Yesterday, I made a quick, photo-free post to give the quick rundown on our first day up in the mountains, staying at a small cabin at Avalanche Ranch, a little hot springs resort kind of sort of near Aspen. The drive up was gorgeous, and we were impressed from the minute we got there. The views were stunning, and our little cabin was as quaint as can be. There was even sheep and other livestock just down the hill.
It had a little loft that the kids loved to hang out in.
And few places can pull of a rooster theme, but this place did it pretty well.
We enjoyed some time in the hot springs, despite the fact that the walk back and forth was a bit chilly. But it was well worth it for the invigorating mineral water and amazing views.
We even played some intense fetch with an Australian Shepherd who hangs around the property. He just came right up to me, dropped a stick and gave a calm stare that said, “OK, let’s play. Now.”
As I also noted, the place was totally out of cell phone range, with no TVs or phones. The lodge had some weak WiFi, but for the most part we were cut off from the world, which was actually kind of awesome. We could probably all do with some more of that.
Relaxed, we all knocked out pretty early on Sunday night. Monday morning, we had a nice breakfast in the cabin and then had another lovely soak in the hot springs. After lunch, we went out for our first family snow shoeing expedition. There was a great trail nearby, and we had the whole place to ourselves. It was breathtaking, and pictures can’t really capture it.
We were all pretty tuckered out after that, so we toook some time to relax back at the cabin and then headed to the nearby town of Basalt for a birthday dinner for Erin. It was the eve of her 40th, and we found a really nice place where we were able to reserve an outdoor igloo. Everything was amazing.
After dinner, we headed back to our cabin and called it a day. Indeed, it was a day for the books, and a great way to spend Erin’s last day of her thirties.
