Rocky Mountain Hiking and Oysters

Colorado is a pretty cool place, and I feel like that might mean more now that I live in a pretty cool place.

Keith is a fellow beer lover and his fridge was stocked with magic. I did give him some grief for buying non Anheuser-Busch products though. I was pretty religious about only buying Anheuser-Busch beer while I was working there. An emissary of the king of beers must always be on his best behavior.

Keith and his lady Becky were fantastic hosts and were excited to hit some touristy locations with me. I couldn't go to Denver and not see Rocky Mountain National Park. We didn't really have the gear to get too silly with it though, so we picked a relatively easy hike.

We played around with the Bear Lake nature trail but the snow was very deep and I don't think we were able to do the whole loop. The scenery alone was worth the trip though so whatever.

"Ice measuring 500 feet thick moved across Bear Lake basin between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago. Originating in the uppermost valley heads, glacial ice eroded high basins, called cirques, and quarried the sheer granite cliffs of Hallett Peak. Rock debris from these glaciers formed the ground moraines, or ridges, that surround Bear Lake."

Keith did not come prepared and was getting his shoes eaten by the snow.

Our next stop was the very cool Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. It has plenty going on for the film nerd to appreciate. Stephen King stayed here and was inspired to write about the spooky hotel in The Shining. It was not an actual film location for the movie but apparently was the location for some sort of tv miniseries. It was however a film location for the movie Dumb and Dumber.

I guess Emperor Akihito of Japan stayed here in 1994.

The bar had some Shining themed beers that had somehow not been sued into oblivion.

I was forced by my traveler ethics to eat whatever the locals do to buy rocky mountain oysters. Bruce's specialized in this testicular delicacy to the point that there were cartoon bulls all over the signage and plastered all over the walls.

There were three kinds available:

Rocky Mountain Oysters (Beef)

Black Hills Oysters (Buffalo)

Lamb Fries

Luckily there was an Oyster Combo that featured 8 oz of all three.

I ate a few but... not my favorite situation. Keith wouldn't even try one. I should have fed them to the dog when no one was looking.

Luckily there was some good beer around to get the taste of balls out of my mouth. I read that Colorado has 2% of the US' population but 10% of its breweries. Bunch of geniuses.

Einstein is quite a character. He looks kind of like Master Splinter and has fur the consistency of hay. He's the best.

Keith is a big board game guy and had quite the library. He whooped me at The King is Dead. Losing is not my favorite but it was fun.