Birthday In Boulder- guide to a quick weekend away in Boulder, Colorado

Every year for Mitch's birthday I like to gift an experience rather than a thing; because things are just things, and doing something epic together is much better, dontchathink?

This year he happened to be turning 32 and passing his final exam for nursing school within the same 4 day period, so it seemed appropriate to spend the middle 3 days in Colorado, right?

Also fun fact- Mitch is the easiest human on the face of the earth to surprise with anything. in the entire world. ever. So this whole thing was a total secret to him until we were parking at the airport and I allowed him to remove his blindfold. lololol.

lift off!

touch down in Denver --> get the biggest truck we can find ---> take off for boulder!

totally swoooooooooooooooooning over the birthday boy

okayyyy he is so cute it physically hurts me.

and yes, the room was epic. #teamallwindows

mountain views from our window and on the map.

Started off Saturday watching the sunrise from our bed, with room service. the perfect way to fuel for the hike ahead!

Heading Out

boulder to rocky mountain national park

...views from the fastest hour and a half drive I've ever been on...

getting closer!

Finally arrived in the gorgeous Estes State Park to a beautiful sunny, 35 degree day. Time to get back on the road after a quick espresso and snack re-fuel.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

Fun Fact! Driving from Boulder, we had to pass through Roosevelt National Forest and Estes Stake Park to get to the entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Once we were in the park, we decided to set out for Bear Lake, which was only supposed to be like less than 10 miles (or something like that, idk) from where we entered the park.

After a treacherous 45 minute, less than 10 mile drive, conditions ended up being rougher than we had planned. Originally when planning this secret surprise vacay, it was supposed to be like 50 degrees in CO. It wasn't actually that warm- but 35 and sunny was still awesome, until we got into the mountains.... One unplanned snowstorm later it was -15 degrees with the windchill at this elevation. whoooops! Should've packed warmer.

By the time we got to Bear Lake the wind and snow were so intense that I had to leave my camera in the car for our mini-trek outside

Bear Lake's parking lot was full of adventurers ready to thrive in the these sub zero windy conditions-but somehow we missed the memo about needing snow shoes, ski poles, and 100% full ski/snow gear with zero skin exposure if you want to be outside for more than 10 minutes.

learn something new every day.

We did suck it up and make the short trek from the parking lot, through the deep snow, to Bear Lake. When we finally got to the edge of the lake it was a complete white out and we couldn't see a thing! Guess we have to come back!