Jagged, and in fact ROCKY, mountains everywhere. Even from the heart of the city, the mountains are perfectly positioned in the background. As the drive became longer, the city scape grew further and the most breathtaking, enthralling evergreen flooded all around. Very few things in life are truly jaw dropping moments, but this was one of them. Until this moment, I was unaware that I could become absolutely obsessed with trees. The branches of the pine, imperfect amount of space between each branch while at the same time absolutely perfect. As the day went longer, that evergreen gained a white coat growing heavier and heavier. While the trees became somehow more beautiful, the roads became increasingly treacherous and the windshield increasingly covered by a small layer of ice. Heat as high as it will go, still barely keeping the windshield visible. Slipping and sliding along the winding roads in the countryside of Colorado with only light glistening off the snow from the taillights of the snow plow ahead (that was truly God-sent) and a handful of passing headlights peaking through pure darkness. Then suddenly, I was introduced to Black Hawk, Colorado.

Rocky Mountain National Park. I have no doubt it’s beautiful, but I couldn’t tell you for sure. The plan was to fly in, explore the national park, spend two days in Breckenridge, and end the trip in the city of Denver. As we pulled up to the visitors center at the park, it was SO COLD! Lesson learned: when looking at the weather for the trip, I should have looked at the city AND the other locations. Weather in the mountains is drastically different. Did I bring a winter jacket? You guessed it, nope! So I walked into the visitor center clutching my light sweater, noting the slight flurry that had started. After getting my national parks stamp, I came outside 10 minutes later to a blanket of snow covering the ground. After assessing the situation, my friend and I decided that with the change in weather, we should skip the park and head to Breckenridge, which was about 2.5 hours away per our GPS. Now me, I get stressed easily. Within 20 minutes I was scared, but my friend had a calmness about her that made me feel as ease. I mean, she was calm and she was the one driving, so I should be calm too, right? Fast forward almost 3 hours, we nearly got hung up along the roadside miles away from home, no cell phone service, with a front wheel drive car. Then, a God-sent snow plow miraculously arrived! We kept passing small town after small town, not even a gas station in sight. We decided that anything we came to we would stop, knowing that we had about another hour until we reached our destination at Breckinridge and looking at the terrain, we were pretty certain our car would NOT make it. We prayed, a lot! Then finally, Black Hawk!

Lights and buildings, casinos to be exact. BIG casinos. I had never been so happy to see a town, a building, heat! Immediately, we pulled in and got a room. We ate dinner and played a couple slots at the casino. Long story short, I lost $40 and ended up with some altitude sickness so I didn’t enjoy dinner. I was so disappointed that the day hadn’t gone as planned. If I’m honest, I think I fell asleep crying. When I rolled over and woke around 4 am and looked outside, I was so happy. Yes, it was still snowing. Yes, I wasn’t sure if I would make it to Breckenridge that day, which I desperately wanted because it had been on my bucket list for years. However, I had a front row seat to some of the most UNREAL evergreen I had ever seen. I stared in awe for a while, and then eventually went back to bed and to my surprise, when waking several hours later, the plows had worked effortlessly and had the roads were travel ready. While we loaded the car, we talked to the one of the valet men. I explained how excited I was for Breckinridge and asked him if it was as beautiful as I’d seen in pictures. “You can’t capture Colorado’s beauty in a picture.” That was his response. After seeing and experiencing it for myself, I can with absolute certainty say he was right. But that doesn’t mean I did’t try!