Although Eldorado Canyon wasn't even on my radar when we were planning on traveling to Colorado this summer, I am glad we made the quick visit to the park. If you want to get a little bit of the background, you can check out my post from last week here. We were standing and looking at a pretty impressive rock slide when I realized my post was getting a bit long.
Once you got past the rock slide, the Fowler trail became a little more rough, but it also took you away from the edge of the cliff. There was actually a point were @mrsbozz, our younger niece and myself forged ahead and we found ourselves separated from our group. They were choosing to go a bit slower as my brother in law and our older niece were absolutely terrified of falling off the edge of the trail.
They were up visiting this past weekend and my brother in law was recollecting how he was pressed as close as he could get to the right hand side of the trail where the rock walls were.
Once we got past the rock slide, they were able to make up some time and catch up to us. We picked the Fowler trail because it looked fairly easy and at just a half mile long, it seemed like it would be a quick walk. I didn't realize that the trail continued past that half mil point and when we got to the rock slide we could have turned around.
Instead, we just kept going and eventually we ended up logging about two miles on our walk. It wasn't a bad mistake to make. I could definitely feel the effects of the altitude on our hike. In Michigan a hike like this wouldn't have winded me at all, but over a mile high in Colorado, it was a bit more of a struggle.
It was interesting to look down on some of the huge houses that people had built among the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The shot above is one such home sitting out on an outcropping. From our distance it looked huge, so I can only imagine how big it was when you were in the driveway.
Maybe one day I'll have that much money....
It was interesting to see the lines and angles in the rocks that made up the walls of Eldorado Canyon. Back in the upper peninsula of Michigan we visited a copper mine a couple years ago and they went in depth about how the layers are formed and why they are at an angle like that.
As I was looking at the rock wall I thought back to our time there and I felt I needed to take this shot.
As I said before, eventually things started to open up a bit and we were met with some beautiful green meadows and hillsides like the one you see above. It was quite beautiful.
The path was still a bit rocky, so you had to really be careful about where you stepped, otherwise you might turn an ankle. I was actually surprised at the amount of traffic we encountered on this trail. There were quite a few people on the path on the day we visited. We even came across some people running on the path back and forth for their exercise routine.
Eventually, we came to what would be the end of the path for us, but if you look really closely in the distance, you can see the path running along the edge of the hillside. It would have been cool to follow it all the way over there, but we didn't for a couple of reasons.
First, it was well past our normal lunch time by now and we were getting hungry.
And then there was this sign. As hungry as we were, the bears were no doubt hungry as well and I had zero intention of becoming lunch for a bear!
This area of the park was a bit of a contrast to the cliff hugging first part of the trail. I still kind of wish we had the time to take a detour down the Rattlesnake Gulch trail that I mentioned in the other post. It looked like it might have been a fun if not exhausting hike.
Eventually the rest of our group caught up with us and then we started the hike back to the parking area.
They had little informational placards on some of the rocks along the path like the ones above.
On our way out I took some final shots of the river that runs through and probably had a hand in creating Eldorado Canyon many years ago. It was pretty amazing to see from such a height. The views here were breathtaking, but quite honestly nothing compared to what was still in store for us.
With our stomachs growling, we loaded ourselves back in the car and headed over to nearby Boulder to drive around the university campus there. My nieces were interested in getting sweatshirts from the college bookstore, but they weren't open on Sunday.
I turned the SUV back towards Denver and we made our way to an In and Out Burger which is a staple in this part of the US. I had never had In and Out Burger before, so I was really excited to try it because I have heard really good things about it.
The line was out the door when we got there and we ended up having to wait about half an hour or more for our food. I would not consider it fast food at all. It was a good burger, but I wouldn't say it was the best burger I have ever had. Even my niece who was really excited about getting it again admitted that it wasn't as good as she remembered it.
The fries were tasty and I will admit the ingredients seemed very fresh. If you look at the photo above, you can probably even agree that the presentation of this burger is quite nice. I'm not saying it was a bad burger, I just don't think it was worth the wait or the price. If we had one of these near us and I could be In and Out as quickly as I can at a McDonald's, that might be a different story.
The other issue with In and Out is that they only serve burgers, so @mrsbozz who doesn't eat beef had to wait until we were back to the rental house to eat lunch. Kind of lame. I will admit, my strawberry shake was quite good!
If you are ever in the Denver area, I highly recommend you check out Eldorado Canyon State Park. You could easily spend a day or more just hiking around the trails there. As for In and Out Burger... I'll leave that one up to your judgement!
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