rissy stories

Hey guys!

I’m back with another update! (Disclaimer: This blog will mostly be pictures.)

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Day 9: July 20th, Saturday

This was our first exploration day. Caroline looked up places to hike, and we decided on Golden Gate Canyon State Park  as our first hiking experience in Colorado.

It was a long hour and a half drive up there with a lot of swerving and curving roads, but we eventually managed to make it all the way up the mountain.

We stopped by the visitor’s center first. I grabbed some souvenirs, and Alex and I looked around at all the taxidermy while Caroline grabbed a map and asked about the most popular hikes.

 

We stuck around the main area for awhile because it looked like a storm was about to head our way, and we didn’t want to get caught up in it while hiking.

 

 

However, despite the storm, we ended up going down the “Raccoon Trail,” which was labeled as “family friendly” on the map, but it was honestly anything but.

This trail was extremely steep, and it was mostly downhill, which meant that it was very uphill when we turned around and headed back to the car.

It was also slippery, given that it poured on us for the majority of the hike back to the car.

It was freezing, since we were pretty high up in the mountains at that point, and the rain didn’t let up until after we got back to the car, so we spent a good half hour or so desperately trying to climb uphill in a cold rainstorm.

Apparently, rain in the mountains is almost like clockwork. It happens in the late afternoon every single day, which is probably why most people in Colorado get up at the crack of dawn to go hiking.

We definitely learned that lesson on this trip, but I managed to grab some pictures before the rain hit.

 

 

Once we finally made it back to the car, we tried our best to warm up, and we decided that we were going to drive all the way up to the top and stop along the way (as long as it wasn’t raining).

 

 

Luckily, the sun managed to stay out, so we were able to stop at a couple of places and hike for a little bit longer.

 

(these are cows, believe it or not)

 

Afterwards, we drove the hour and a half back home, but ran into some pretty heavy traffic, which resulted from a LAKE forming in the middle of the highway.

 

I was extremely happy in this moment that we had not taken my rental impala.

We thankfully made it home safe and sound, then rested up for more hiking the next day!

Catch you later,

Rissy ❤