Point of Entry – Denver International Airport
For quite some time I had been in every state that bordered Colorado but had not managed to cross this state's border. Conveniently, Southwest started flying into Denver not long before my family planned a trip that included Rocky Mountain National Park.
We flew into DIA in the morning and were on the trails in the park that afternoon. At the Bear Lake Trail parking lot, the elevation sign indicated that we were over 10K feet. The last time I’d been at that elevation was earlier that day when the flight attendant came on to say that we could now use our portable electronic devices.
Thought I’ve traversed many mountain trails, Colorado’s trails are the highest that I've climbed. It may be the closest to the top of the world that I’ll ever get.
My ankle twisted as I was coming down one of those trails. For the first time in my life I actually fell correctly instead of trying to break my fall. The reason was that my camera was in my pocket and as I started to go down I tried to protect it and the photos it contained. In doing so I didn’t even get a scrape, though the height and severity of the fall should have required the EMS team come to carry me the rest of the way down the trail and to and Estes Park emergency room to have a bone set.
After traveling through several other states on that trip we ended up returning to Colorado before coming home. After another quick hike in RMNP we headed to Boulder to tour the Celestial Seasonings factory. Three words: The Mint Room.
Once I got some Colorado in me it became a bit like a magnet. All of a sudden my flights to the West Coast or the desert seemed to need to stop at DIA either to or from my destination.
And inside me I feel the pull to the mountains --- to get closer to the sky with my feet still on the ground.
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