Weekend getaway recommendations

[Thp427]

We will be in Colorado next week. We have a house just outside of Estes Park. Fall in the mountains is awesome. Cool temps, Aspen are golden, and the Elk in rut! If you haven't seen herds of elk with the males battling and the bugling echoing up and down the valleys - check it out!

 

[madguy30]

Yellow River Forest is spectacular this time of year.

If someone's really looking for a wilderness-esque experience in Iowa, I would strongly recommend a fall visit to White Pine Hollow. It's right outside of Luxemburg (between Dubuque and Guttenberg). It's a massive chunk of publicly owned land with very few actual trails. You're basically bushwacking, but once the leaves turn and start to fall, it's easily to keep your bearings. A beautiful stream with it's cliffy canyon flows through it.

You could base a great Driftless Area weekend out of Decorah, McGregor, Dubuque, or Elkader. Just depending on what places you want to check out.

One thing I'd recommend as well for someone looking for uncrowded scenery, is to hike along a designated trout stream. There will be public access, some level of trail, and you'll get into some beautiful spots.

I usually don't see much for trails but if it's cleared enough, if you get a mile or so away from the bridges deep into a valley, it's super peaceful.

 

[madguy30]

We will be in Colorado next week. We have a house just outside of Estes Park. Fall in the mountains is awesome. Cool temps, Aspen are golden, and the Elk in rut! If you haven't seen herds of elk with the males battling and the bugling echoing up and down the valleys - check it out!

Just don't do what several morons have been doing and get up close and personal with a rutting bull.

 

[isufbcurt]

Don’t forget to have Popovers at Jordan Pond Restaurant.

Hope you have a good weather tomorrow! We went for sunset and it rained but we were able to see a bit of sunset. The next day we went for sunrise and it was cloudy - there was 2 seconds when the sky parted and people started screaming “yes” followed by collective groans when the clouds covered the area.

Day 2 - to much fog to see the sunrise until 45 minutes after the sunrise lol, so we did a short hike there instead. Hiked around Jordan lake and hikes Bowl/Gorham Mt/Ocean Path (about 6 miles total), Thunder Bowl was really cool. Had Popovers but i wish I would have had the Popover Sundae. Then went to see the Bass Harbor lighthouse, pretty cool. Ate more Lobster and clams at Thurston's Lobster Pound.

Long but fun day!!

 

[isufbcurt]

Day 3 - Finished my Maine adventure with more lobster, Lobster omlet, so good. Then we hit the road to South Hadley, MA. We ended up stopping at 2 more lighthouses on the way, the Breakwater lighthouse and the Owls Head lighthouse. The Breakwater we had to walk 7/8 of a mile on a break to get to the lighthouse, it was really foggy so it looked like we were walking to break right into the ocean. Owls Head is supposedly haunted so that's cool. The drive was fine until we hit the MA border then it was slow going all the way to South Hadley. We did pass the exit for Methuen, MA so that was cool.

 

[isufbcurt]

Day 4 - Was just touring Mt. Holyoke College where my wife's brother teaches and just hanging out with his family since we hadn't seen them for a while. Then drove to Hartford to fly home. Watched the first half of the fb game in Chicago during our layover and watched the 2nd half via gamecast on espn.com on the plane (ugh). Now back home.