Mike, Michelle, Ben and I went on our first winter adventure this weekend. We went up to Clarks Peak Yurt which is in Colorado State Forest State Park and run by Never Summer Nordic. That is a mouthfull! Anyway we took off for our adventure after work on Friday, picked Ben and Michelle up in Denver and headed north to Fort Collins and then West to the Park which is just East of Waldon, CO. We got to the winter trail head just before sunset. We all had
headlamps, the weather was beautiful and the snow pretty good which made the 2 mile trek into the yurt a pleasant experience. Once there Mike made us a fabulous steak dinner!
The yurt was a lot of fun! Michelle introduced us to what a yurt was a few years ago and since then we have all wanted to experience one. The yurt is tucked into a grove of lodge pole pines and next to a
stream that was still running under a thin layer of ice and snow. We thought about using the stream for water but used snow melt instead. The yurt was outfitted with everything you would need to cook dinner (on a propane stove) and heat the space (wood burning stove and plenty of chopped wood).Our intent was to snow shoe and cross country ski around the area but Saturday morning as we were getting ready to go out I realized that I had forgotten my sunglasses in the car. So Mike and I skied back to the car and Ben and Michelle adventured the opposite direction. We actually only skied half way as the trail became icy and we fell way too many times! We abandoned our skis for the safety of walking. Once back at the yurt Mike took a nap and Ben, Michelle and I played Bananagrams. It was a lot of fun! Ben won twice and I won once. Later that night Ben, Mike and I played Uno and Bananagrams while Michelle read her book. I won Uno the first time and Mike won it the last time. Ben won Bananagrams once and Mike won it twice. Tons of fun!
The moon was fabulous and the stars brillant! Michelle saw the Milky Way for the first time! The moon was so bright in the early morning that there was no need for the headlamps on the way to the outhouse! The weather was also wonderful! The temperature was about 30 degrees during the day and in the low teens at night. We had a great time and cant wait to do it again!
I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and wish you a wonderful week full of love and friendship!
