A Glacier & White Water Rafting

Mountain Lake at Mary's Peak Glacier

Tom's best friend Deegan arrived late Monday afternoon along with another afternoon summer storm.  We have been experiencing them every afternoon for the past week as part of a slow monsoonal weather pattern.  The day starts out clear, fine and very warm then in the afternoon, the clouds roll in accompanied by lightening and thunder!  Some days have been very spectacular, so welcome to Denver Deegan!! At least it's not cold.

A quick dinner at Tom's favourite mexican place, 'Qdoba' then a lovely family night at Dana (pronounced Day-na) and Linda Hansen's home. (Parents of Kelland who has been mentioned a few times in this comentary!)  Linda gave us some really fascinating insights on the history and geography of Meca America with parallels to the geography and events in the Book of Mormon.  It was really good!! She had artifacts, slides and maps for each fact.  This really made the Book of Mormon come alive!

On Tuesday the kids all went to Waterworld Theme Park.  This is a favourite with them, so Rick & I will have to go after our trips away!  They had a great time with Deegan and Chani, and came home very tired!

Wednesday morning, we all headed out early with Dana and Kelland to explore the glacier at St Mary's Peak which is just off the I-70 near Idaho Springs.  This is of course in the front range of the mountains, the area being reasonably high and in the middle of a huge pine tree area.  It really is very beautiful.  It amazes me how pine trees grow so straight and tall when their roots are at such an opposing angle! 
We found the trailhead easily following a very rocky mountain river bed.  The climb was quite steep and strenuous, but just so scenic!  In due course, we came to a lovely mountain lake not only surrounded by pine trees, but also unmelted snow and adjacent to the glacier.  This was really beautiful.

A bit of a strenuous climb...

...but with fantastic views!!

The mountain lake with the adjacent glacier!

L-R: Rick, Michelle, Chani, Sarah, Tom, Deegan & Kelland (with Dana as photographer)

Trying to keep our footing on the slippery, packed snow. 

 Dana and Kelland were probably the only ones really prepared with the correct footwear for scaling slippery snow, so the rest of us clumsily followed their tracks and huffed and puffed the rest of the way to the summit over the hardened snow. That is, besides Chani & Tom who also were trailblazers! This really tests your fitness levels and I have to admit, that once I reached the others I was starting to feel it!! 

The hospitality of the grassy mountainside with it's wildflowers was greatly appreciated.  We had climbed past the timberline, so we would have been over 11,000 feet at this point.  I also have to confess suffering a dull headache and some dizzyness due to the altitude.  A rest and water, helped these symptoms enormously!  (Not bad though for a granny!)

Near the summit overlooking the lake and distant mountain ranges.

Recovery time.. Catching our breath in the thin air.

Sarah in recovery mode, with the majestic vista of the mountains..

There is not too much to compare to the majesty of being up in the mountains like this.  To feel like you are on top of the world, with the vastness of the Rocky Mountains stretching out in all directions, and the city far off in the horizon.  The peacefulness and tranquility was worth the effort of getting there!  We ate some snacks, had plenty of water and recovered in this wonderful setting.  Now for the challenge of getting down!  I was having flashbacks of skiing down the mountain without too much control, flying so fast, it was more scary than exhilirating and really did not want to repeat the experience!  However, the others had fun sliding their way back down to the bottom.  At one point, Tom, Deegan, Kelland and Chani climbed up a huge adjacent slope and slid down! 

Chani's big slide, followed by the boys!

It was hugely entertaining and after that challenge, nothing else stopped them in their quest for even greater bravado followed closely by Rick, Dana and Sarah. 

Dana, making sure we all get down ok!

Chani descending precariously..

For myself, as soon as I could find a rocky trail, I left the glacier and trekked back down to the lake, happy to watch!  I think I was probably over fearful and the last steep descent looked more like the slippery slip described by Enid Blyton in the Magic Faraway Tree.  They had fun, wet backsides, but a lot of fun!  What a great morning!  We all felt like we'd had a really good work out, and the scenery with it's creeks and occasional waterfalls caused by the snowmelt, truely is very beautiful.  The mountains are the heart of Colorado.

One of the many streams rushing with meltwater.
Deegan, Chani & Kelland

While we took a lunch break, Tom climbed a pretty high tree. (I had to zoom in to find him).
You're not tired yet Tom??

Our guides: Dana & Kelland Hansen

We had some lunch and then headed to Idaho Springs, where Dana and Kelland left us, to have a go at some white water rafting! Idaho Springs is closer to the city end of the freeway.  Off the freeway, there are such pretty towns.  You just don't discover them when you speed by!  Idaho Springs is an old silver mining town.  We were a bit early for our scheduled time, but were able to get started early.  The first thing was to be issued with all the gear.  This meant stripping down to swimmers or underwear and donning a sleeveless wet suit followed by 'booties' and a spray jacket.  We also had a life jacket and helmet given to us.  We all boarded a mini bus which took us about 10minutes down the highway to an access point in the river.  Here, we helped unload the raft and were given a lesson on safety and rafting techniques, that is, how to actually row, lie back flat to go under obstacles, how to position yourself quickly to stop the raft flipping over and what to do if you do fall in!  The water is pretty cold, having still been snow only 12 hours beforehand!  Next thing, we are on the water and away under the guidence of 'John' our instuctor.  He was fantastic and put us all through our paces as we navigated our way, nine miles down the river, through rapids of various degrees of difficulties and in and out of eddies.  What fun!  Fun, fun, fun!  This was such a great experience!  We did pass a couple of other rafts that had tipped over, but we did great!  Tom at one point was sitting on the front of the raft, when we did hit a rock and in he went!  He was able to grab the rope on the side of the raft and Deegan hauled him in!  This was an action packed day, and we all want to do this again!!

Tom & Deegan in the front, we are all trying to paddle in unison!

Whoah! there we go!!

Rick & Sarah in front now..Chani & me in the middle, and Tom & Deegan in the rear.

Nice work team!

Yay!  What champions!  That was so much fun!!

Chani & Sarah at the Denver Temple

Thursday was consequently alot quieter!  Deegan flew out at lunchtime, so we said goodbye to him and the boys had the morning to themselves, while I took the girls to do a baptistry session at the Temple.  Chani was especially keen to do this before she left Denver and this was a lovely experience as Sarah took some family names through. 

The afternoon was supposed to be spent packing, but exhaustion overtook us, and for a while it was like we were all in Sleeping Beauty's castle!!  But the packing did get done, and in the evening Tom, Kelland, Chani and Sarah went off to see the Rocky's win in baseball at Coor's Stadium with some tickets from the Bishop!  Another great day, but no sleeping in!! 

We want to leave about 6.00am in the morning!! California here we come!