I've been trying to fit in all the little adventures I can. For one, I met up with some much-missed and infrequently-enjoyed family and wandered around Denver for a few hours.

( Adventures With Fish )

Further adventures! Next up I took a good friend of mine down to the cabin. The cabin is located outside of Westcliffe, Colorado in the beautiful Sangre de Cristos, and provides vast amounts of entertainment for those with a taste for the great outdoors (heck, if you're in Colorado and would like to stay there, I can introduce you to the man to talk to).

( Adventures With Snow )

In the interest of a) getting back into shape, which I've let slip in the latter half of this semester, b) enjoying the spring and c) having more adventures, I'm trying to get in a hike every other day, minimum. Prepare for many pictures of the general Fort Collins area, and maybe a trail review or five.

All these little adventures, however, are nothing compared to what I've got coming up, which I will make an announcement about very, very soon. Trust me, it's all sorts of cool.

Ooo, the suspense!

Remember what I said about how taking self-portraits with an autotimer is a fine art? A fine art I've yet to master?

Let it never be said I don't revel in the fun of being an amateur.

So here's a photography game challenge to whoever wants to play: use the autotimer to take a self-portrait in motion. Should you want to try the leaping-onto-something-squishy (bed, boyfriend, etc), go for as much air as you possibly can. If you do not get your body horizontal, it does not count. Post your results or links to said results in the comments.

If you're anything like me, you'll be giggling so hard by the time you hit the matress you have to crawl to the camera to see what you got.

I did it again. Yep. I just couldn't take the thought of sitting around at home on break, and so threw some travel plans together one day and left the next with naught but my backpack and travel journal.

And tent. And sleeping bag. And fins/mask/snorkle. But that's all excusable excess.

So where did I go here in the midst of a Colorado winter? Somewhere warm, of course!

Prickly

( New Mexico, San Diego and Maui )

States visited in ten days or so:

-Colorado
-New Mexico
-Texas
-Arizona
-California
-Hawai'i
-Nevada
-Utah

Quite the trip. Per usual, more pictures can be seen by clicking through the gallery the above pictures all link to.

At this point in the year my various retreats and recharges tend to be far less "sit down and make something" and far more "head for them thar hills!". I have many hypothesis for why I start itching for the great outdoors so much in the fall and winter, but I think the most likely explanation is that I simply spend more time indoors (in class, at the library, avoiding the cold) in chill months, and have to make up for that somehow. I mean, there's so much out there!

I give you, then, some shots of the great outdoors. The first set is from Poudre Canyon, which is close enough that I can drive up for a couple of hours after class and get some wandering in. The other two are from Estes Park (more specifically, Rocky Mountain National Park), which tends to be more of a weekend escape for me.

( Poudre Canyon )

( Estes Park )

That's all for now!

With the hints of fall growing stronger with every moment less the daylight lasts, I decided to take a little break and try to revel in enough beautiful foilage to get myself through the inevitably brown winter. Enter the CSU Flower Gardens.

Of course I brought my camera.

( I went a little shutter-mad. )

Of course, even whilst surrounding myself with the fruits of the summer, even while soaking in the Colorado sun, fall made its insinuations heard.


Season's End