Weekend in Denver / Green Mountain
Hiking Green Mountain | A Weekend in Denver | September 2024
This trip is the first time that Curtis and I have spent any time in Denver together. We’ve driven through a couple times, and we’ve both been there in the past with our families (Curtis was actually born here!). But we never had any desire to visit on our own. In our opinion, it’s way too big, and why go to this “mountain city” when you can just go to the mountains — the more remote and further away from the city, the better. But since we had my cousin’s wedding to attend here, we took it as an opportunity to spend a little time in the city. Thankfully the wedding and our hotel were on the West side, so we were at least a little closer to the mountains. In fact, our hotel was just minutes away from Green Mountain, which made it an easy spot for sunrise and sunset hikes with Charlie.
On our first evening in the city, we drove to the West side of the mountain to go for a sunset hike after dinner. We kept our expectations low with Charlotte, but were able to hike just over a mile round trip. I’ll admit I was thankful to have Charlotte as an excuse to take it slow since the elevation was getting to me a little. We just kept making a goal of reaching the next curve in the trail, the next crest of a hill, just to see how far we could go. At least the surrounding scenery and sunset was beautiful regardless of how high we made it! Ultimately, we turned around because we stopped hiking up for a moment and Charlotte immediately seized the opportunity to turn around and walk very determinedly back down the hill, and we simply couldn’t tell her no. She stayed much more focused on our return trip, and we made it back to the van before dark.
The next day was our hike to Mt. Falcon with my parents, followed by the rehearsal dinner across the city in Parker. We were grateful to be able to take only one car and avoid having to drive the van through stop and go rush hour traffic!
On the morning of the wedding, we rose before the sun and drove to the East side of the mountain to attempt another hike, again mostly with the purpose of giving Charlotte some exercise before we had to be apart for most of the day. She was even more distracted this morning and we didn’t get far at all, but at least we had nice views of the sun rising and the city waking up.
The wedding and reception were held at an event center in Golden. The weather was warm but perfect for an outdoor ceremony, and it was a beautiful and God-honoring celebration of their love. We enjoyed getting caught up with family while soaking up the beautiful views and fresh mountain air. That evening, we went over to where my relatives were staying for dinner and more socializing.
The next morning, Curtis and I decided to leave Charlotte behind and actually hike to the top of Green Mountain. We returned to the West side since it would be the shortest round-trip hike. Not having Charlotte to slow us down made it much more apparent that I still hadn’t adjusted to the higher elevation, and I huffed and puffed my way up to the top. But that’s all that matters — that we made it to the top, right?! And when we were on our way back, we realized how steep it really was, and I didn’t feel as bad after that.
After that, we returned to Charlotte and took her on walks just for her around the hotel and nearby park. That afternoon, we drove over to visit Curtis’ Aunt and Uncle who we haven’t seen in over a decade. We had an enjoyable time catching up with them, and they took us to a Polish restaurant called Cracovia Polish-American Restaurant where we met up with Curtis’ cousin. The food was delicious, and we enjoyed the evening we spent with them.
The next day would be our last day in the city, and we spent it going on a couple more adventures with my parents. I’ll share more about that in our next post. On an unrelated but exciting note: this is my 1,000th post on this site! Thanks to everyone reading this for being here and reading what I write!
