging – a consistent uphill for most of the way. About halfway through I met a woman running the trail with her dog. The dog was an absolute mess because it was super muddy on the trail.
We got to chatting for a bit and she told me there was a mountain lion near the upper falls with a few cubs. I was a bit nervous after that, I’m not going to lie. You never want to have an encounter with an animal like that. But I found out that mountain lion attacks are super rare actually. And I ended up not even seeing the animal.
The views from the top were pretty amazing and the waterfall was a cool spot to hang out too. The one at the bottom was definitely bigger and better but still a solid hike to be fair.
Alexandra and Luke arrived that day or the day afterwards, I can’t really remember as I write this. But it didn’t matter for much. I only stayed around one night with them and then I left back to Denver the next day.