Denver – Enjoying the Outdoors - A Milian Adventures

Thanks to the Covid pandemic, we knew we wanted to do things outside for our next trip, and what better place to do outdoor activities than Denver? Andrew’s family lives that way, so it also served as a dual purpose trip to see them! This was our first trip where we brought our tandem with us, when biking wasn’t the actual point of the trip. After having some issues in the past with our roof rack, we were extra paranoid on the 9 hour drive, tightening the bolts every time we stopped. While it did arrive covered in bugs, it did make it safely to Denver with no hiccups. Thanks to the freak winter storm on the way home, we ended up folding the bike and throwing it in the car for the drive back though.

Our first day in Denver was a big one. We decided to head out into the mountains and do a 10 mile out and back hike, the Tanglewood trail near Mount Evans. Being labor day weekend, we were nervous that we would be fighting crowds to the mountains, but were pleasantly surprised to find it mostly to ourselves. The weather was great, and the hike was wonderful. As we rested at the Roosevelt Lakes at the end of the hike, we spied an adorable white stomached mini weasel, which we later identified as an ermine, bouncing around and poking out of the rocks with his curious little face. (We didn’t realize that they are viscous little critters until we were googling it’s name on the drive home from the hike). We left that hike exhausted – I’ll blame the altitude – so we had a fairly relaxing evening at Andrew’s parent’s house with takeout Chinese.

Deciding to turn our 2^nd day into an adventure as well, we opted to ride our bikes the 12 miles to Andrew’s sister’s (Emily) house for breakfast. Denver has a surprisingly elaborate network of trails, so it was really nice to go across town without the need to ride in the street! After a lovely home cooked breakfast on the patio, we all (A& I, Andrew’s parent’s, sister and husband, and their two small children) opted to ride our bikes to a nearby park and really wear out the kids. After saying goodbye to the family, we made the 12 mile trek back to Andrew’s parents house – only this time it was much hotter out, and the smoke from the nearby wildfires was starting to show itself. After naps and showers and general resting we made our way back to the Emily’s (driving this time) for an awesome movie night on the patio (Disney’s Mulan was the evening’s flick).

Our final full day in Denver was our bike day. Andrew’s mom had planned out an “urban ride” for us using the vast trail network to ride downtown. In total it was about 38 miles, about 2 miles of which was on roads, with a lovely coffee stop at the Starbucks in the REI downtown. The ride was really pleasant, and only furthered my jealousy of other cities and their bike friendly infrastructure.

Overall it was a lovely little trip. I always enjoy getting out there when its not winter time (who decided to put all the family focused holidays in the winter anyways?)