a morning at echo lake

As I've mentioned before, going "out to the mountains" is a very Coloradan thing to do. Indeed, a huge advantage of living here is all the fantastically beautiful destinations that are just a short drive away. However, we sometimes struggle with just doing it. It always feels like a lot of work to pick a place to go and to pack lunches and to find all the water bottles and to put on sunscreen and to load up the car and to battle the traffic and to convince our kids to put one foot in front of the other...You know. (Or you don't know, and I'm jealous that you feel that way!)

Those are my excuses. You never (or, very rarely) regret just getting in the car and going. Even if you end up at a different hike than you'd intended, it's still going to be enjoyable and memorable. 

Before saying anymore, I must give a shout out to my dear husband Dan. He's wayyyyy better than I am about encouraging us to be outdoorsy (which is a bit ironic, since I'm the one who grew up as more of a "camper"). 

And, so, last Sunday, we loaded up the car and hit the road before 9am for Echo Lake. It wasn't exactly a hike, per se, but instead a nice path around a the lake that gave us a chance to stretch our legs, breathe the fresh air, give Bryna a swim, enjoy a picnic, and listen to few drones being flown overhead (grrr). 

And of course, afterwards, ice cream needed to be had. We headed into Idaho Springs and hit up the Georgetown Valley Candy Company. Their mint chocolate chip was divine. Spearmint, apparently. 

a drive to see the aspens :: gunella pass

Checking out the Aspen trees in the fall is a thing people do in Colorado. A thing we had not yet done, officially, since moving here. Sure, we'd been outdoors in the fall, and seen a bit of Aspen foliage, but we'd never made a point to plan a trip with Aspen-peeping as the main motivation. Until this year.

The first weekend of October, we left bright and early Sunday morning and drove through Gunella Pass. We took interstate 70 west to Georgetown, and then after checking out the sleepy town, proceeded through the pass. The route is about three hours of driving time. Give or take.

We stopped a few places along the way to stretch our legs and take pictures. However, it seemed a lot of the most majestic views were places that stopping and getting two kids out of their carseats would have been quite dangerous, so the views just had to be appreciated in the moment. That's a good thing to do, right? 

Nevertheless, we did get some pictures at the places we stopped! Proof we went, of course.

^^so often it's hard to take pictures in quaint, historic towns because the parked cars get in the way. it was beautiful to be in georgetown early on a sunday morning when there was not much to distract from the old buildings.^^

^^the top of the pass. not many aspens to be seen, but absolutely breathtaking.^^

^^for years i've been wanting willa to get out into nature and just get dirty. she had a slow start, but i think the's finally there. she was delighted at all the little treasures she found when we stopped at a trailhead.^^

^^it was a beautiful day of fall + family!^^