Reverend’s Ridge – Golden, CO

Day 4 we are off to beautiful Colorado.
The day began with a little yard maintenance
and a near concussion when Ali jumped out of bed and hit her head on the low roof of the RV. But Ali is bulletproof and just tied an icepack to her head and still ended up looking like a backwoods supermodel.
Everyone raved about how things would get exciting once we got to Colorado. I appreciated the insight but kind of thought to myself, “Isn’t an expressway an expressway? How exciting can it be really?” I have no problem admitting how very wrong I was. The drive from Denver to Golden, CO can only be described as majestic.

Upon arrival at Reverend’s Ridge (in keeping with our religious pilgrimage theme) in Golden Gate Canyon State Park, we went for a 2 ½ mile hike to Panorama Point (mistakenly read Paranormal Point by me).

A Dirty Dancing re-imagination by Rachel and Kris goes all kinds of wrong.
I think the halfway point was when Crystal begged us to leave her and gave us permission to eat her for energy.
Kris leads the girls through Raccoon Trail like Moses leading the Israelites through the Red Sea.

The jello legs were worth it once we reached the top.

We had to talk Ali out of taking this little guy back to the RV to join the two cats.
Um, if I see a bear on the trail, none of the following will be happening. Mostly the “stay calm, don’t run” part.

“If a bear breaks into our RV tonight, I just want to say I love you all.” – Rachel
“If a bear breaks into our RV tonight, Kris won’t have to worry about cleaning the stinky slinky because he will be cleaning my brown shorts.” – Crystal
When we all got to the top we had self-diagnosed “sausage fingers” due to the elevation added to our pre-existing condition of “white-trash hands” from 3 nights of camping.
Ali made a friend named Dakota.
Even though it got a little chilly that night…
…Crystal still felt a need to sneak over to our neighbors’ camp and steal some ice.
We were very lucky to have some company that night. My old college buddy Dave, who lives nearby, stopped by with some helpful camping tips, an amazing gift of lift tickets for the following day in Vail and a scary story that would keep us looking out the window for Big Foot all night. It was great to see Dave and catch up. Would have love to have seen some other Denver dwellers in addition; to our friends The Millers and Robby, hopefully we can catch you on the way back if not before. Until then, we will leave you with an image that Kris said you would enjoy.