My friend J is an avid hiker and is introducing me to local hikes in our area. Recently we went on a hike at Barr Lake State Park a wildlife conservation area, a bird sanctuary; and a premiere bird watching location in the Denver Metropolitan area.

J is training with her granddaughter to do a “14er/Fourteener” which in Colorado is known as climbing/hiking to the top of one of the 14,000 feet above Sea Level (4267.2 meters) mountains in Colorado. (Colorado is famous having the most in the US – 53 mountain peaks 14,000 ft or higher, Alaska comes in second with 29 peaks, California with 12, and Washington State with 2).

So hiking the 9 miles around Barr Lake State Park is a good start to prepare for a 14er.

The highest I’ve been in Colorado (or anywhere else) is 12,000 feet above Sea Level when we visited Rocky Mountain National Park. I can tell you at 12,000 ft I was really feeling the altitude! Luckily I use to live at around 6000 ft above Sea Level and now I live at around 5300 feet so my body has a little bit of altitude acclimation. I think it would take me a while to train for a 14er…

Some photos from our hike:

In the photo above you will see an example of the numerous elevated wooden bridges they have around the park so that you do not disturb the wildlife.

The park also had a bird watching area near the water (many varieties of water fowl visit the lake) with a built in set of binoculars if you did not bring your own!

It was so beautiful and peaceful on our hike with many bird sounds/songs in the background. I want to return there is John and bring a picnic and take him on a hike there!

A couple of videos if you would like to see more about what it is to hike at Barr Lake State Park.

Outside Adventures!, Special Events, tierneytravels

Birthday Colorado Roadtrip Part I: Glenwood Springs

August 1, 2025August 5, 2025 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Continuing the story about how I celebrated my 60th birthday that I began in the post Birthday-ing with Bruno.

After our trip to Las Vegas (see post Birthday-ing with Bruno), the next part of my birthday celebration was a Colorado roadtrip in early June 2025 to Dillon, Glenwood Springs, Leadville and Breckenridge, Colorado.

I love Colorado and I want to get know as much of the state as I can/see as much of it as I can.

On the way to Glenwood Springs: Dillon, Colorado

We started out heading to Dillon, Colorado a small mountain town 10 miles from the Continental Divide; and is located 9,111 feet (2,777 meters) above sea level. In addition to Dillon, we stopped in the neighboring town Silverthorne, Colorado another small mountain town and visited the best Habitat for Humanity Restore (Thrift Store) I’ve ever been to!

Image credit: alignable.com

We spent an hour there wandering around and I found a lovely African basket there which I now use in my studio, along with a bunch of awesome CDs (I’ve rediscovered the CD player stereo component and have taken to listening to entire albums in the living, old school style!).

Glenwood Springs, Colorado

After Dillon and Silverthorne, we headed to Glenwood Springs and stayed at the awesome Hotel Maxwell Anderson.

Image credit: maxwellandersonhotel.com

John and I spent a lovely evening with our cocktails sitting in the room above on one of the sofas chatting about life.

During the day we wandered around Glenwood Springs (famous for it’s Hot Springs, which I refer to as “the community bathtub”*) and had a wonderful lunch at the historic Hotel Colorado which in “1905 became the temporary home for the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt and his assistants during a three-week bear hunting expedition. Already a fan of the state of Colorado, Roosevelt stayed at the Hotel Colorado on multiple occasions” (History of Hotel Colorado).

Here’s some photos from our lunch:

I love this quit when you enter the Hotel Colorado – any place with a quilt displayed when you walk in is okay by me!

Here are some of the “community bathtubs”* (the Hot Springs) that Glenwood Springs is famous for:

I love Glenwood Springs and have visited several times including taking the mind-blowing 6 hour train ride from Denver’s Union Station to Glenwood Springs (see posts Weekend in Glenwood Springs, Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part I, Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part II, Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part III, and Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part IV). It is one of my favorite places in Colorado, so far!

*You might be curious as to why I refer to the Hot Springs in Glenwood Springs as the “community bathtub”. Well the two times I’ve visited them and soaked in them, they were bath water temperature and it was like taking a bath with a hundred other people!

A Stop in Minturn, Colorado

On our way back towards home we stopped in Minturn, Colorado which is near Vail, Colorado the famous resort/ski town, and visited a tiny whiskey tasting room in a little house for the distillery the Minturn Whisky Company.

We had an awesome time sampling the spirits and John bought home a bottle.

From Minturn we continued onto Leadville (the highest incorporated city in North America, sitting at an elevation of 10,152 feet/3094 meters above sea level), crossing another section of the Continental Divide which I’d not been to before and then onto Breckenridge and back home.

I’ll share our adventures in Leadville and Breckenridge in the next post, but to close this post here are a couple photos from our roadtrip when we stopped at various scenic areas for a break from being in the car. Sorry I do not remember where these are located but they were lovely (smile):

Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Breckenridge and the Continental Divide

October 17, 2024October 19, 2024 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well it’s time to start catching you all up on our travels this Summer into Fall. It might justify why there’s been very little “tierneycreating” except for projects that I can take on trips!

It’s going to be in random order as I think of what adventure I want to share when I write the post. So this post I feel like sharing our trip in early August 2024 to Breckenridge, Colorado with a stop at Loveland Pass on the way where we stood on a section of the Continental Divide.

Loveland Pass

The Continental Divide as defined by Wikipedia :

The Continental Divide extends from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellan, and separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain into the Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, including those that drain into the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and Hudson Bay

Here we are at Loveland Pass at 11,990 feet above sea level (yes the air felt a bit thinner up there!)

It was a gorgeous day and we hiked a bit around the Continental Divide area:

We even found some patches of snow in early August!

Breckenridge, Colorado

After a couple hours at Loveland Pass we headed to Breckenridge, Colorado one of the many skiing towns of Colorado (like Vail, Telluride, Keystone, Steamboat, Aspen, etc) for an overnight visit.

Here are some photos from our time in Breckenridge:

I also found some cool old structure that were just screaming to be Black and White photos 😉

A Crafter's Life, Outside Adventures!

First Visit to Denver Botanic Gardens

September 24, 2024September 6, 2025 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Oh my, it’s already Fall/Autumn! I meant to write this post while it was still summer but I am not sure where the summer went as it seemed to fly by!

In early August I visited Denver Botanic Gardens for the first time.

Of course I took a ridiculous number of photos and I thought I share a few (giggle) in this post, to provide you a little bit of full summer bloom floral color added to your day!

I think we spent many hours there, I lost track of time. It was an overcast day but that did not detract from the beauty of the gardens.

They had wonderful structures and sculptures throughout the Botanic Gardens including these whimsical/fantastical animal structures:

They had an amazing Dale Chihuly glass structure in a beautiful pond:

Throughout the Botanic Gardens they had structures for pollinators, which are very important to gardens!

They have a large number of lily ponds, well at least for a non tropical climate. My friend L told me most of the water lilies are in pots sitting on the bottom of the pond so they can pull they inside during the cold weather.

I love the reflections on the water in the water lily ponds. In the image below you can see the overcast sky reflected on the water:

The Botanic Gardens has a breathtaking waterfall display with mist rising around it:

And to close out this post here is a tiny sampling the amazing and beautiful flowers and foliage at Denver Botanic Gardens – enjoy :-). (Visiting made me want to run home and plant flowers throughout my entire yard!)

Nature is pretty magical!

Life in B&W, Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Cripple Creek Road Trip, Part I

July 8, 2024July 8, 2024 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well I’ve been on more summer adventures than spending time crafting, so it’s another post about my travels.

Last weekend we did a road trip to Cripple Creek, Colorado. Out of the blue we received an invitation for a free hotel room, $75 dining credit, and $75 free slot play at the new Chamonix Hotel and Casino in Cripple Creek. So we took advantage of a free-ish weekend getaway and an excuse for me to see another part of Colorado I had not yet visited.

Chamonix Hotel & Casino, image from Casino Careers website

Cripple Creek is one of the historic Colorado mining towns that were granted gaming/casino building licenses to try and revive/save the old mining towns. The other mining towns in Colorado granted this special license are Central City and Black Hawk, Colorado where John goes to play poker tournaments. Gambling is only legal in these three towns in Colorado, except for two Native American run casinos in the Four Corners area of Colorado.

The Roadtrip

Driving from our home to Cripple Creek we passed by some beautiful and interesting sights, some of which we had to pull the car over to see better.

Of course I had to sneak in some Black & White photography…

We came across and old abandoned under the mountain passage that we think was once used for gold mining since we were in historic gold mining country:

Cripple Creek

When we arrived in Cripple Creek, Colorado Donkey Derby Days was going on.

According the the Visit Cripple Creek website:

“People from all over the world descend on downtown to be inspired by the town’s resident donkey herd, who roam Cripple Creek in honor of the original Cripple Creek donkeys from the town’s Gold Rush days.“

They had lots of booths/vendors set up as well as donkey exhibits and we had fun wandering about. They also had a beer garden and food court with an United States Air Force cover band playing (they were really good!) playing good blues, rock and country music in their military uniforms.

After wandering the festival for a while and then checking into the hotel, we ate a nice buffet dinner at the casino with an amazing desert bar:

We tried not to be too naughty at the desert bar, agreeing to only one trip each to that magical section of the buffet!

Okay that’s enough for today and tomorrow I will share Part II with our adventures during our first underground gold mine tour 🙂

Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

All Aboard the Georgetown Loop

October 14, 2023October 15, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

At the end of September, John and I went on a road trip to Idaho Springs, CO and Georgetown, CO. We had lunch in Idaho Springs and then headed to Georgetown so I could experience the Georgetown Loop Railroad.

I love trains and I am especially fond of old locomotives!

The day started with an hour road trip to Idaho Springs and a road trip is a great excuse to stop for snacks at a roadside convenience shop in the mountains:

Those were poor nutritional choices but they were delicious!

Snacks in hand, I enjoyed the mountainous scenery and tunnels along the way:

We had lunch in the darling town of Idaho Springs at BeauJo’s Pizza known for it’s “Mountain Pie” a pizza with a tall/large crust with accompanying honey to dip it in.

After that tasty experience, we wandered around downtown Idaho Springs, a former mining town, window shopping and stopping at one of my favorite charity thrift shops that I always visit when I am in the area.

And there was a 50% off sale, but I was good as I didn’t really need anything, I just like to browse!

Georgetown isn’t far from Idaho Springs, so a short drive and we were there:

From the parking lot you can see the train:

Waiting at the station for it to arrive:

We sat right behind the locomotive engine so we had a great view. Here are photos from the train ride:

We stopped at another station for a gift shop and bathroom break and I realized just how high above sea level were were!

My favorite part of the train ride was listing to this – so awesome!

And here is video I found on YouTube by a self proclaimed “train nerd” that provides a nice overview of the experience with history (we didn’t do the optional mine tour this time):

Beastie Adventures, Guest Blogger, Outside Adventures!

Guest Blogger Post: Ball with the “Mikes”

October 12, 2023October 12, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Hello! This is the tierneycreates Beastie guest blog posting (if you are new to this blog, my story is on this post – I’m A Monster!!! and you can see all my posts at this link: Beastie Adventures).

As October 2023 is Tierney’s 10th blog-anniversary month, I thought I’d better make an appearance with one of my fabulous guest posts (Beasties are full of ourselves, it is our nature).

Before I talk about the title/subject of this blog post, I should show you my latest accommodations in Tierney’s studio – I now have my own little apartment now in a wooden box John made:

It’s very cozy and filled with my favorite items.

Oh and you might notice a red ball next to my dog Mikelet (named after Tierney’s dog Mike) – like Tierney’s dog Mike, my dog Mikelet loves his ball!

Today I took him to the backyard to play ball:

And big Mike joined us, asking me to also throw his ball (which was too big for me to maneuver):

Mike was disappointed but he did agree to pose for a photo with Mikelet:

The two “Mikes” with their balls!

(Oh Tierney asked me to tell you all that big Mike is out of his cone/scoop and his boo-boo healed!)

A Crafter's Life, Life in B&W, Outside Adventures!

Daily Walks – Neighborhood vs. Nature

October 11, 2023October 13, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I mentioned in my October 6th post The House That Won Halloween, I am so happy that I can return to my daily walks and walk the distances I used to walk before my awful left ankle break in January.

I go either for a long walk through the surrounding neighborhoods, like the one I did when I discovered the extensive Halloween decorations I shared in the post The House That Won Halloween; or I go on a “Nature Walk” on the extensive trails behind the neighborhoods in the area I live.

The “Nature Walk” is a much longer walk and it is quite the different experience than walking through neighborhoods. Most of the time it is just me on the trail and all I hear is the rustling of leaves, birds, insects chirping, or the rustle of an occasional rabbit or squirrel rummaging around the foliage.

The deciduous trees are now changing color on my “nature walk” and I took some recent photos:

I really like this photo I recently took on my “nature walk”, it came out very “stylized” but I did nothing but snap the photo:

There are also lovely evergreen trees on my “nature walk”, here are is of one I edited with some filter I randomly discovered on my iPhone:

And finally, you know I couldn’t pass on an opportunity for some Black & White photography on my walk:

I do enjoy the “neighborhood walk” (faster) but it pales in comparison to the beauty and peace of the “nature walk” (longer). I appreciate having both options!

A Crafter's Life, Outside Adventures!

The Night Bazaar, the Canyon, and the Ramen

July 5, 2023July 5, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Recently my sister and my nephew visited us in Colorado for 4 days. Here are some highlights of their trip which included a visit to the Night Bazaar in downtown Denver, hiking at Castlewood Canyon, and making homemade Ramen.

THE NIGHT BAZAAR

I liked calling it “The Night Market” (it sounded more mysterious) and we stumbled upon it when visiting downtown Denver one evening.

My nephew, who likes trying out eateries he hears about on viral Tik Tok videos, asked if we could visit Dave’s Hot Chicken (which they do not have available in Virginia where they live). It is a “fast food” type of eatery but one of the founders trained at Thomas Keller’s French Laundry (one of the world’s most famous three-Michelin star restaurants) and it shows in what I would consider a masterpiece of “fast food” eatery chicken.

So we ventured to downtown Denver where one of the Dave’s Hot Chicken locations was located and across from that eatery was the Night Bazaar. After our visit to Dave’s we headed over to the Night Bazaar.

We had so much fun wandering through the vendor booths as the sun was setting. Mike the Miniature Schnauzer was in the backpack and got to enjoy some sightseeing in downtown Denver:

John was continually stopped as we wandered through the market and then the Platte River Plaza bridge area with questions about Mike in a backpack. In the photo above he is chatting with a large group of people who want to know how Mike ended up in a backpack (the other dogs were being walked on leash through the market).

My sister and nephew found this cool sidewalk art with very wise words and took this cool photo:

THE CANYON

My nephew loves Colorado and wanted to go on a hike while he was visiting. We decided to take him to Castlewood Canyon which is not too far from our home and has lots of hiking options based on desired activity level. Here are a couple photos from our hike:

I’ve learned to wear a hat (I am the sister in the hat) when it’s hot and you are hiking – it helps in the Colorado sun!

At the Visitor Center, where I stopped to use the bathroom, I met a Park Ranger that had a rescued Bull Snake wrapped around her waist. The snake was recovering from an illness and she was “babysitting” it by keeping it on her all day at work!

Now that is dedication to the park’s wildlife!

If you’d like to see more photos of Castlewood Canyon check out this post I did in April 2020 – And on the 8th Day…Part III.

THE RAMEN

John’s loves to cook and always wants to challenge himself and experiment with making foods outside his comfort zone. A couple weeks ago, after much YouTube watching, he began making Ramen soup at home. He was using pre-packaged air-dried noodles (much higher quality than the instant ramen you eat in college) along with his fresh ingredients.

Well he wanted to take it to the next level and learn how to make his own Ramen noodles from scratch. My visiting nephew also loves to cook and was game to do a “Ramen Night” one evening for dinner and make Ramen with handmade noodles.

It took them two evenings to complete the dish – you have to let the ramen noodles sit for a day before you can use them. You also have to let the prepared chicken thighs for the ramen sit overnight before cooking the chicken so it will have a nice crust on the skin.

After all their hard work, they served us Ramen for dinner on Sunday night:

Their Miso based broth was amazing and I thought I was at an authentic ramen eatery!

So those are some highlights from their visit.

I’ll close this post with a couple bonus photos from their visit:

1) My sister brought a kimono for me as a belated birthday gift. She has connected with a woman with in Thailand that makes these kimonos with fabric sourced from Japan. She plans to import some of the kimonos to sell in the US. Here I am modeling the kimono she gifted me:

2) My sister and nephew adore my dog Mike, they are dog people…and cat people (they have two cats and two dogs) and Mike went on a lot of road trips with us. Here is Mike acting as a granny square crochet square rest as I crocheted sitting in the back seat of the car with my sister during their visit:

(I work on crocheting granny squares when I am a passenger in a car for a long car ride…keeps my passenger-in-a-car anxiety under control!)

3) My nephew and John played tennis at the tennis courts in my neighborhood and had a blast.

John didn’t do too bad playing someone like 1/3rd his age. (Both had played on tennis teams in junior high school but there was quite the difference of years since those experiences!)

A Crafter's Life, Life in B&W, Outside Adventures!

Truly Alive

September 19, 2022September 20, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

My next post was going to be Part II of this post Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West show opening weekend, Part I.

But then I went to the Garden of the Gods, the national natural landmark in Colorado Springs, CO (my 4th visit) this weekend while my brother and his family were visiting.

And I stood here for a while gazing at the 300+ million year old rock formations across the grassland and got very reflective…

Then I stood here for a while and got even more reflective:

I starting thinking about an Instagram post I did a couple months ago and how I feel “truly alive” in Colorado.

Here is what I wrote on Instagram:

My third anniversary of living in Colorado came and went without any fanfare but I’ve been thinking about it today.

I arrived in Colorado from Bend, Oregon (a truly magical place to live that I would’ve lived the rest of my life if life changing disaster had not struck) around April 20, 2019 to start a new life after being surprisingly widowed in 2018. Little did I know what glorious adventure awaited me in Colorado, the next chapter of my life.

I have this framed advertisement in the wall of my sewing studio. Two months after my husband suddenly died and I was sitting in my Oregon home strongly doubting my decision to move to Colorado, and I randomly opened a magazine and this ad was the page that opened! OK universe I hear you…

I am the adventure that will replay in your mind. The story you’ll tell for years and years. The invincibility you feel, if only for a moment. One beautiful, breathtaking moment. I am Colorado. And I’ll show you what it’s like to be truly alive.
Colorado.com

Whoever wrote the copy for that Colorado visitor guide advertisement I’d like to give a huge hug to.

“Truly Alive”, that is what I felt when I was wandering around the Garden of the Gods on Saturday.

I spent time with the group wandering around; and at the picnic we had on one of the over 300 million year old elevated rock formations. Here are photos of my brother and I hanging out as well as a haphazardly snapped photo of our picnic among the ancient rocks (while I was trying to balance food on my knee and take a photo):

I also spent a bit of time alone, allowing the group to wander off on their own. Here is a video I took as I looked upon a scene (which I’ve seen 3 times before) that took my breath away:

Here are a couple more select photos from the day but nothing compares to being there in person. It was a gloriously beautiful day in a spiritual sort of place.

And of course, here are some photos in Black & White:

…I am Colorado. And I’ll show you what it’s like to be truly alive.

Thank you Colorado. (And thank you to me for being brave enough to move here for the next chapter of my life adventure).

Postscript

If you’d like to see much higher quality video footage of the Garden of the Gods, here is a video I found on YouTube that I think captures some of the beauty I saw on Saturday:

Life in B&W, Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Seven Falls in B&W

April 14, 2022January 15, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is just a quick follow up to Mike the Miniature Schnauzer’s guest blog post: Guest Blog Post: How to Completely Terrify Your Miniature Schnauzer.

What he didn’t share was that I took several cool (well I think they are cool) photos in B&W while we were on hike, as did my partner John. I thought I would share some of my favorites from this amazing hike (despite what Mike says in his post linked above!):

I guess the park had this sign to really discourage you from going off the trail:

I ALWAYS want to protect the privacy of snakes!

Guest Blogger, Miniature Schnauzer Adventures, Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Guest Blog Post: How to Completely Terrify Your Miniature Schnauzer

April 6, 2022January 15, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well it’s time for one of her guest bloggers to step in, as Tierney has disappeared from the blogging world for some time now due to “Hooman Life Distractions“.

I recently learned us dogs are supposed to refer to our Humans as “Hoomans” courtesy of looking at too many dog postings on Instagram. I guess they feel dogs are not very literate? Nah, I am going to keep called them “Humans”, as you can see I am literate enough to write guest blog posts.

In case you have not guessed it, this is Mike the Miniature Schnauzer here to fill in for Tierney and do a blog post.

Here to fill in (though it takes away from my nap time)

If you are new to this blog, I fill in from time to time and here are a couple samplings of my previous posts:

Guest Blogger: What Happens at Dog Camp, Stays at Dog Camp

Guest Blogger: Happy in My Box

Guest Blogger: Obsession with Making Crocheted Dishcloths

Once you recover your awe from the brilliant writing by a 12 year old Miniature Schnauzer in the links above, you can continue on with this post.

I am not sure if my Humans Tierney and her partner John will like this post, because I am going to tell you of how they attempted to COMPLETELY TERRIFY me by taking me on a day trip to Seven Falls in Colorado Springs, Colorado and making a death-defying vertical climb up the scariest stairs I’ve ever seen, with me in a backpack!

Here we are at Seven Falls before the terror started:

When I thought it was just a fun day out with the Humans…

Seven Falls, according to the Broadmoor’s website (yes Miniature Schnauzers are capable of online research, duh) Colorado Springs Seven Falls, is Colorado’s most majestic waterfall.

The only waterfall in the state on National Geographic’s list of International Waterfalls, and often called “The Grandest Mile of Scenery in Colorado,” Seven Falls is situated in a 1,250-foot-wall box canyon between the towering Pillars of Hercules. Take in stunning valleys, striking rock formations and golden prairies as you climb the challenging 224 steps to the hiking trails and the banks of glistening streams that feed the falls, and its 181-foot drop of falling water.

Did you notice the phrase in the quote above: “as you climb the challenging 224 steps…”? To me it seemed like they were climbing 224,000 steps to get to the top as I was looking our the backpack on the back of John’s back.

Here is the photo my Human Tierney took (she caught the photo during a moment that I had turned my head to take a break from the terror I was looking at below):

Why are they making me endure this? I was perfectly happy looking at the scenery from ground level

Oh! My Human Tierney just walked in while I am working on this post, and is now insisting that I share more photos from this day trip to show the climb was worth it.

My guest blog post writing is being interrupted by an irritating Human

Although I don’t agree, here are a bunch of random photos from our day trip to Seven Falls. Just know the photos I like the best are the one’s taken on the ground before the crazy climb, even if the Humans think the climb was worth it!

All I see when I look at these photos are rocks, rocks and more rocks. But the Humans seem to enjoy the scenery in Colorado.

Here is the scenery I really enjoyed: after we climbed back down the 224 steps (and the Humans’ legs were like jello), we found a nice place to have a picnic before heading home:

Now we are talking about beautiful scenery!

And here I am trying to convince the Humans that I’ve earned a sampling of their food:

So that’s the end of my story, here I am putting the finishing touches on this guest blog post:

I know I can edit this post better than my Human Tierney does her posts…

You will hear from my Human Tierney again after she catches up reading her blogging buddies posts (and she’s let them go too long without reading). Hope she gets her act together!

Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part IV

July 27, 2021June 22, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I am sitting in the Philadelphia airport and I figure this is a great time to complete this series of posts about the trip my visiting sister and I took in June 2021 from Denver to Glenwood Springs, Colorado via Amtrak train.

See these posts for Parts I – III if you are just joining us:

Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part I

Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part II

Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part III

After an amazing weekend, it was time to take the train back to Denver.

This time we decided to sit on the opposite side of the train (right instead of left) that we did going to Glenwood Springs to try and get different views. Now you could argue we sat on the same side of the train on the way back as we did the way there, as we were on the left side going there and the right side going back…but I think you know what I mean…

Oh and I forgot to mention in the post Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part II, we did have to wear a mask the entire time on the train.

So here are some of my favorite photos (we both took a ridiculous amount of photos out the train window) on the train ride back to Denver which include the sunset (we traveled to Glenwood Springs on a morning train; the return train is an afternoon train ride):

And of course the photos do not do justice to the actual beauty of the scenery but it was the best we could do looking out a UV protected film window on the train!

It was pretty late when we got into Denver as the train got delayed on the ride home.

The next day we laid low, relaxed around the house and played with Mike the Miniature Schnauzer. I will close this post (and this series of posts on our adventure) with some darling photos we took of my sister and Mike.

Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part III

July 25, 2021June 22, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I am visiting my brother and his family on the Eastern Coast of the U.S. right now and spent yesterday in New York City, but that is subject material for a future blog post (it seems like instead of “tierneycreates”, lately I am “tierneytravels”). For now I will continue my series of posts about the adventure I had with my sister in June 2021 traveling to Glenwood Spring, Colorado via Amtrak train.

If you are just joining us, here are Parts I and II (there will be a total of 4 parts when this series is complete):

Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part I

Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part II

In Glenwood Springs

Arriving in Glenwood Springs via train, we first took in the beautiful scenery around the train station:

After checking into the Bed and Breakfast we were staying at, The Floradora House, we headed out to explore the downtown area and visit the brewery that I enjoyed on my first visit to Glenwood Springs – Casey’s Brewing.

Here we are hanging out at Casey’s Brewing:

Yes, look it is another selfie where I am not looking at the camera – ha!

Downtown Glenwood Springs is lovely and we had fun wandering about the shops and restaurants.

Glenwood Springs has two historic hotels: The Hotel Denver and The Hotel Colorado. They are on opposite sides of the bridge connecting one section of Glenwood Springs to the other.

Bridge over review connecting sections of Glenwood Springs

Our Bed & Breakfast accommodations were within walking distance of downtown and here is the wonderful room we shared:

Even better than the beautiful room was the fun we had at the included breakfast each morning, visiting with other guests visiting from around the U.S. and Canada. Here is the wonderful main floor guest dining area and a sampling of the breakfasts.

We had two mornings of incredible conversations as we chatted with different guests each morning. We even met someone who had grown up in New York like we did.

Our second day in town we headed to the Glenwood Springs Hot Springs (what they are famous for – natural mineral hot springs), which in my post Weekend in Glenwood Springs (my first visit to Glenwood Springs with my partner John), I referred to as “taking a bath with a hundred or so other people”.

We spent the morning there and then returned in the evening (you buy a day pass). Here is my sister enjoying some “community bathing”!

It is pretty warm in the hot springs mineral pools and you can only stay in 5 – 15 minutes before you have to get out or just sit on the side of the pool and take a break, otherwise (as I discovered) you get pretty dizzy!

Our third day in town we went on a little adventure and walked a couple miles to the closest thrift shop (my sister loves “thrifting” like I do, actually she was the one who got me into it):

On our trek to the thrift shop we saw some people paragliding off one of the many hills in Glenwood Springs:

After thrifting we stopped at a delicious donut shop, Sweet Coloradough for a treat and relaxed on their patio with our sugary delights:

We had several yummy meals while in town. Here I am at one of the delicious restaurants after a relaxing session at the hot springs:

We wished we had one more day planned in Glenwood Springs, but before we knew it, it was time to head home.

The final post in this series will be photos from our train ride home, which had different views than the trip to Glenwood Springs (time of day was different and we sat on the opposite site on the way home).

Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part II

July 21, 2021June 22, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Okay continuing the story I started on July 17, 2021 about my sister’s visit and our train ride to Glenwood Springs, Colorado in June 2021 – Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part I.

Waiting for the Train

Our trip started early in the morning at Denver’s Union Station. Union Station is the prettiest train station I’ve ever been in (including several I’ve been at in Europe):

Here are several of my images as we waited for the train in lovely surroundings:

And if you’d like to see some images I took in the “Silvertone” setting on my camera:

Our train was arriving in the station around 8:00 am but we got there an hour early and had coffee/tea and pastries while lounging on one of the comfortable sofas in the station.

The station is so beautiful you’d want to just grab your laptop and go work on a blog post with a cup of tea or coffee, even if you were not catching a train!

Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, Colorado

6 hours sounds like a long time to be on a train, but not if you get to spend the time having delicious snacks, catching up with your sister, and seeing amazing scenery as we traveled this route:

Driving to Glenwood Springs is a 4 hour trip but I think the additional 2+ hours (the train ride was over 6+ hours due to having to slow down while going over the Continental Divide) is worth it because you are not driving I-70 at steep inclines as you climb up the mountains (not only steep inclines and sharp curves but also some crazy drivers who all seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere…).

From the article Prepare to be Blown Away on the Best Train Ride in Colorado:

After departing Denver’s Union Station westbound, the train begins the section of railway that made the Zephyr famous—a 300-mile journey over the Colorado Rocky Mountains, along the Colorado River and through Glenwood Canyon. Because roadways take a different route, much of the landscape through which the train travels is viewable only to rail passengers.

As the train leaves the Eastern Slope behind, it travels through 31 tunnels before entering the 6.2-mile Moffat Tunnel and crosses the Continental Divide. Passengers are plunged into darkness for nearly 10 minutes before emerging back into daylight at the west portal, near Winter Park Ski Area.

The route continues on the Western Slope of Colorado through remote Fraser Canyon, Granby—the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park and rugged Gore Canyon. The final 12.5 miles through Glenwood Canyon are among the most spectacular, with unimpeded views of the headwaters of the mighty Colorado River, the historic Shoshone Hydroelectric Plant, the Glenwood Canyon Recreation Path, and of course, the soaring 1,300-foot cliffs.

The seats in coach were very comfortable and were modified recliners with leg lifts so you could put your feet up. Here we are enjoying one of the many snacks we packed for the train ride in our cooler:

Relaxing train ride, visiting with sister, snacks and a magazine = happiness

Now comes the difficult part of writing this post: deciding which of the zillion photos we took during the train ride to Glenwood Springs to share with you, without blowing out my blog’s media allotment (and I have an upgraded WordPress plan!). Every time we thought we’d seen the most amazing sight out of our train window another amazing sight appeared! And as you can guess, the pictures do not do justice to what it was like to actually be looking out the window.

So I will use the rest of this post to share those images I selected. For the most part the images are in the order that we saw them on the train ride. You will see at times we are traveling along the Colorado River. Oh and one of the photos is of the observation car which has large windows/glass dome – passengers can take turns sitting in the car to get a more 360 degree view.

And here are a couple short video clips I uploaded to YouTube to provide more visuals (the first one was a “jaw-dropping” experience):

Part III of this series of posts will talk about our time in Glenwood Spring, CO.

Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Train Ride to Glenwood Springs, CO and More – Part I

July 17, 2021June 22, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

In early May 2021 I went on a road trip to see Glenwood Springs, CO for the first time (see post Weekend in Glenwood Springs). I love it so much that I decided it was the perfect trip to take my sister on when she visited in mid June. But this time instead of driving there, we took the Amtrak train!

Before the Train Ride

Before heading out on our 6 hour train ride from downtown Denver’s Amtrak station (Union Station) to Glenwood Springs, the day before our train trip I took my sister to the South Pearl District/South Pearl Street of Denver to wander about and then go thrift shopping.

Above is another terrible attempt at a selfie (I am the “World’s Worst Selfie Taker”) and I am not sure why I am staring off in the wrong direction, ha!

We wandered to various little shops boutiques and had lunch at a very delicious restaurant (where I took our selfie).

After the South Pearl Street wander about and lunch, we went to the huge Goodwill downtown (my sister loves thrift/charity shops also) and we had a wonderful browse there as well as several other thrift shops we stopped at on the way back to my house.

My sister toted about the new Wonder Woman tote bag I had made her (which I first shared in the post Okay so here is a tote bag (or two)…), during our shopping adventure:

In the next post I will continue with further stories of our adventures during our trip, starting with the train ride to Glenwood Springs, which was breathtaking in its scenery!

Trying to catch up on blog posts, I’ve realized that it might be easier for busy readers if my posts are a little shorter; and it is less work for me to get a post out there 🙂

Independent bookstores, Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Weekend in Glenwood Springs

June 6, 2021January 30, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I’ve lived in Colorado for a little over 2 years now (moved here in April 2019) and the geologic beauty of this state never ceases to amaze.

A couple of weeks ago, between installments of out of town visitors (3 sets so far and more coming!), we visited Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

Glenwood Springs is famous for its natural mineral hot springs and this was the primary reason we visited – so I could experience a mineral hot springs for the first time, as well as see the beauty of this region.

The drive was gorgeous, especially when we got to Glenwood Canyon which is before you get to Glenwood Springs. We stopped at a park/rest stop in Glenwood Canyon along the river and wow:

I did not want to leave the park/rest stop area, just wanted to pitch a tent by the water and relax!

Here is a little video I took that I uploaded to YouTube (unfortunately I did not think to film it landscape):

Once we got into Glenwood Springs, we checked into the Hotel Colorado which is one of Colorado’s historic hotels (there is another historic hotel nearby, The Hotel Denver, and these are the famous hotels in Glenwood Springs).

I appreciated that there was a framed quilt inside the hotel!

There was a bridge from the Hotel Colorado side of the town to the shopping/downtown area, which provided a nice view of the area:

Do you see the train tracks in the image above? Well keeps those in mind for what I will mention at the end of this post.

Once we got into downtown, we wandered about – there are lots of shops, eateries and pubs. We stopped at a wonderful brewery tasting room and had pierogis for lunch from the food truck across the street.

After lunch we browed a used bookstore which also had a quilt:

We also visited the famous Glenwood Springs Hot Springs at the Glenwood Hot Springs Resort, and it was an interesting experience.

The hot springs mineral water felt great but it was like taking a bath with a hundred or so other people! We all had our bathing suits on but it still felt a little strange with all those people surrounding us while we soaked in the hot springs!

It was a very fun weekend and I appreciate all the post vaccine travel we are able to do now.

Okay, so I asked you to remember the image earlier in this post with the train tracks. Well in the near future I will be riding on those train tracks! My sister is coming to visit and I am taking her to Glenwood Springs for the weekend via the Amtrak train from Denver to Glenwood Springs.

I am hoping it is as scenic as it looked when we drove to Glenwood Springs and saw the train tracks along the way.

I haven’t traveled by Amtrak train in many years and I am pretty excited about the 5+ hour train ride from Union Station in downtown Denver to Glenwood Springs. My sister and plan to bring a picnic to eat on the train, relax, read and of course catch up.

I did find this article online titled: Prepare to be Blown Away on the Best Train Ride in Colorado! That’s a good sign!

Life in B&W, Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Garden of the Gods in Black and White

May 8, 2021June 22, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is sort of part 2 of the May 6th post Out of town guests? Put them to work!. We didn’t just make our friends visiting from Oregon work on home remodeling projects, we did actually take them sightseeing.

The weather was cold and a bit snowy during their visit but they really wanted to see the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, Colorado. According to Wikipedia, The Garden of the Gods is comprised of “red rock formations were created during a geological upheaval along a natural fault line millions of years ago”.

This was my second time there and very different from my first visit in August 2019 when we took my visiting sister and nephew there (see post And on the 8th Day…Part I). It was much sunnier and much warmer in August.

In honor of the difference between the warm August and cold/snowy early April visit, I took photos in Black & White instead of color.

Here is a photo journal of the day – enjoy (or cringe at my attempt to be a B&W photographer, ha!):

And yes, Mike the Miniature Schnauzer joined us in the backpack.

Outside Adventures!, What's on the Design Wall

The Mountains on the Wall

September 29, 2020November 15, 2023 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I spend a lot of time in my home office. I work four 10 hour days Monday to Thursday each week. I try to keep the walls of my home office visually appealing since occasionally during boring conference calls I might need to stare at them (smile).

Have you ever played “Conference Call Bingo”? My friend Cody turned me on to it.

I love mountains, that is one of the reasons I chose the part of Colorado (the Front Range Urban Corridor of the Rocky Mountains) I moved to in 2019 (see series of posts Colorado Bound) – it has lots of visible mountains!

I’ve enjoyed some amazing hikes in Colorado (see series of posts Outside Adventures! – the posts on my mountain hikes) and being near any sort of geologic rock formation is one of my favorite things in the world.

I love Mountains. One of my favorite memories while living in the Seattle area was a visit on my birthday to Mount Rainer/Mount Rainer National Park (which I beloved nicknamed “baby mountain” because it was my most dearly beloved mountain of the Cascade Mountain range).

So last year while visiting my Washington state based quilting friends, I picked up a mountain scene themed panel to make a future wall hanging.

Finally, over a year later, I finished this wall hanging. See photos below.

The panel is by one of my favorite fabric lines – Stonehenge by Northcott Fabrics. In a perfect (and frivolous) world I would own the entire fabric line!

I made a simple quilted wallhanging by adding in a thin and then larger border with some coordinating fabrics from the Stonehenge line, and used the outside border fabric to bind it.

Then I hung it on my home office wall (which is also the upstairs guest room):

Someday I need to make a queen-sized bed quilt for the upstairs guest room bed!

In case you’ve been following my blog for a while and you have a very detailed memory (filled with lots of random things you remember), you will notice my home office wall color has changed. It used to be green, as shown in this post from April 2020 – Home Office Tips and Tour.

We decided to paint it the same color as the rest of the house instead of the random green color it had on its walls. It was one of those projects we did during my guest blogger’s (Mike the Miniature Schnauzer) discussion of endless pandemic home remodeling projects in his post Guest Blog Post: A Whole Lot of Remodeling Going On.

In addition to the mountain quilt wallhanging, I also have B&W photos from hikes around Colorado as well as some other B&W photos I love.

The B&W photograph on the right in the second image is by Kirk Fry Photography , a local Colorado artist.

And here is the desk where I endure conference calls from all day – ha!

It helped to have quilts to look at when the conference calls get mind numbing…

I also now have a built in shelved closet in my home office but I will talk more about that in a future post about another remodel of my studio (if you are on Instagram, there are some images on my IG page @tierneycreates).

Outside Adventures!

Good Morning

August 6, 2020 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

It’s late on my side of the pond but I was in the mood for a quick blog post.

I thought I would send you all a “Good Morning” with a couple photos, whether it is morning on your side of the pond now or it might be morning by the time you read this post.

The other day my partner John, on his early morning bike ride, took these lovely photos as he stopped to watch the sunrise on the reservoir near our home.

I so enjoy seeing beautiful nature/landscape photos on the blogs I follow and I wanted to share a couple with you!

Have a wonderful day 🙂

I hope you realize that every day is a fresh start for you. That every sunrise is a new chapter in your life waiting to be written. – Juansen Dizon

Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Rocky Mountain National Park

July 21, 2020June 22, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well while we are waiting for Wendy’s next installment in her guest blog series (see previous post Quarantine Quilt Project: Life in the Time of Coronavirus, Part I (Guest Blog Post)), I guess I could start to catch you up on my adventures.

First Visit to Rocky Mountain National Park

A couple of weeks ago my partner John took me to Rocky Mountain National Park for the first time. We had to make a reservation to visit the national park (new thing in the time of the pandemic). In April 2020 I did a series of posts on the beauty of Colorado seen in several hiking adventures (And on the 8th Day…Part I, And on the 8th Day…Part II, and And on the 8th Day…Part III) and our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park could easily fit into that series of posts. I moved to Colorado in April 2019 and the mountainous beauty continues to blow me away!

We did a mixture of hiking and driving through the national park, We got up to 12,000+ feet above sea level (3657.6+ MSL). Good thing I already live at 6000 feet above sea level (1828.8 MSL) and I was able to acclimate to the altitude.

On our way to 12,000+ feet, we stopped along the way:

Near the top of the drive from the car’s altimeter:

I did get a little lightheaded when we were hiking near other people at 12,000 feet and I was wearing a cloth mask I made. We let the crowds get ahead of us so we could take a break from our masks and just use social distancing (we stayed at least 50 feet behind another hiking group).

Here are a smattering of photos from our drive through the national park and our various hikes. The photos do not begin to capture the beauty of the park as you can imagine.

And of course while taking my standard zillion photographs, once again I attempted to channel my inner Ansel Adams and took black & white photos. Here are a couple of my favorites:

The Elk “Sherpa”

We had a curious experience while at Rocky Mountain National Park. While hiking in the higher elevations of the park, we came across a young elk. The elk ended up going on the hike with us, grazing along the way. We joked that the elk was our “Sherpa” leading us up the mountain.

It must have hiked with us for about a mile to a rock formation at the end of the trail. When we stopped, it stopped and waited for us.

After we explored the rock formation and turned around to walk back toward our car, the elk joined us for most of the walk back. Then suddenly it turned to look at us, as if saying goodbye, and walked off to join its herd in the distance.

The whole experience with the young elk felt sort of magical and mystical to us. Not to get all “woo-woo” on you but my partner and I both lost our life partners of many years (I am a widow, he is a widower) about 3 months apart. It sort of felt like the spirit of a love one was visiting upon the elk to walk with us.

I did a little googling on elk sightings as a message:

The elk represents dignity, power, inner strength, and passion. If you experience an elk sighting, it’s a message to stay steady on your current course. (californiapsychics.com)

I know super “woo-woo” but it just felt like a special moment when the elk went walking with us…

Fun at Lower Altitudes

In addition to visiting Rocky Mountain National Park, we also visited Fort Collins, Colorado and Estes Park, Colorado which is at the foot of Rocky Mountain National Park.

We love craft beer and stopped at several breweries:

If you’ve ever seen the movie The Shining which was filmed at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, you will get the humor in the ale by Estes Park Brewery shown above!

Estes Park has a wonderful downtown shopping (tourist trap, ha!) area with endless delightful shops filled with things you do not need. While wandering about we stopped in a very naughty confectionary that specialized in gourmet caramel apples.

I am proud to say we left with only one caramel apple in hand (and it was incredibly delicious and we wished we’d bought two!)

Here is a hysterical (and scary t-shirt) we saw in a shop window (bears a prevalent at Rocky Mountain National Park):

In case the image above is too unclear – first the child is attempting to feed the bear and then the child is inside the bear!

And while wandering about Fort Collins and Estes Park, I took more black & white photos:

Thanks for making it through all these photos!

Postscript

But wait…more photos! I am sure there are way too many photos in this post but I am going to add a couple more.

In late March, early in the pandemic, when we were just beginning to go stir crazy, we attempted to visit Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a stay at home order in place but you were allowed to go on outside hikes. Not sure what we were thinking but we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park without first checking if it was even open.

We discovered it was closed to the public but we ended up visiting the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, where the first The Shining movie was filmed. They were allowing people to walk around the outside of the hotel and to come into the lobby as long as they maintained social distancing. Here are a couple photos from our visit to this amazing historic hotel (which include an autographed photo of younger Stephen King, author of The Shining).

Oh and in case you are wondering (and you remember the movie), no they do not have a labyrinth like the famous one in the film.

Sneaking in one more B&W photo to close out this post!

Life in B&W, Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

And on the 8th Day…Part III

April 27, 2020August 18, 2021 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is my third and I think final installment of my series of posts celebrating my one year anniversary of living in Colorado by sharing some of its natural geologic beauty.

If you are just joining us, here are the previous two posts in this series:

And on the 8th Day…Part I

And on the 8th Day…Part II

Today’s post is about a recent hike (two weekends ago) at Castlewood Canyon State Park.

And let me kick off this post with a photo I took early in the hike that I think is quite lovely (I forgot which smartphone camera settings I used, perhaps “Sepia”):

Although we did not hike into this specific area (the site of the remains of Castlewood Canyon Dam), Wikipedia has some interesting history on Castlewood Canyon State Park:

The park retains a unique part of Colorado’s history, the remains of Castlewood Canyon Dam. Visitors can still see the remnants and damage from that dam which burst in 1933. The event sent a 15-foot (5 m) wave of water all the way to downtown Denver resulting in a flood.

My partner John and I brought Mike the miniature schnauzer with us, and once again, as in photos in other posts in this series of posts, Mike got to hike in the backpack:

Yes, Mike is one spoiled miniature schnauzer!

With social distancing in place, hiking was a bit tricky when we got to narrow areas as if there was another set of people walking by we had to get at least six (6) feet away from them. This got a wee bit cumbersome during the hike at times, especially if there was a large family group hiking.

During this time of social distancing, I always wonder if dogs think that humans just do not like each other any longer, as they are always avoiding one another as much as possible!

You cannot sit at any of the park benches or picnic areas (they are closed off during the COVID-times) but we did have a nice picnic on a large rock next to a stream during our hike.

As you can see in the first photo, Mike looked on as lunch was prepared and eaten, wondering why he was not invited to the feast (we did bring dog treats and water for him of course)!

I will close out this post with some of my favorite photos from the several hour afternoon hike at Castlewood Canyon State Park in both color and black & white. Thanks for virtually sharing this hike with me!

Life in B&W, Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

And on the 8th Day…Part II

April 20, 2020August 18, 2021 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I am continuing my series of posts to celebrate my one year anniversary of living in Colorado by sharing some of the natural geologic beauty I’ve witnessed over the past year as I explore Colorado. Here is the link to the first post in this series if you missed it – And on the 8th Day…Part I. This post also explains the title of this series of posts.

I meant to continue this series yesterday, on April 19th the actual anniversary, but I got distracted by the endless trimming of half square triangles (No Scrap Left Behind (half square triangle craziness)), so I have a good excuse. No worries (in case you’ve been losing sleep wondering how I am progressing on my latest scrappy quilt) I will update you on this piece in a future post, but for now here is a photo of my growing piles of trimmed half square triangles:

Eldorado Canyon State Park

Eldorado Canyon State Park is one of those hidden gems in Colorado that no one talks about except the native/locals. Luckily my partner John is a Colorado native and knows all the great places to hike. We spent the day there with Mike our miniature schnauzer in September 2019.

Here is the description of this spectacular park from the Colorado State Park’s website:

Eldorado Canyon is a hidden treasure right in Boulder’s backyard! Whether it’s hiking amidst the towering sandstone cliffs, picnicking along scenic South Boulder Creek or climbing Eldo’s sheer golden walls, Eldorado Canyon State Park truly has something for everyone! Discover this hidden jewel and take home memories that will last a lifetime.

Well, like the description above says, I did “take home memories that will last a lifetime” and I took WAY TOO MANY photos!

In preparing for this post, I poured over hundreds of photos from my visit to decide which ones to share. I am only going to share my absolute favorites (smile).

In the Rapids

One of my favorite memories of the day is climbing out to the rocks in the middle of river (or creek?) that runs through the park and being in the middle of the rapids (well it was not that turbulent) and having a little picnic.

My partner John, who took the photos, had to precariously hand me Mike once I got myself safely positions on the rocks in the middle of the water.

My favorite photo from this moment is selfie I took of Mike and I where it looks like Mike is saying: “My human is kind of crazy for bringing me out to this rock in the middle of rapidly moving water!”

Wandering About the Canyon

I only had to select from 20+ photos to provide those photos above. I won’t tell you the obscene amount of photos I had to select from for these next set of photos. Everything was so beautiful and awe-inspiring as we hiked about the canyon.

Here are some of my favorite photos (because I do not want to blow out my blog page image storage allowance, ha!).

All I can say is that these images do not do the beauty of this place justice.

The sky was clear blue and although it was a Saturday in September there we not very many fellow hikers there. At times it felt like we had the whole amazing place to ourselves!

Traveling in Style

As some of the hike involved a bit of easy rock climbing to get around, we decided we would carry Mike in his backpack most of the hike for safety. Here he is traveling in style (we took turns carrying him vs. our day hike pack) and John carried him most of the time.

The Black and Whites

Of course I took B&W photos during the hike? Would you expect any less of me?!?! (If you are new to this blog you can check out my series of posts – Life in B&W).

Here are some of my favorites as I channeled my inner Ansel Adams…

And to close out this post, here is me, feeling quite happy and blessed to be a on a beautiful hike, on a beautiful day, in the beautiful state of Colorado!

Outside Adventures!

And on the 8th Day…Part I

April 18, 2020May 8, 2021 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

As I mentioned in my previous post Solo Show Seattle Municipal Tower (re-post), April 19th (Sunday) is the one year anniversary of my move to the Denver, Colorado area.

To celebrate this anniversary, over the next several posts, I want to share with you some of the natural geologic beauty I’ve witness over the past year as I explore Colorado.

The title of this post “And on the 8th day” is a reference to the Judeo-Christian Creation Story in the Bible in which God worked 7 days to put heaven and earth together (actually 6 days as on the 7th day God rested per the story); and the saying I’ve heard from other Colorado residents in regards to the natural wondrous beauty of Colorado:

“And on the 8th day, God made Colorado”

The first example of the natural geologic beauty of Colorado that I will share, is aptly named Garden of the Gods. During a family visit in August 2019, we took our visitors for the day to Garden of the Gods State Park.

The photos I am about to share do not do the awe inspiring beauty of this place justice, but hopefully they will give you a little sample of why people in Colorado joke that this state had a day of Creation devoted to it!

If you’ve ever visited Arches National Park in Utah, it’s a similar concept – amazing rock formations! It is not as elaborate as Arches but it is pretty spectacular in person (as I mentioned, photos do not do it justice…well at least not amateur photos!).

The sky was overcast on the day we visited and I look forward to visiting there again this year on a sunny day. We were a bit hurried during our visit because we will trying to fit in a lot of sightseeing for our visitors. Next time I visit, I want to bring a picnic and spend more time exploring and just sitting and admiring the breathtaking beauty of the place.

Outside Adventures!

Paved Trail Inspirations

April 7, 2020April 7, 2020 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

How are you all doing? I am thinking about you all and sending you all good and peaceful thoughts.

I’ve been going on a lot of walks in the green space behind my house (as there is not much to do outside but walk around, while keeping social distance). There are miles and miles of paved trails and I’ve enjoying seeing many families, couples and individuals out walking.

In a recent post Perspective I shared inspirational sidewalk/paved trail chalk art I came upon during a walk last week:

Well, 2 days ago, I discovered on my walk a whole path of inspirational messages in sidewalk chalk that I want to share with you.

I have captioned each message in case they are difficult to read.

2020-04-05_10-32-00_615 — Don’t freak out

2020-04-05_10-34-47_989 — You are my sunshine

2020-04-05_11-12-08_066 — Don’t be sad be happy

2020-04-05_11-12-44_484 — Have fun with the little things

I also came across in a drainage area with even more inspirational messages and kid art that made me smile.

I suspect a family with their kids did this project together. I’d like to imagine there was a family cheering themselves up by trying to cheer up others by spreading a message of positivity and hope.

To all my blogging friends who might be worrying and struggling:

Postscript

A lot of people are out walking about, which is a good thing. However some days it feels like my favorite walking trails are getting a wee bit too crowded (even with people respecting social distancing).

I was quite pleased yesterday when I ventured in a new direction and discovered a lesser known/used path. I had an exquisitely peaceful walk on my own with no one else in sight for 30 minutes. All I could hear was birds chirping.