Foothills

I ofttimes feel like I'm a little too outdoorsy for my own good to be here in New York. It's a long and stressful distance to travel to get your dose of quiet nature in. Camping anywhere within three hours of the city limits usually mean you're tent is set up next to a huge extended family with barking dogs and screaming kids and car alarms going off all night. Going to a nice wooded park that is a tad secluded and you might happen upon a nice trash pit filled with Four Loko cans or worse. Joining a community garden means you have to watch where you're stepping as the quiet corner of the garden you love so much is now home to used syringes. The whole thing can get rather depressing.

Vacations are needed. It was quite pleasant to roll our of bed in the morning after a long flight to be greeted with this site:



I was in awe, and I hadn't really seen anything yet. Colorado is a grand place. The sky is so blue it makes your eyes hurt.



The condo we had rented was tucked right into the foothills of North Boulder. The entire city just kind of rolls off the prairie and stops near the base of the foothills that kick off the Rocky Mountains. It's quite spectacular.



It's very dry and sunny here- the common quoted statistic is that they get over 300 sunny days a year. It rarely rains. Summers are hot, but at more than 5,000 feet elevation, the nights cool off quite nicely- perfect for a chic scarf to get some use.



There was plenty of creatures calling the hills their homes. Their were warnings about bears, mountain lions and bobcat in the area. None were spotted, but there were some really large Mule deer browsing the hillsides.





The city maintains 150 miles of trails on public lands. I found it amazing how harmonious a small city can exist seated in such a pristine bit of wild parks. Thousands of people take advantage to walk, run, bike and climb these trails daily. It's a very health-conscious place and a lot of world-class athletes train here at the high altitudes to get an edge on the competition. I was passed more times than I'd like to admit by hardbodies sprinting up a trail that I was laboriously picking my way up.



If I got hungry on the trail, there were plenty of fat grasshoppers to eat.

Kidding! Just joking. Ha. I'd never do that.