Path Less Traveled

We set off yesterday around noon - after my amazing boyfriend cooked me a delicious breakfast of eggs, sausage and croissants. mmmm


We drove south down Hwy 9 toward The Royal Gorge, over the Continental Divide via the Hoosier Pass. The farther we drove, the icier the roads became. :(

We saw several turnoffs for National Forest entrances on the way so we decided to skip the gorge today and take the path less traveled.


Today, we would travel through the Pike National Forest.

The Jeep trails took us up and down mountains, thru prairies, and around frozen lakes with beaver dams intact.



According to the USDA Park Service, Colorado has 13 national forests and grasslands.

Compare that to Oklahoma's two and you may be impressed.

If that's not enough, how about the fact that Colorado has "22 million acres of forested landscape." TWENTY-TWO MILLION ACRES!

On our two-and-a-half-hour drive, we saw paw prints in the snow,
several very cool trees, a gray fox, a herd of moose, pretty snow, frozen beaver dams, yellow grass-covered prairies, and tree-covered mountains.




My favorite trips are those that aren't planned on.


Pike National Forest is beautiful! And - we're going to help the forest service by cutting down our own Christmas tree this year! YYAAAY!