TRAVEL: Colorado is the best place for a staycation
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL
PARK» My friend Darwin Escoto, 50, smiled as he steadied himself with a walking stick we’d found at the trailhead, shuffling his sneakers sideways up a rather treacherous patch of ice.
Having grown up in Nicaragua and having only traveled in the southern United States, Darwin had never seen snow. My other friend, Moisés Gadea, 37, was a bit farther on, and a bit more sure of himself, having lived in Norway the last few years.
Now, from all those faraway places, my friends and I were together again. Hosting Darwin and Moisés was a long-awaited reunion. After only being able to visit them in Nicaragua multiple times over the last 20 years, this was my first chance to show them my home, my family, and today, the Continental Divide.
At about 10,000 feet above sea level in Rocky Mountain National Park, my friends were struggling to breathe, laugh and stay on their feet all at the same time.
We were enjoying ourselves so much that I took a wrong turn, leading us to Nymph Lake, instead of the much flatter, closer and more accessible Bear Lake. However, I hadn’t been there in years, and at one point, I turned to my friends and said, “It’s weird, I remember the trail being shorter than this.”
Bear Lake, I thought, would have been more appropriate for two flatlander Central America boys. But there we were, struggling
and laughing and climbing through the forest. Although the trip to Nymph Lake was only a mile round trip, the challenging conditions gave it the perfect edge for our memory.
(Editor’s note: Some services and roads at the national park are unavailable during the government shutdown.)
Smarter, better-equipped hikers flashed by, Yaktrax on their boots and fancy trekking poles in their hands. My friends and I wore jeans and sneakers, but Darwin and Moisés could care less that I’d gotten us lost — especially when the trail flattened at the little gem of a lake and we caught our breath in the late fall. The water was beginning to
freeze in the late fall and a few squirrels darted around. My mistake had made the day more of a mountain experience than a mere touristy drive-by.
We took our selfies with the lake, and with a trailside snowman, to post for friends back in Managua — the capital of Nicaragua — then made our way down, driving back through the park and landing at Smokin’ Dave’s BBQ and Brew.
“Comida típica de Colorado!” I bragged. Typical Coloradan food. After a multi-meat platter and a pint, we had time for one more stop. On the way out, we pulled into Elkins Distilling for a tour and a taster of Estes Park’s only whiskey producer.
There, we sipped coffee-infused cordials and walked through the echoing facility behind a warm, wood-paneled tasting room and shop. We peered into giant steel vats and stepped through rows of wooden barrels.
Our footing was surer here than it had been on the snowy trail, but the experience was just as rich and I soaked it in — the time with friends that would soon end, the taste of the liqueur, the sweet smell of fermenting mash. We toasted each other one last time, then headed back down the hill.