Mesa Verde and Canyons of the Ancients

Hello kind readers!

As you may have noticed, I'm catching up on a few blog posts.  I recently took almost a year's worth of pictures off my camera and found some gems hidden in the more than 1,000 unseen pictures.  There are a few events and places I'd like to share with you even though it was a while ago now, so let's continue! Next up is southwestern Colorado.

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During the winter, I took the long journey home, traveling more than 24 hours from Grenoble to Denver to go home for the holidays.  I've been realizing more and more how much I love being home with family during this time of year.  It is truly a special time.

After the festivities of Christmas, and before welcoming in the New Year, my family and I drove to southwestern Colorado for an adventurous getaway.  Our main destinations: Mesa Verde National Park, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, and Wolf Creek Ski Resort.

Mesa Verde is best-known for its cliff dwellings where the Ancestral Pueblo people built villages into the sides of steep cliffs.  These people called this area home between AD 600 to 1300, and then seemed to disappear, leaving little to no clue where an entire people could have gone.  The national park protects and continues to study these cliff dwellings and various archeological sites.

I found this area to be very interesting, marveling at the thought of climbing a cliff to go home.  With the help of the archeologists and the park, the cliff dwellings are kept in quite good conditions.  While not able to enter the cliff dwellings in winter, we saw them from afar and even had a hike along a snowy road where we saw wild horses and observed the aftermath of a forest fire.

Next up was Canyons of the Ancients National Monument where we went for a muddy day hike.  The area is protected by the Bureau of Land Management and includes hiking trails and one of the highest concentrations of archeological sites in the U.S.  We took a long hiking loop across red rocks, through muddy pits, and with incredible views of rock formations and reaching landscapes.

Coming to the end of our getaway, we brought in the New Year with some powder at Wolf Creek, a nice little ski resort that wasn't too crowded and quite affordable, and a few hours of hot springs on our way home.  

It was a fun adventure to an area I had never been.  I learned more about the history of my home state and continue to be fascinated by its beauty, history, and culture.  I would absolutely recommend this area to any visitors wanted to know more about southwestern Colorado.

Mesa Verde Cliff Palace

A view into the dwellings

Wild horses in Mesa Verde

Hiking in Canyons of the Ancients

Rock formations in Canyons of the Ancients

Yes it was winter, as you can see in this shot taken on the drive home.

Easter Ski Weekend

I've been getting outdoorsy a bit lately.  For my 3-day Easter weekend, I joined a university group and headed to the mountains.  

Beautiful day skiing in the Alps! Photo courtesy of K. Heidrich.

On Saturday morning, I arrived bright and early to join the bus traveling from campus to les Deux Alpes.  After sleeping most of the way up, we arrived at the resort, dropped off our bags, and headed for the pistes (slopes).  It was a beautiful, sunny day and quite warm out.  The skiing was the best at the top of the mountain on the glacier.  I took things a little bit easy since I'm still recovering from a twisted ankle, but everything went just fine.  We met up with more friends for lunch, which we enjoyed with some vin chaud sitting outside under the sunshine.  Towards the end of the day, the sun was getting quite strong and the snow was becoming a bit too slushy.  We stopped skiing for a while and went to hang out at the apres-ski destination, which was a party on top of the mountain, complete with DJ and people dressed in silly outfits.

Pano Bar on top of the mountain

Our ski day was coming to a close, but our evening was only beginning.  A group of six of us decided to save a little money and make dinner together at our rented apartment.  It was great to sit and hang out over dinner.  Our evening continued with some card games, and eventually we decided to join the crowd for a night out.  It was very fun and we ended up dancing the night away.

The next morning came early, and looking outside we discovered the mountain was covered in a blizzard.  From our little apartment, we couldn't even see the slopes just across the way.  Research told us that the intense weather would continue all day, so we decided to call it and not ski.  Instead, we ended up watching Friends (in French) and exploring the ski village.  Towards the end of the day, the whole university group was invited out for ice skating.  That was lots of fun, with people dressing up, showing off, and learning how to skate.  It was another fun night.

Ice skating! Photo courtesy of P. Briggs.

The next day was our last, so we headed back onto the slopes, stopping for an afternoon BBQ, before joining the bus back to campus.  We got the perfect seats at the front on the top of a double-decker bus.  There were beautiful views the whole way.  

Grenoble looking good.

I really enjoyed my weekend.  I feel like I got to know my friends even better and made some new ones along the way.  Grenoble and the people here are great.  I'm really feeling at home!

Skiing: Les Deux Alpes

Grenoble is a place that keeps growing on me.  I feel really at home and comfortable here.  That being said, I also feel that I've passed another milestone to being a part of Grenoble... I bought skis! A friend and I made an outing to check out skis at a second-hand shop, and we both walked out with our very own skis.  All together, my skis, boots and poles cost around 78 euros.  Not too bad, eh?  Well they're not the fanciest skis, but they work!

I tested them out for the first time last weekend when we went to a nearby ski resort called les Deux Alpes.  We arrived in the parking lot on our student bus (we both got student ski cards despite not being students this year haha!) and were quite confused... there wasn't a single patch of snow in sight!  With a slight feeling of hesitation, we decided to see what we had gotten ourselves into for the day and we took the gondola up the side of the mountain.  Our gondola took us to the base of a village, which we walked up through to find ourselves at the ski resort.  The snow ended up being ok, not fantastic, but it was a great day out nonetheless.  The ski resort is on a sort of plateau at the top of the mountain and we found some nice views the further up we went. 

We also met a group of friends for lunch and again for drinks at the apres-ski party, complete with live DJ on top of the mountain.  All in all, it was a wonderful day with great people and absolutely incredible views.  See for yourself.

Snow and Sun

Today, I'm catching up on a few different things I wanted to share...with plenty of pictures too!

Two weekends ago was a whirlwind of fun.  It started right after work on Friday evening with an incredible dinner at Le Figuier.  My three-course dinner was mouthwatering to say the very least! I started with langoustine cooked with butter and garlic that I scooped out of the shell.  Second and most impressive was duck cut into strips, rolled together, and put on a rotisserie with a dried fruit and nut compote on top and complemented by baked potato wedges and a mini vegetable quiche.  For dessert, I had a delicate and delicious lemon meringue tart.  Although I probably will never taste such a delectable dinner again, I absolutely plan to go back to Le Figuier.  I can't believe I didn't know about it sooner, but it was special to discover it with their exceptional Valentine's menu.

The next morning, I woke up bright and early to catch a two-hour bus to Font Romeu, where I spent the day playing in the snow.  After hearing about the feet of snow coming down in Colorado and all of the good skiing that ensued, I felt more at home being in some snow, even if it was halfway across the world in the Pyrenees Mountains.  While I still think Colorado has the Pyrenees beat, it was a wonderful day among friends (who were styling some 80's one-piece snow suits they found at the flea market!).

Skiing at Font Romeu

Moving forward to this past weekend, it was too beautiful and sunny not to be outside.  I decided to check out a nearby lake at Villeneuve-de-la-Raho.  Again, I was joined by language assistant friends.  We had fun taking pictures of the nearby Canigou Mountain, strolling by the lake, and basking in the sun.

Basking in the sunshine at the lake.

Villeneuve-de-la-Raho

Well, I think that about sums it up; things that make me happy are 

friends, food, sunshine, being outside, and discovering new places!