Don’t Forget What You Have In Your Backyard

There is no denying that life is busy, and at times it is easy to take for granted what we have. After a long week filled with work, stress, kids, and whatever else you may have, it is easy to let the couch get the best of you. I am as, or more, guilty than the next guy. So sometimes it takes an experience like the one I had this weekend to remind us of just how beautiful and how much our wonderful state has to offer.

I have seen the pictures, the videos, the emotion coming from those who called our mountains home when they were on fire this summer, but it was hard for me to relate since I hadn't been there for so long. You feel for the people, but you don't truly understand what it is all about until you get there and experience it.

To me the mountains have always been something I called mine, beings that I have been a Colorado resident my whole life, but they were really just big pretty hills in the distance to the west. I rarely turned off the game or avoided McDonalds to go and hang out with mother nature. I forgot what I had been missing.

Saturday, a friend and I went to Lory State Park, just to the west of Horsetooth Reservoir, for a little Saturday afternoon hike. It was just a short nearly 2 mile hike to the top of Athur's Rock. The beauty, and my out of shape body took my breath away.

It felt like a gateway into another world. The little canyon opened to a broad swale of grass rimmed by stately ponderosas. Arthur’s Rock towers above like a crenellated battlement, guarding the grounds. The well built trail follows several switchbacks, easing the climb. As you come to the rock you’ll find the route leads straight up a steep, rocky draw for the final 1/10 mile. At this point I was sweaty and tired, but I had earn the right the stand on the top which was truly breathtaking.

I remember thinking at one point as we were coming down the trail about how many people around the world wished that just once they could be on the top of a gorgeous mountain, and I had only a short 45 minute drive from home to get there. Why wasn't i taking more advantage of what I have? I will be now. Next up, boating Horesetooth! You coming?