Wednesday, July 13, 2011

On The Road Denver Edition: Just Hanging With Big J In The Mountains

Dateline Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Colorado; July 12, 2011

So, this olelongrooffan is still here in the Mile High City and having a freaking blast. After a kick *ss day at the BFE GP 24 Hours of LeMons (BTW, kick on that link or Murilee Martin's blog on my sidebar for more) and having an early night on my first Saturday here in Denver, afterall Friday nite kicked this olelongrooffan's b*tt, Sunday morning came bright and early.

As my hosts had had a late night out at another outdoor concert in downtown, Sunday morning was a bit lethargic round these here parts. Finally around 1pm, Big J recognized this olelongrooffan was chaffing at the bit, looked over at me and said, "Let's go cruise around and you drive."

Of course this olelongrooffan was all over that and we climbed in his X5 and set out for an adventure. And we had one.



We headed west towards the mountains and at the first opportunity, I stopped and grabbed this image.  Big J told me there were lots better opportunities coming up but I still popped that 5 speed SUV in neutral, set the hand brake and captured my first Rocky Mountain image. Ever.



I continued to capture images the entire drive.  Yeah, I know pixting and driving is a No-No but I think I might have it down by now.



The entire landscape so reminded me of CARS that I even commented on it to the Big J.



Our initial destination was the Red Rocks Amphitheatre as the dateline suggests.



It was a super cool journey that even included traversing through the hole in the stone formation seen to the left of the above image.



Yeah, those rock formations were immediate and huge.



Again, off in the near distance were these CARS style formations that were truly amazing. Pictures, well at least these, don't do them justice.



So, we arrived at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre and this is one of the stalwarts of it. That formation is truly magnificent..



This is the view from the top row of the seating amphitheatre with the vista of the rolling hills in the background.



A closer up view of the sides of the seating area reveal even more fantastic stone features.



And the above image is of the downtown skyline of the Mile High City over the stage of Red Rocks.



Red Rocks was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps back during the Great Depression and has been continuously updated since that point in time. Currently, there are plans to extend Denver's Light Rail people mover system out to Red Rocks and my hosts are excited as h*ll about that. "Just think John, we could go to a concert get blasted and have the Light Rail drop us less than a ten minute walk from our home." Okay...



The image above is an image of a picture of Red Rocks lit up at night. The bright lights on the left are of the rock formation featured earlier while the white lights in the background are of the skyline of downtown Denver in the distance.

By The Way, the Most Ferocious Thunderstom is passing through right now. I've not seen a storm this full of lightning and thunder in a long time and this olelongrooffan lives in coastal Florida, home of some pretty wild storms.



Big J and I then headed out into the wild to see where his X5 wanted to go.



Apparently to Evergreen, Colorado, a quaint little town nestled in the foothills of the Rockies. On the way we stopped and I captured this image of a roadside creek



and one of this exposed rock wall just across the roadway.

All in all a pleasant couple hours just cruising during which Big J and this olelongrooffan were able to

Celebrate Life.

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