I needed a break from it all on Thursday so I decided to take a drive out to Hot Sulphur Springs for a dip in that stinky volcano water. They are currently limiting guests to two hours and I chose the 10 am time slot. It was a perfect short little meditation, relaxation and stretching session.
Under normal circumstances I would spend considerable more time than that at a hot springs. Like all day I mean. All three days is even better.
But alas, we are not quite there yet and there are all kinds of rules to contend with. And that’s okay, because it gave me the opportunity to walk to the top of a big mountain, which means I got to do two of my favorite things on a beautiful Spring day in the Colorado Rockies.
Colorado Mines Peak is a 12,497 ft mountain just south of Winter Park, about an hour drive west from Denver. At the top there is some radio equipment that looks kind of crazy, as the photo above should illustrate. If I tinted the sky red in that photo it might pass for some future Martian outpost.
The hike to the top follows a service road to the radio towers, but most of it is still covered with snow but it’s all crunchy. It looks like a lot of people walk to the top and ski or snowboard down and I wished I had my skiis with me. I opted to run down along the power lines, occasional sinking to my upper ankles in snow but that’s fine because I made sure to bring my ten inch winter hiking boots.
The wind at the top was brutal and it gave me a bit of an earache. Honestly, it’s the wind that really enticed me to run straight down the mountain to avoid getting smacked with gusts along the serpentine path cut by the service road.
The views were great at the top. I spent a few minutes sheltering beside the big radio structure which made some pretty loud and intense noises as the wind smacked against the metal sides.
