Mad About Falls

A few weeks ago we all visited Colorado to see Amy and Rich and Amy's stomach.  Wendy went a couple of days early to co-throw a baby shower, and Kiernan and I met up with her there.  After visiting with the folks in Denver we went down to Colorado Springs to visit with Granddaddy Jake and Omi for a couple of days.  In addition to some lovely food and company (and Wii playing), something very cool happened.  Their very cool next door neighbor took us on a mini road trip.

This next-door neighbor--we'll call him Tim to preserve his anonymity on the Internets--is one of those good ones.  One of those neighbors you exchange keys with and who comes to embody the very idea connoted by the word 'neighbor'...we used to have one of those.  Sadly he moved onto a better neighborhood and a family that hates us bought his house.  And no, for once I'm not exaggerating.  They cannot stand us.  But that's reasonable, I suppose.  The only reasonable response to being welcomed to the neighborhood with a plateful of cookies is hatred.  Who knows?  Maybe they're gluten-free.  Anyway, Rance and Susan have something like that with their next-door neighbors (the Tim thing, not the Hateful Family thing)...I envy that.

So we were hanging about, playing pool with Granddaddy Jake or rocking out on Guitar Hero with Omi or napping alone on the deck (I'll leave you to guess which of the three of  us was doing what), when Tim called with a suggestion for an afternoon activity.  He wanted to get his jeep out and drive me, Wendy, and Kiernan up to Helen Hunt Falls for a little sight seeing.  A nice afternoon drive.

I'm not gonna lie to you.  The idea was at first befuddling.  On top of the fact that I had no idea that in addition to winning an Academy Award, Helen Hunt had contrived to get a waterfall named after herself, I was a mite nervous about throwing Kiernan in a roofless Jeep and charging up a mountain.  But then I recalled that my favorite car EVAR is the old 2DR Landcruiser jeep we had when we lived in Colorado.  That thing didn't even have seat belts.  Or brakes I don't think.  Or a heater.  We had to install a tiny little pot-bellied stove in the back that I was required to keep stoked with coal whenever we drove anywhere.

But I digress.  Point is I absolutely love the memory of that car, and it never hurt me even if it was a death trap.  I'm just saying that sometimes maybe, possibly, I'm a little too safety conscious. 

Which didn't turn out to be an issue for this excursion.  Tim's Jeep had plenty of seatbelts and gladly accepted Kiernan's car booster seat, so off we went.

Gorgeous drive.  Big surprise, since going almost anywhere to almost anything in Colorado involves a gorgeous drive.  It had taken to raining  most afternoons there, at this time, so we were a mite nervous as we headed up North Cheyenne Canyon in an open-roofed Jeep.  But since only the two passengers in the back (pictured) were truly without a roof, we didn't really worry much.  As it turned out we only got some minor drizzle, which Kiernan loved.  And how could he not?  He was getting rained on in the back of a Jeep!

We arrived at the Helen Hunt Visitor Center, and while we found nary a picture of her, or for that matter of Paul Reiser or even Jack Nicholson, we did find some lovely falls.  And I love me some lovely falls.  Usually I have to hike up to them, but this waterfall was right there next to the road.  There was a little trail heading up to a bridge over the waterfall, and Kiernan immediately hit this trail and mounted the stone staircase up to the bridge.  Wendy and I tagged along.

We spent some time at the top (as evidenced by the picture at the top of this post), gazing down over the falls and looking longingly at the trail which continued up the mountain on the other side of the bridge. Kiernan really wanted to go up this trail, but we didn't have time for that on this trip. However, I look at that as a happy sign of hikes in our future.

We headed back down the steps and visited the pool at the bottom of the waterfall, looking for fish and just exploring in general.  Kiernan's main goal was to throw rocks in the water, but we got him to pose for a couple of pictures.  One with the family, which you'll see at the bottom of this post, and some others, including one with our driver and friend Tim (over there to the right, with Kiernan).

After this we piled back into the Jeep and headed up the mountain to make a loop back to home.  More of a beautiful drive that ended with a deer sighting in some random family's front yard.  This was pretty exciting, as the we had not seen any deers in these woods at Granddaddy Jake and Omi's house yet.  We would see a couple the next afternoon, grazing in the little meadow below their deck, but these were the first animals larger than the prairie dogs next to the highway in Denver or the Halley dog in Rich and Amy's house we had seen up to this point.  Kudos to Tim for indulging us and making a u-turn so we could ooh and ahh.  I realize most folks in these parts regard deer sightings as about as exciting as watching a squirrel scamper across a telephone wire.  Or a raccoon pick through the trash.  Still, it was a thrill for us city-folks.

After this harrowing encounter with the wildlife of Colorado Springs we headed back to Weichel Ranch for some grub.  Just a lovely, unexpected afternoon.

Thanks to Tim for the excursion, and to Omi and Granddaddy Jake for a lovely visit.