Texas Deb Returns to Crested Butte
The idea of a vacation is to take a break; to get away. The best thing about this is returning refreshed, inspired and with a renewed sense of purpose.
Last year I visited Crested Butte, Colorado with my husband. It was a wonderful trip full of hiking, blogging and introspection. This year, we returned with kids, in-laws and aunt and I will say that while I might not have had the time for blogging and introspection it was nonetheless inspiring and refreshing.
To say the land there is beautiful is a pale understatement. It is breathtaking and seeps into your soul as easily as oxygen passively fills your lungs.
Taking a road trip has a lot of benefits and makes me wonder what we lose in this world of immediate gratification, electronic communication and social media.
We left early Sunday morning; early enough to watch the sun rise up behind us as we headed west in a bright, yellow summer glory. Not long after leaving the soft, rolling hills of the DFW metroplex you are inundated with the flattest land on earth. The few trees, strangers amidst the tall browning grass and bright green patches of farmland, are bullied by the wind and stand at a permanent bend.
It is an adequate beginning to a vacation; an escape from the everyday. It appears barren, although West Texas is full of its own culture and creatures just the same as any other place albeit hidden in the tall grass. The hypothetical slate has been wiped clean, leading your mind to welcome the changing landscape which, under the heat of the sun, begins to vary as it dances under growing scrub brush and rocky hills.
I’ve taken this route many times, from Fort Worth Northwest into New Mexico and Colorado. It’s nostalgic to me to begin to feel the dry air as we rise up towards Raton and the horizon begins to undulate in purple curves under the patchy grey clouds. It’s familiar, the smell of juniper and dry earth. It’s like I’m being called home.
My kids, parked in the back seat are not as amused as I am. While I am seated comfortably listening to an audio book and taking in the sights, they are hunkered down donning headphones and staring at their tablets. This makes me wonder what it would be like to travel as my ancestors did, into the West. On a wagon or by horseback you would have to feel every bump, smell every smell and let your mind wander on its own path while keeping your eyes on the physical path before you. I wonder what people on wagon trails must’ve felt, a compulsory education on every area they travelled through couldn’t have been avoided.
It’s the going there that’s the most exciting on a road trip as the coming back seems to come all too fast and take way too long.
We spent the night in Raton and travelled North to Crested Butte, stopping in Gunnison for groceries for the week and to replace a lost pool floatie my daughter found imperative to enjoying her trip.
I have always found it amazing how the Mountains look, especially when I haven’t seen them in a long time. This trip, they felt like old friends that greet you at the front gate and walk you to the house; they roll and rise out of the ground gradually and you may not even realize that point at which the road you’re driving begins to snake around their larger protrusions and that you’re gaining hundreds of feet in elevation until you look out the window and discover that you are in the presence of breathtaking beauty.
This year it took me a lot less time to adjust to the altitude as it was a goal of mine to be in better shape this year than I was the last. I am in better shape but, like I said, I’ve returned renewed and inspired and I have a whole list of new goals and to-dos.
View from the Trail to Judd Falls
The afternoon we arrived we decided to take a hike to Judd Falls. Longer and more arduous than I remembered, this was not the best choice for three kids, my in-laws and aunt. While the hubs and I were content with the climb I regret that it was a bit of a shock to the rest of our party. The falls themselves and views on the way are worth the hike. Hiking was dashed off the list of potential activities for the rest of the week for the most part.
Just a little ways up, we stopped for pictures with the chipmunks that had made their homes in these rocks.
On Tuesday I fulfilled a childhood dream of mine and hopefully instilled lasting memories in the hearts of my kids. We went horseback riding in the mountains. My horse, Hummer, was all business. He reminded me of myself when I’m working, and I’ve got no time for snacking or dilly dallying. Some of the other horses would stop and try to eat the nearby greenery. Hummer pressed on and seemed anxious to do his job. It satisfied some deep part of me to reach down and pet his strong neck and feel the heat and sweat of his work; it made me feel humbled and grateful.
This was so amazing! However, next time I’d like the horse to have to work less by the way of me being skinnier!
We road through narrow paths and in rocky mud and I was sure that there were some places I would not have been able to travel had I not been on a gorgeous, graceful animal. Horseback riding connects you to God’s earth in a way akin to growing things from the ground. It is whole and natural and peaceful.
The kids seemed to enjoy the ride just as much as I did. It’s a glorious thing to share in that!
I love to hike but this time it was nice to just ride up the mountain.
On Wednesday we completely shifted gears. We bought tickets to zipline and to the Mountain Resort adventure park featuring miniature golf, bungee trampoline jumping, bag jumps and ski lifts.
I was so nervous!! It was lot of fun though and our guides were very safe, helpful and made it fun.
I muddled my way, anxious, through ziplining and I have to say it was a lot of fun. Now that I more convinced, I won’t die as a result from a 60-foot fall, I’d like to try it again sometime.
My boys were incandescently happy, to apply a descriptive from Jane Austen although I’m pretty sure that she did not consider it possible to apply it to two boys’ boys flying about the treetops; adrenaline coursing through their young veins.
I watched the kids bag jump, bungee jump and play golf.
One of the best parts of the park, though, was repeated trips up the lift to the top of the mountain. We spotted dear, unperturbed by our presence, strolling about in the meadows. We looked out across the land from close to the peak and I wished I had remembered the names of the surrounding peaks I had taught myself when I was growing up.
Love the colors behind my three favorite people.
Maybe next year we can take the trail to the actual peak, even higher from our lookout this time.
Barrett was inspired by all the mountain bikers and their stunts and promises that he will buy a suit similar to theirs and continue his extreme biking adventures. Bryce learned how to flip on the bungees, although I regrettably did not get that on video. Josie loved the ski lift, and the deer and the trampoline and all of us were absolutely giddy and exhausted when we got back to the condo that evening.
Thursday, we went to the pioneer museum in Gunnison. They had so many items and it was so easy to ponder on what it would be like to carve an existence and eventually a community out of a rugged land. I was impressed with their textiles most of all although they had multiple buildings and so many things to see that it was a bit overwhelming.
We had lunch at the Back-Country Café, which is the only place I’ve eaten in Gunnison because it’s so good I don’t see any use in trying something else. Then, much to the delight of my kids as I’m pretty sure it was on their minds the moment, we left town, we got to shop for souvenirs.
The Gunnison Pioneer Museum has several buildings to explore and a train. The kids got to ring the bell.
Before dinner, opting out of hiking again and doubting my skills in finding a suitable trail for everyone involved, we drove through Kebler Pass. Breathtaking views. We spotted a lot of deer. We drove through peaceful Aspen groves that always remind me of some magical place you might read about in a book of Fairy tales, their white-gray trunks a stark contrast to the mossy green below; the slightest breeze making their leaves dance like dangling sequins on a spinning gypsy.
We just look so at home! This is a stop for a photo while driving Kebler Pass.
Thursday night Aunt Janis was finally given clear skies to use her telescope and the kids got to see planets and stars. It was sweet to hear them exclaim when they spotted something so far off and distant. Rings of planets and gaseous clouds.
Janis got her telescope set up the first night but wasn’t given a clear night sky until Thursday. It’s a great thing to have such
So, at peace in the cool mountain air and so comfortable and calm, it was very hard to leave. It hung over me like a cloud on Friday, a little because I hadn’t slept the night before, but mostly because I just didn’t want to go. My home in Bedford, Texas is a dirty rent house surrounded by neighbors too close in proximity and heated up to a hundred degrees by the hot Texas sun and the asphalt that surrounds us.
Like I said, vacations are for inspiration and to spurn us forward. This trip inspired a lot of things in me. First of all, I have heard the phrase “Clean Mountain Living” although I cannot remember where. I know I felt that there. The cool, clean air, living a physically active day, not balking at the idea of adventure and surrounded by God’s beauty. My motto for the foreseeable future will be “CML” or Clean Mountain Living which to me, doesn’t just describe the physical. My “CML” is also Christian MotherLoad. Full of the knowledge of the beauty God created and the fact that I am blessed to live in it and For Him.
I am inspired and committed to keeping my body and spirit healthy so that I can return for more adventures and enjoy the day to day living.
I have reenergized my desire to write, video and share in order to encourage others.
No pun intended, but I’ve had a mountain top experience this vacation. I pray that God will help me to use that in order to glorify Him.
