Who doesn’t love a long weekend?! We’ve been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, but that didn’t stop us from cramming in a lot of fun over Memorial Day.
Since we got to Denver, taking in a concert at Red Rocks has been on the top of our list. After looking over the concert schedule as well as our incredibly busy summer schedule (bachelor parties, Disneyland, wedding, yadda yadda yadda) we settled on the Friday before Memorial Day, and it did not disappoint! The day of the concert ended up being rainy and cold! Luckily, the rain ended right before the concert lending to a beautiful rainbow backdrop behind the red rocks. Driving up, we couldn’t stop commenting on how beautiful it was. It was stunning. I seriously can’t get over the mountains here.
The bands playing that night were the Wood Brothers, Shakey Graves, and The Devil Makes Three. After grabbing some local brews (Coors Banquet 🙂 ), we found our seats and got ready for some great music. We were pretty high up, but there wasn’t a bad seat in the house; the acoustics in the amphitheater are stellar. All of the bands put on a great show, but The Devil Makes Three blew us away! It was their first time playing Red Rocks and I think they would’ve payed all night if the venue let them. All the dancing around almost made us forget how cold it was. It was one of the best and most fun concerts we’ve been too, and we highly recommend catching a show here if you’re in town and have time! For those of you coming out in July, check out the calendar. It was a late night for us – we didn’t get home until after 1am! – but it was completely worth it.
The next day we had planned a camping trip with some folks from Matt’s company who happen to live in Denver. There were 8 of us total and we had a great time – except for Snickers who is crazy protective of me and wasn’t too fond of the the two other dogs. After 5 months of not hanging out with anyone other than Matt and Snickers, this was a much-needed social outing.
We got a late start to the day, but were able to pack up and head to the campsite by early afternoon. Nate was able to go out early and snag a great campsite just outside Boulder in the Roosevelt National Forest near Gross Reservoir. We had to drive up a pretty primitive dirt road to get there, which made us extra glad for AWD on the Subaru. After setting up camp we payed frisbee, drank beer, and went on a short hike. It was still cool, so we spent a lot of time chasing the sun and sitting around the camp fire. We grilled corn and brats over the fire for dinner and ended the night with s’mores (of course).
Aside from being insanely cold that night, we slept relatively well and woke up ready for a nice, long hike. A couple of the guys were running a 10K the next day and wanted an easier hike and some others had to take the puppy home, so it was just Matt and me for the hike. We found a 6.5 mile hike up to Twin Sisters Peak. The trail was pretty empty – we actually didn’t see anyone else until we were descending from the peak – and it was a really great hike. The first part was on dirt roads, which sounded pretty easy until we realized we were over 8,000 ft and a sight incline left us breathing heavily. The very last part involved scrambling up rocks, which Snickers loved! I’m convinced she’s part mountain goat. We got to the peak and took in the spectacular 360 degree views. After a little mountain yoga we headed back down to start the drive home.
That Monday, we took it easy and spent some time poolside. Overall, it was a great weekend and perfectly busy and relaxing.
mattandbethtravels 