Diana's Yurt

Heyo!  Our friend Diana lives up in Ridgway, CO where she owns a beautiful hunk of property overlooking the Sneffels Range. For years she's been dreaming about constructing a yurt, and this weekend we finally helped her build it.

View from the front porch.  Not too bad, eh?

We have two yurts at Goblin Valley that I helped get going, but this was waaaay more hands on!  Diana and her boyfriend Jerry build the foundation and porch last fall.  They finished up the subfloor this spring and were ready for the 'grand erection' -- setting up the lattice, roof, and canvas.  The weather wasn't cooperating and we were biting our nails watching a big storm roll in, but we had enough breaks in the rain to get the whole thing up over the course of two days.


  

The yurt was manufactured by the Colorado Yurt Company, who cut all the canvas and wood beforehand.  They also sent up Jared, one of their employees, who was fantastic.  He's set up over 50 yurts already, but also had experience working with construction neophytes like us.  He somehow managed to strike a balanced between being an efficient worker and a patient teacher -- without him we'd probably still be trying to set it up!

The first day we installed the doors, set up the lattice, and erected the center support beam.  The next day, we installed the roof beams and wrapped the canvas.  The whole thing only took about 13 hours all together, and it looks huge and really cozy.  Diana and Jerry still have a lot of finishing work to do, and I can’t wait to see the final product!




Durango

Man, we’re nailing the winter adventures this year!  Usually I’m a huge wimp in the winter, and the weekend adventure momentum wanes as the days get cold and dark.  But not this year!  We’ve had some amazing snow, I bought a warm puffy coat, and we’ve managed to get outside almost every weekend.  Hells yeah!

This week, Jordan had a work meeting in Durango, CO, which luckily butted up again our days off.  We drove out a couple days early for a weekend of trains and cross-country skiing.  We visited Durango last summer and had a great time, but the town is really incredible during the winter.  The mountains are coated with thick, powdery snow, the skies are bluebird clear, and the historic downtown is full of great breweries and restaurants.  I’m sold -- Durango is awesome.

On Saturday we cheesed it up and rode the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gage Railroad.  It’s totally a dorky old-lady tourist trap and I loved it!  The DSNGR was constructed way back in 1882 to haul mine ores, mainly silver and gold, from the San Juan Mountains.  It twists and turns between steeps cliffs along the Animas River from Durango to the tiny mountain town of Silverton.  As the mines played out and the mining towns turned towards tourism, the route became a scenic passenger ride.  It was registered as a National Historic Landmark in the 1960s, and the 1920s locomotives used to pull the trains are still 100% coal-fired and steam-operated.  During the winter, the train runs 26 miles through the San Juan National Forest to the Cascade Canyon Wye.  It was a gorgeous, cheeseball winter wonderland.  We twisted along the icy green Animas River through a steep, snowy, pine-coated canyon.  Pretty, pretty.

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

chugging through the San Juan National Forest

looking dooooown at the Animas River

We made it back to town for an epic dinner of sushi and dumplings at East by Southwest followed by beers at the Durango Brewery.  Sweetbabyjebus, this town has amazing food!  We had bubbly good wood-fired pizza at Fired Up Pizzeria and out-of-control breakfasts at the Durango Diner and Oscar's Cafe.  Seriously, we're talking life-changing hashbrowns with green chillies and cheese.  Green chillies are like the ketchup of Durango -- I need to find a vegetarian recipe, pronto!  So as much as I love Utah's red rocks, the remnant ex-Chicago-dweller in me really misses great food, real beer, and ornery nightlife.  Durango manages to perfectly nail the balance between fun outdoorsy activities and a real vibrant town culture.

beer from the Durango Brewer

On Sunday, we rented cross-country skis at the Ski Barn (great staff and supercheap $15 rentals,) and drove 18 miles north of Durango to Haviland Lake.  Jordan had cross-country skied before, but this was my first time.  After an awkward learning curve ('Why do my skis keep falling off?!!") we hit our stride.  Superfun!  It definitely takes more coordination than snowshoeing, but we could really zoom once we hit groomed trails and the frozen lake.  Well, we thought it was frozen.  We were feeling pretty badass as we glided across the snow-covered ice, until Jordan stopped:  "Wait.  It's getting kind of slushy," and we scooted back to shore.  Crisis averted.

XC skis

On our way back to town, we stopped by Trimble Spa and Natural Hot Springs for a soak.  Trimble has two saunas and naturally heated mineral hot pools.  The water is rich in sulfate and calcium bicarbonate, and comes out of the ground at a toasty 123 degrees Fahrenheit (the pools hover between 104-111 degrees.)  Trimble's large pools aren't as pretty as the small, natural-looking tubs at Orvis, etc., but the water temperature was perfect.  Seriously, is there anything better than soaking in hot water after you've been running around in the cold all day?

Yet again, Durango gets an A++ rating.  It's a great, friendly town with loads of stuff to do in the summer and winter.  We'll be back!

Christmas in the San Juan Mountains

One of the downsides of working at Goblin Valley is that we have to work holidays.  The other ranger and I are pretty good about swapping holiday duty -- I went home for Thanksgiving this year, so he gets Christmas.  It's definitely a bummer not seeing family during the holidays, but Jordan and I managed to sneak away for a couple days for a great consolation prize -- visiting Diana and Jerry in the San Juan Mountains near Ridgway, CO!

12" of new snow = guaranteed white Christmas

I love Christmas in the San Juans.  The mountains are coated in snow and the tiny towns are decked out with lights.  It's definitely a cheeseball-classic winter wonderland.  Jerry and Diana have a house up in Elk Meadows with a killer view of the Sneffels Range and loads of snow for us to play around in.  We didn't wander very far from their place all weekend, but we still managed to squeeze in loads of snowy shenanigans -- sledding, snowshoeing, riding ATVs, and building an igloo. Diana and Jerry are a blast and it was great to spend the holidays with such great friends.

redneck-style sledding!

Jordan and I have been talking about snow camping this winter, so we decided to test our igloo-building skills.  Fueled by copious brandy mixed with hot chocolate, we piled up a huge mound of snow and misted it periodically with a hose.  We let it set for a couple hours, then came back to hollow it out.  It took the better part of an afternoon to finish, but it was surprisingly cozy inside and totally bombproof.  Seriously, spraying it with water made it an ice bunker -- I bet it'll be there until next spring!

On Christmas Eve day, we rode the ATVs up to Top of the Pines to snowshoe.  The Top of the Pines building is still under construction, but eventually it's going to be an outdoor education/recreation/event center.  There were also 8 kilometers of groomed cross country ski and snowshoe trails, which we tooled around on for a couple hours.  Really pretty.

After hoofing around in the snow all day, we drove a couple miles down the road to Orvis Hot Springs for a soak.  Orvis is a natural hot springs resort near Ouray, CO with water that ranges from 98-112 degrees.  It also naturally contains lithium, which makes you feel super relaxed and loopy.  They have a couple big pools, the "lobster pop," a sauna, and two massage yurts.  There's nothing better than soaking in steaming hot water surrounded by falling snow.

That evening, the big storm rolled in!  While a foot of snow fell, we drank wine, belted out Christmas carols around a bonfire, unwrapped presents, and danced around all night.  Yay Christmas!

Diana at Top of the Pines

 

Skiing @ Powderhorn

Oh man, we finally went skiing!  How have I lived in Utah for almost 5 years and never gone downhill skiing?  No excuse.  We finally had decent snow this week, so we drove 40 miles east of Grand Junction, CO for the opening weekend of Powderhorn Mountain Resort!

So much fun!  Honestly, Jordan and I are both terrible skiers (the last time we both went was in high school, where a ski trip to *Iowa* was considered pretty awesome,) so we stuck to the beginner slopes, biffed a lot, and had a great time.  I really like the vibe at Powderhorn.  It's a nice mountain with good snow, but it's not really expensive or pretentious.  Even though we live near some world-class skiing (Park City! Telluride! Aspen!) it definitely doesn't make sense to blow a bunch of cash on those places until we get better.  Powderhorn was a great place to build up our non-existent skills.

We stayed a couple nights in the teeny-tiny town of Mesa, CO at the Wagonwheel Motel, which is only 4 miles from the slopes.  Mesa doesn't have much going on, but the motel was nice (in the elk-head-on-the-wall type way,) and we had some great food at Blink Twice.

On our second day out, we decided to snowshoe way up on the mesa.  We rode the West End lift up to the top, where Snow Patrol told us that no one had done the trail yet.  But the path was well-marked with blue blazes, so we decided to push on towards the Take Four lift anyway.  SWEETBABYJEBUS...  busting new trail through 3 feet of powder at 10,000 feet was one of the toughest things I've ever done (not gonna lie, Jordan led the way 99% of the time.)  But it was totally worth it -- it was gorgeous up there!  Lots of spruce, aspen, blue skies, and pure white snow.  It was totally quiet in that way only a snow-covered forest can be.  Perfect.

 

Map credit: www.powderhorn.com

Ridgway

Ridgway, Colorado is one of my favorite places in the world.  Our friends, Jerry and Diana, have a house there, and during the summer we love to visit them and escape the desert heat.  It's pretty much perfect -- gorgeous mountains, cool temperatures, loads of aspens, and nearby hot springs.  It's always amazing to start driving after work, get there in the dark, and wake up to an unbelievable view of the Sneffels Range.

Sneffels Range

The view from the porch was gorgeous as always, but it was a little disconcerting this time around.  Usually there's a layer of snow coating the uppermost peaks, even in summer.  But now the peaks look totally bare!  Jerry has been in the San Juans for decades, and he's never seen a year with no snow.  Spooky.  This year has been so ridiculously dry.

The next morning we took the quads up to the Uncompahgre National Forest to hike around and have lunch.  We rode through endless aspen groves, then built a little fire.  A storm rolled through, but we all ducked under a patch of trees and munched away.  By now a little rain is sort of a nice novelty!

Uncompahgre National Forest

lunch!

Jordan and I spent the rest of the rainy afternoon at Orvis Hot Springs.  Orvis is a natural hot springs resort near Ouray with water that ranges from 98-112 degrees.  It also naturally contains lithium, which makes you feel super relaxed and loopy.  There's a couple big pools, the "lobster pop," a sauna, and two massage yurts. Ahh ...

We spent Monday at the Ridgway Rodeo, which was a blast.  I haven't been to a rodeo since I was a little kid, and we had a great time downing beers and watching crazy people ride bronchos and bulls.  Seriously, who was the first guy to decide that riding a pissed off bull was a great idea?  It was fun to bask in a bunch of balls-out Labor Day Americana, although I feel like I should eat some granola or tie-dye a shirt to maintain my hippie credentials...

Ridgway Rodeo

Jerry and Diana