When I got back later that week we went for a hike up McCullough for one last time (I think it’s like my seventh trip up the ‘ole gulch, but still a beautiful view).

Then the next morning we had a visitor in the driveway looking for some treats.

We then took Molly on an off-road adventure over Mosquito Pass.

And at the top of the pass there were some anxious snowboarders getting some early season practice in.

On the other side, in Leadville, we had a looong lunch, then headed for another short hike up Mayflower Gulch where we explored what was left of old Boston Mine.

The next day we woke up to Kate’s birthday, and Molly and I served her icecream in bed as requested by the birthday girl. We then packed up and drove to Colorado Springs to ride the Cog Rail Road to the top of Pike’s Peak (Kate has a thing for trains if you haven’t noticed).

Then sadly we trudged to Denver to drop Molly off at the airport. But since we’re leaving CO behind and moving back to Kansas City in a week, we’ll see her and the rest of the gang soon enough. Where did our year go?

See more pictures of time with our last visitor to our mountain retreat.

First thing Saturday morning we were able to snag a couple of the last tickets for the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

We rode on the open air car which offered some great views of the passing mountain scenery.

The all-day train ride took us from Durango to Silverton, a small mountain town that has a great “Old West” feel. Above is Kate standing in front of the oldest bordello in Silverton.

Riding the train was a last minute idea, and we’re very glad we jumped aboard. If you’re in the neighborhood and can swing the tickets, then we recommend it.

See more pictures from the tracks.

Sunday was history day for us. We left Durango and headed west for Mesa Verde, home of a host of cliff-dwellings tucked into canyon walls in Colorado’s western high desert.

It’s amazing to think of how old these dwellings are, and how good of a shape they’re in. Pueblo Indians were building these multi-story building in the side of shear cliffs around the same time that Henry V was building castles over in England. You expect to find buildings 800 years old in Europe, not necessarily here in America.

And these Ancestral Puebloans were a crazy folk. Some of these dwellings were insanely high and rather difficult to get to even with crude stairs and tall ladders… back then, the only way to get to most of these mountain condos was to literally scale the side of a cliff using only small toe and foot holds carved into the rock face.

After exploring several of the dwellings, Kate and I took a great little hike along the canyon wall to see some petroglyphs.

There are many more photos of Mesa Verde here.

We ended up taking the long way home and headed north to Montrose, and through our now favorite stretch of road: 550 from Durango to Ouray.

Western Colorado is now on our list of places to go back and explore some more. (anyone up for skiing Telluride?)

On the way to Aspen we took them over Mosquito Pass which was also another fun adventure for them. No broken shocks this time on the ole’ 4Runner, so that’s good.

After roughing it for a night, the four of us headed to Boulder for a few days of shopping and eating. Oh, and during a detour to Fort Collins, Rob and I took a tour of the New Belgium Brewery (makers of the popular Fat Tire amber ale)… which turned out to be a very interesting tour. So if you ever find yourself in Fort Collins…

See more of our photos here.

Here you can see Grays on the left and Torreys on the right. It’s an optical illusion from this angle, but Grays is actually the taller of the two by 3 feet.

Kate hiking up Grays. You can just see the trail in the valley that we hiked up.

Us at the top of Grays before we head off to Torreys.

Kate didn’t have fun going down the snowy ridge of Grays.

In the saddle.

The top of Torreys.

A nice pano from the top of Torreys. (easy to make using hugin)

View more pictures from the hike.

We woke up Saturday morning to a nice little blizzard… in the middle of AUGUST!!! By late morning the little snow we got was starting to melt and we were on our way to RoMo, but when we got there, the Trail Ridge Road was closed due to snow!! (The Trail Ridge Road is one of the highest paved roads in the world, and the only road connecting the west side of the park to the east.)

So we made due and went on a little hike and got a chance to see some great wildlife including 3 moose (one bull and two cows).

(this is a view of Quandary as we left in the morning)

This ended up being just a short scouting trip. Our friends from KS, the Wonnells are coming to visit us the first week of Sept, so we’ll have more time to explore the park (and do some camping).

We had a lot of fun exploring our mountain, but I think Maddox enjoyed it more than any of us. Alyssa posted a poem that he wrote, entitled “Mountain Friend“… it’s a must read.

And these are just the tip of the iceburg, so go see all the rest of the photos from our family vacation in the mountains.

Kate’s parents were kind enough to fly us to Kansas City last week for a little visit home. The week started with the boys and I having some quality Starcraft time on Sunday while Kate was doing Pilates with the girls.

I had to work all week while Kate was running around town, but we got to catch up with a lot of people in such a short amount of time.

Our trip coincided with Ava’s third birthday party, so Kate and I drove to Newton for a day of Tinkerbell fun.

We had a blast in Kansas besides the 100 degree heat and we’re looking forward to our move back. But in the meantime we’re cherishing our last two months in the mountains. (The entire Sawyer/Sweigart family are coming to visit us next week… we’re very much looking forward to that!)