the most epic night of summer

It all started when Aaron and I got some matte and decided to go for a drive. I didnt know wher we were headed because I just told him that I wanted to go somewhere pretty. I didnt know the adventure that I was in for.

We drove I-70 West To Everwood (Evergreen?) Here we exited and stated the 36 mile drive up to Echo Lake. We got there early evening and it was so beautiful. It looked exactly like home in Alaska. The lake was glistening and cool and the trees were a shade of beautiful dark green. There were a few people fishing so we decided to get out and walk around the lake. We stepped out of the car and the temperature was at least 20 degrees colder and my original 85 degreen outfit was not suiting the 65 degrees. But the day was beautiful in itself. We walked through the trees and over roots on a worn dirt path. The sun shone down and it was a perfect moment. We made out way around the lake and back to the car.

We drove a little ways to the lodge and got some food before we started our drive up Mt. Evans. We paid ten dollars for our pass and stated the gentle mountain drive. This is the only fourteener in colorado that you can drive to the top of and is also the highest road in north america. The drive had a lot of trees and until we passed the treeline and then there was just dry green grass mixed with rock. On the way up Aaron killed a ground squirrel. My heart broke and I wanted to cry. There it was just sitting all perky in the middle of the road having a pleasant look around. I saw him and just thought to myself how cute he was. Next thing I know it was smashed and flattened beneath the tires of his enormous ford expedition. RIP ground squirrel.

We stopped when we came to a little pull off about half way up. There was another lake and we saw the perfect big wall off in the distance. We got out of the car and walked to the edge to check it out. It was beautiful. The rock around us just looked to solid and pure. We didnt stay long at this point because a fierce thunder storm was rolling in. The sky grew very dark and before even getting back into the car we saw some huge bolts off behind the big wall and listened to the thunder echo among the alpine walls. We raced back to the car and continued our drive up--just getting closer and closer to the angry clouds.

The bolts looked bigger and the thunder sounded closer. My stomach started to become anxious, nervous, and sick. Partly due to the altitude, and partly due to the storm. The view from the drive was indescribable. We have no pictures because we always seem to forget our camera at the most important times. We made it to the summit and parked. There was a shaggy haired mountain goat that looked like it belonged somewhere foreign in the Himalayas but not in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. There were also a couple stone buildings which looked pretty neat. As we stepped out of the car to get a better look with the storm growing to be right over us, these three old men sitting in the truck next to us rolled down there windows and yelled out, "You should probably get back in your car. We have an electrical engineer in the car and he said that our car antenna is ringing and so that is not a good sign." In my mind all I heard was "you are going to get struck by lightening and die so get back in the car ASAP." So we (and by we I mean I) rushed back into the car and shut and locked the door. We sat there for a while watching the enormous lightening storm that was going on directly in front of us and feeling the thunder shake our car. We moved to another spot for a better view just a little ways up the road. The lightening just seemed to grow bigger and closer. It was hitting the ridge directly across from us at our level. One time after it struck I saw a huge red flash at the contact spot and it was incredible.

The storm started to calm down so we pulled out our backgammon board, which was our original purpose of the "short" drive in the first place. We played a quick game just to say that we have played backgammon at 14,000 feet and then started the drive back down the mountain which was just as beautiful as the way up. I didnt enjoy it as much though mainly because I had to pee so badly. The drive was so amazing. We had the perfect music of new coldplay and some sigur ros. It was seriously in the top 5 best drives of my entire life and one of the most epic night of summer hands down.