america y'all

Colorado

in
"He was born in the summer of his twenty seventh year, coming home to a place he'd never been before. He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again,

you might say he found a key for every door."

a few days before heading to colorado i started humming rocky mountain high, it had been years since i actually listened to the song so i put it on.... goosebumps. the lyrics are eerily similar to the state i'm in, right down to this being my twenty seventh year. after a brief trip last month, colorado was once again calling my name.

it seems as though i always find what i'm looking for because i am in fact never looking for anything at all. i met miss sarah rose on a rainy fourth of july in the minuscule ghost town of silver plume, a month later i'm back in denver to spend a long weekend with her. 

i could get into the natural beauty that we surrounded ourselves with during my short visit; rainy hikes to granite cliffs overlooking a picturesque swimming hole, a glass like reservoir with quaint hill side homes as a backdrop, and of course the majestic rocky mountains. a sight like nothing i had ever seen before, seas of pine with alluring snow capped peaks jetting into the wide open blue sky. but the scenery was not the purpose of this trip, it was to spend time with someone who i felt an instant connection with. 

i read a quote a few weeks back that hit me hard, "Guard your time fiercely. Be generous with it, but be intentional about it." i have admittedly been spreading myself a bit thin over the past few months, jumping at any chance i could to get out. but a change of tide has washed over me recently, my time is now focused and given to those who are truly important to me, and this trip was no exception. 

by sheer happenstance we both ended up in that tiny mining town on the fourth of july, sitting fire side in the damp mountain air. i never could have imagined what would become of that chance encounter, but sarah said it best herself in a note she handed me at the airport that ended with "i'm lucky to have someone to miss."

 

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico.

in

 the weather is finally changing and with the warmer temperatures our wanderlust is kicking back into gear. winter months had us taking small day trips but the bulk of our weekends were spent cuddled up at home dreaming of summer. 

with an original plan to roll out at midnight, excitement kept us from sleeping and we ended up hitting the road at nine. driving through the darkness the sun began to rise just as we were in the lincoln national forest, in the distance we spotted a massive white spot in the middle of a sea of brown; white sands national monument.

 we've been to the sand dunes out in west texas before, but we weren't prepared for what lay ahead of us upon entering the park. miles and miles of bright white sand dunes, looking like rolling hills covered with a light dusting of snow. driving further our minds started playing tricks on us, with the morning clouds still hanging low it was impossible to tell where the dunes ended and the sky started. 

a saturday, especially the first weekend of spring break, usually means very crowded parks. white sands is so vast that you can easily walk an extra hundred yards into the dunes and escape everyone into a sea of gypsum that goes on for miles with a hazy, almost unreal, mountain backdrop. 

in our travels we'll sometimes go to a park and know that exploring it once is enough, sometimes we end up going back because it's close or we want to show a friend, not an hour into our drive home we were already talking about going back to white sands in the future.

Field Trip - Lake Travis Low Water Crossing

in

in general we are solitary people, prefering to enjoy travels and trips by our lonesome. we've learned that friendships can be messy and frustrating and over time have found it much less stressful to only count on each other. but every once in a while someone comes into your life that you just feel at ease with, from day one ryan (brotherstories.com) has been that person to us. a man genuinely interested in the best for those around him, he has a keen sense of adventure, and a way with words i can only someday hope to attain. this past saturday we spent some time exploring the banks of the colorado river directly south of lake travis. climbing trees, feeding birds and drinking brews, i couldn't ask for a better day. and therein lies the beauty of his friendship; it can be light or it can be heavy, but it is always meaningful.