St. Mary's Glacier, Colorado

I needed a couple of days to adjust to the altitude of Denver (over 5,000 feet higher than the sea level I live at - hello, I live on an ocean block). My first evening in Denver, Frank and I walked to eat pho and it was unnecessarily difficult to walk the few blocks to get there. So my third day, we decided to explore this spot I found doing a "close hikes to Denver" search.

I was upset to learn (once we actually got there) that St. Mary's Glacier is not an actual glacier. But what do I know about glaciers anyway? St. Mary's Glacier is "technically a large perennial snowfield" which basically means it's a mass of snow that doesn't melt in summer time. It is, however, still absolutely beautiful and a great first hike at a higher altitude that I am used to. The hike can go from the road (10,428 feet/ 3,178m) just to St. Mary's lake, or you can keep going and walk up the large perennial snowfield, which is what we did.

Dope tree.

St. Mary's Lake at  10,738 feet (3,273 m)

The glacier.

Do you see the animal?

Hiking on snow is a very cold experience. I don't know why I was surprised.

Me on the glacier! Notice I am above treeline!

Frank.

No more trees up here.

Looks like a volcano at first, but it ain't.

Me and Frank at  about 11,236 feet (3424m) with James Peak behind us. It was so quiet (but did I mention my ear infection was back so it wasn't very quiet for me what with the whishing sounds in my left ear.)

Ah, yes, beautiful!

St. Mary's "Glacier"

Small historic town of Idaho Springs.

Small historic town of Idaho Springs.

Small historic town of Idaho Springs.

Small historic town of Idaho Springs with moon.

Small historic town of Idaho Springs.

You can see us in the car!

Denver, it's pretty alright.

I went to visit my good ol' friend Frank in Denver, Colorado where he's being a doctor and all. A few days later our friend James came.

Denver is called the "Mile High City" because it is between 5,130-5,680 feet (1,564-1,731m) which is about a mile. It is also the capital of Colorado. The city itself is pretty flat, but less than an hours drive West will take you to the Rocky Mountains where you can explore lakes, rivers, canyons, and of course gorgeous views of mountains. According to wikipedia, there are just shy of 620,000 people in the city of Denver but I have no idea where they all are. Hikin', boulderin', and adventurin' I presume.

Lots o' old lookin' red brick buildings

I liked the name.

I decided to make cobbler for the fellas. Cookin'  at higher altitude can be a challenge...

...a mostly succeeded. It was more of a Strawberry 'n Butter Cobbler than just a regular ol' Strawberry Cobbler.

Modern day house wife dream?

There are a lot of cool houses.

James, Frank, Joe as Frank tells the best story you will never hear.

      

                  Frank and James figured out the formula to calculate the day of the week of any year, any month, any day. Because they wanted to be autistic savants.

  

Denver Public Library! Michael Graves is the architect behind the Central Library's postmodern design. It's pretty cool.

Clean Art.

Denver City and County Building

Colorado State Capitol

Parts of downtown Denver

Don't they know that Brooklyn deli's don't close!?

South Platte River

Have brunch at Jelly Cafe.
http://eatmorejelly.com/

Do it! We went there twice!
http://eatmorejelly.com/

In case you're a dork like us and couldn't get enough of the first video...