Living in the Rockies

Well, its been a very long time since I’ve blogged. I’ve been super busy with life. In a good way, of course. Sonya and I recently moved out to a small town in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. We actually live in the Rocky Mountain National Park. This is Longs Peak, the highest peak in the park. This is what we look at from our front door.
Pretty spectacular isn’t it? It's a little washed out, but hey, you get the idea. It's awesome.

So. What brought us here? Well, one week when I was working late at the shop again, Sonya decided to look for new jobs for me. She happened to stumble onto a posting for a carpenter for the National Park. I figured…what the heck. So I applied and after a very, very long process, I got the job!

Ever since we’ve been here, we’ve been taking advantage of our surroundings. Hiking, taking up photography, slowly-but-surely gathering backpacking gear, and enjoying the natural beauty of the mountains. This place truly is breathtaking.

Here we are at Alberta Falls. One of many waterfalls in the park. We actually had to climb down a little rock face to get to it, which ended up making for some pretty nice pictures. One of the things that we love about these hikes is how rapidly the environment changes. Our hikes, very commonly, start in the hot dry elevations around 7,000ft. then work their way into snow covered trails in the peaks around 11,000ft. Just recently, we ventured into a Tundra region above 12,000ft. At that elevation, you are above the tree growth line. It’s so high, that trees actually can’t survive there. It actually doesn’t even accumulate snow there. The wind is so wicked that it keeps the ground completely bare even through the intense winters.

Impressive.

It definitely does snow here though. One of my current construction projects is building snow doors. They are huge solid wood doors that are about three inches thick that will hold back 14’+ of snow for eight months out of the year. Such a cool job.

Another pretty cool part of the job is being able to drive around some cool toys. This is the military all-terrain forklift that I drive every few days.

Only bad part about the job is having to look like Ranger Rick.

Say what you want about the hat. Without it, my ears would melt off of my head out here.

So yes. We're absolutely loving it out here. The job is pretty cool most days. Just like any job anywhere else, except this one is in the freaking Rockies. Plus, Sonya and I get to hike, backpack, rock climb, and get some pretty amazing pictures on a nearly daily basis. We're happy, we're healthy, and we're having the times of our lives.

How can you go wrong with that?

We've certainly become mountain people and I mean that in the best ways possible.