Family

Luke Visits Alaska, Part I

Posted on September 14, 2025 by Debora

I almost forgot to write about Luke’s trip to Alaska last year! I’ve probably forgotten a lot of the details, but let’s see what I can piece together.

He flew out from Denver International Airport on August 23, 2024. Delays caused him to miss his connecting flight, so the airline rescheduled him for the next flight. That takeoff was also delayed, due to technical issues.

The next morning he took a walk through downtown Anchorage.

I’m skipping all the messages where he’s complaining about freezing his ass off. Apparently 45º and overcast feels a lot colder in damp Alaska than in dry Colorado.

He drove his rented Jeep to the nearby Glen Alps/Flattop Trailhead, and hiked the overlook trail.

He spent the second night at Base Camp Anchorage Hostel. Then he dropped off the Jeep and boarded the Alaska Railroad for a scenic eight-hour journey to Denali.

He spent the night at a hostel in Denali. In the morning he took a shuttle into Denali National Park, and did some exploring in the wilderness.

This post is getting kind of long, and we’re only about halfway through, so I’ll pause it here. To be continued!

Categories: A Plethora of Parks, Animals, environment, Family, Life, Travel, Weather, Wildlife | Tags: Alaska Railroad, Anchorage, Denali National Park, Fairbanks, Fort Yukon, Kaktovic | 1 Comment

Pikes Peak by Rail

Posted on July 19, 2025 by Debora

Luke keeps asking when I’m going to update my blog. He says the easiest way to keep track of his road trips and other adventures is by looking them up here. I keep meaning to, but between work, house projects, recreational reading and getting into political arguments on Twitter, there never seems to be time for blogging.

But next month will mark a full year of unblogged adventures. I need to either catch up or admit that I’m never going to. So I’ve made a new rule for myself: every time I finish reading a book, I can’t start a new one until I have written and published a new blog post.

So where were we? Last August a friend I’ve known forever (since middle school!) flew out to spend a week with us. I think my favorite thing we did that week was take the Broodmoor Cog Railway to the summit of Pikes Peak.

That was on August 13th of last year. Elizabeth had the Tuesday off and came with us. Luke was saving up PTO for a solo trip to Alaska, so he was at work that day.

The Cog Railway Depot is lovely. The current cog trains were shipped out from Switzerland, and the depot embraces that Swiss aesthetic.

The depot sits roughly between the foot of the Manitou Incline and Barr Trailhead in Manitou Springs. As we rolled out of the station, the first views were green and lush.

The views get more rugged as you get higher.

This majestic marmot was hanging out above the tree line, up in the tundra.

At one point we rolled off onto a side track to let another train descend.

The tundra gets rockier near the top.

There is an active gold mine in the background of this photo, on the top right:

It takes about an hour and ten minutes to reach the summit.

The new visitor center sits next to the ruins of the old visitor center from the 1800s.

We went in and ate lunch and got some famous Summit House donuts.

The peak was cold and windy, but we walked around and took in the views.

There’s also a road you can drive up. I think it would be fun to take a car or train to the top and then ride a bike back down.

After about 40 minutes we were called to reboard. The operator relocated to our car, which had been at the back of the train during the ascent, and was now at the front.

And back down we went!

After disembarking, we decided to check out a couple of the local naturally-carbonated springs.

I’m kind of obsessed with them now. If I lived closer to Manitou Springs, I’d be taking gallon jugs to fill up with that spring water every week.

And on the way home–a double rainbow!

Whew. Now I can read another book.

And when I finish that, I’ll be back!

Categories: Animals, environment, Family, Friends, Life, Travel, trees, Wildlife | Tags: Barr Camp, Broadmoor Cog Railway, Manitou Incline, Pikes Peak | Leave a comment

Roxborough State Park

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Debora

I have a massive backload of stories to tell. Sometimes the storytelling part of my brain goes into hibernation, and I have to just wait it out. I haven’t worked on my book for months, although lately I can feel it stirring under a deep pile of autumn leaves and everyday distractions.

Meanwhile, here’s a story in pictures. Last August Luke and Elizabeth and I hiked a loop trail at Roxborough State park, at the height of its summer splendor.

Fairytale beauty. Striking red rock formations jutting up from rolling green hills, like a scene from Middle Earth.

If I’d written this post in August, I could have included details like what we talked about and what sort of philosophical reflections the landscape inspired. Alas, it’s been so long I don’t remember.

But it’s an enchanting place, and I’ll probably revisit it at some point.

On the way home we stopped to see the South Platte River, near Platte Canyon Reservoir where the High Line Canal Trail begins.

I want to ride my bike along the entire 71 miles of the High Line Canal Trail…but that’s a story for another time.

Categories: A Plethora of Parks, Edible Perennials, environment, Family, kids, Life | Tags: High Line Canal Trail, RoxboroughState Park | Leave a comment

Thanksgiving Road Trip, Part VII: Salt Lake City (2/2)

Posted on March 3, 2024 by Debora

Read Part VI here

So much going on, I almost forgot to wrap up this outing!

Over breakfast in the Park Cafe, we debated how badly we wanted to check the Great Salt Lake off our bucket list. We all felt like we’d already gotten our money’s worth from the road trip. The morning was grey and chilly, and the idea of backtracking to see a grey, chilly body of water was less appealing than the thought of heading back to our own warm, cozy house. We decided to save the lake for another time, maybe when the Temple renovations are done and we can do a proper tour.

We did stay long enough to check out Tracy Aviary at Liberty Park, right across the street from the cafe. Most of the birds were huddled out of the cold in their shelters, but the setting itself is a nice walk.

There is a pelican pond…

…and the enclosures are reasonably roomy.

Zoos make me sad. But at least the birds here aren’t in tiny cages.

Some of the larger birds definitely could have used more space, though.

After we left the aviary, we turned the Adventuremobile’s head toward home and hit the open road.

Again, Luke chose a more scenic and slightly longer route home, via US-40 through Dinosaur and Steamboat Springs rather than I-70 through Grand Junction. It’s a pretty drive, but honestly, I don’t think there are any nonscenic routes through the Rockies.

Ski runs carved out down the mountainsides. It’s been so long now, I don’t even remember where that was. Somewhere still in Utah, I think. I probably should have taken notes.

Here’s a pretty lake. Don’t remember which lake. Maybe Strawberry Reservoir? I definitely should have taken notes.

No idea which rest area this was. Might have been Pinion Ridge. It has a nice little trail to get out and stretch your legs on.

In the afternoon it started snowing again, and the road got slick.

We slid around a bit, but we made it through with only a couple of tense moments.

I wish I’d had a proper camera to capture that moonrise.

We made it home late that night, and I slept like a rock in my warm bed. We all agreed that future road trips would be in warmer seasons, at least until that camper shell window gets replaced.

Unless we’re visiting more national parks, because I love having those mostly to ourselves in the off season. I’d like to see Yellowstone and Glacier soon.

And that was our November trip! Only took me three months to get it all blogged, and now spring is only a few weeks away.

I am very much ready for spring.

Categories: A Plethora of Parks, Animals, Family, Holidays, kids, Life, Road trip, Travel, Weather, Wildlife, Winter | Tags: Tracy Aviary | Leave a comment

Thanksgiving Road Trip, Part VI: Salt Lake City (1/2)

Posted on January 21, 2024 by Debora

Read Part V here

Luke chose old rural highways on most of the drive from Bryce Canyon to the Great Salt Lake. His reasoning was twofold: one, the scenery would be better on the backroads than on I-15; and two, the Adventuremobile tops out around 65–70 mph anyway, so we wouldn’t really be saving any time by taking the interstate.

The scenery was indeed better.

Our highway met up with I-15 in Nephi, Utah. We were all hungry, so we stopped there for supper.

On this trip we mostly ate food we had packed for the road, or picked up at truck stops and gas stations. But we did have two meals that were good enough for a proper mention. One of them was at Lisa’s Country Kitchen in Nephi. I recommend it if you’re ever passing through there.

Back on the interstate, the views got kinda boring again.

The most interesting part of it was all the Mormon churches.

Our plan was to spend the night at Great Salt Lake Campground. But when we got to the entry road, the gate was closed and there was some kind of big event going on at a nearby venue, with some guys directing traffic and us right in their way. They told us that the only way to get the campground gate code was to have reservations, which we would have to try to get online. They told us to pull out of the way on the side of the road and figure it out. We decided to get out of their way completely and go find a truck stop and regroup.

Saturday night in Salt Lake City is a crowded, trafficky place. We fought our way to a Love’s Travel Stop, thinking that we’d spend the night there and go back to the campground when it opened in the morning, only to find it jam-packed full of disgruntled truckers who had discovered, like us, that you can’t spend the night in a travel stop that close to the city center. We had to drive out to the outskirts to find one that allowed overnight parking.

That was the only part of the trip that was really unsalvageable. We settled into the travel stop around 5:30 or 6 pm. It was already dark, and cold, and there was nothing to do but scroll on our phones until we got tired enough to sleep.

I found out much later that you can get the Salt Lake Campground gate code anytime just by calling the camp office and asking. Reeeaallly wish we’d known that at the time.

In the morning we sorted through our options. Dealing with city traffic and spending the night in a truck stop instead of a lakefront campground had made us grumpy, and we were starting to bicker amongst ourselves. Not a good start to the day. We’d had a particular breakfast cafe on our itinerary, so we decided to go there, have breakfast, and then decide how badly we wanted to see the Great Salt Lake.

Driving through Salt Lake City on a Sunday morning was easier than driving though it on a Saturday night. My impression of it improved slightly.

The Temple was completely covered in scaffolding, I guess the renovation is still in full swing. Saw some other interesting buildings in there as we drove past.

You can sorta see the Salt Lake City Union Station in the next pic. I think Denver wins this one.

When we got to the cafe, the line was out the door. They took our names and gave us a buzzer, and we went for a walk around Liberty Park across the street. Here we discovered the Tracy Aviary, and decided to visit it after breakfast.