Weekend Getaway

After I spent a weekend traveling in the mountains, I'm sure you would expect a tourism report full of local color, keen observations of rural oddities, and small-town restaurant reviews.

But instead, you'll get a movie review, a rather spare hike report, and some unnecessarily harsh opinions about the creativity of Western Slope town namers.

We arrived in Rifle, CO, in the late afternoon on Sunday. It was pouring rain, so we elected to forego local pedestrian exploration for the evening, and opted for the nearby movie theater instead. I have been wanting to see "Avengers: The Age of Ultron" for some time now, and this seemed like a grand opportunity.

I really enjoyed the first Avengers flick, as well as the original Iron Man and Captain America movies. I was expecting to love this movie.

Sigh.

Note to Disney/Marvel: If we wanted "Transformers," we wouldn't have skipped the last several "Transformers" movies. The Avengers cast is capable of delivering character-driven drama along with the action, and that's what I was hoping to see. Not just two hours worth of CGI robots whaling on each other. Yawn.

Oh, I'll watch it again sometime, I suppose. There were a few interesting moments -- though they were definitely outnumbered by the extended chaos of confusion that made up the majority of the film. I probably would've enjoyed the banter about which hero had the best girlfriend if it wouldn't have been so obvious that neither of the girls in question appeared in the film...making me think about whether there were contract disputes or what. The introduction of new super-folk was somewhat jarring, as was the elimination of the one who seemed to have the most charisma.

The whole thing was just...jumbled.

And then there were the unanswered questions. Why does a robot need teeth? If Hawkeye has 30 arrows in his quiver and then shoots 45 of them, why is the quiver still full? If SHEILD is defunct, why does Cobie Smulders still have a large staff? And what kind of parents would name their kid Cobie Smulders, anyway?

Oh well, at least the theater chairs were comfy. And I successfully answered most of the pre-show trivia questions. I didn't make it through the credits, though -- usually I stick around until the very end, but they just went on and on, including the names of the Starbucks baristas who served coffee to the guys at Kinkos who printed the extra copies of the scripts. Geez.

But the next morning's trip to Rifle Falls State Park was a gem.



Rifle Falls will never be mistaken for Niagra, or even Bridal Veil. But they are pretty, and the park is a lovely place to spend a few hours. There are campsites, hiking trails, and a few placards that explain the history of the power plant that once existed at the site.

Most appealing, though, are the limestone caves found within the rock beneath the falls. Most are small--about bedroom sized--but there are a few cracks that lead to parts unknown, and they are all open for exploration and unsupervised spelunkery if you're into such things.

I'm not. I find that my claustrophobic tendencies tend to be in inverse proportion to my flexibility, so as I've gotten stiffer in my old age, I'm less likely to wriggle into some sharp-edged rabbit hole. Also, my eyesight and general decline in kinesthetic awareness come into play. In fact, I still have a pretty good goose-egg on my head where I straightened up without first checking for overhead stalactites. Ouch.

The photo above was taken with a flash. The caves are quite dark...so if you're planning to visit, I'd recommend taking a flashlight.

The path offers a couple of options. You can wander among the caves, walk to the top of the falls, or head off into the forest for a 2-mile hike over to the fish hatchery. It may have only been this green because of the month-long rainstorm, but I suspect it's pretty and shaded throughout the year.

Even though it was a holiday weekend, the weather seemed to have kept most of the tourists away. We had the path mostly to ourselves, and enjoyed the variety of trees, grasses, and shrubs.





Because we were expecting long traffic delays along the Georgetown-Idaho Springs corridor, we opted not to follow the trail to its end. We had lunch at a fun little "50s" Diner in Newcastle, and then drove straight back to Denver. Surprisingly, traffic was zipping right along...even through the rainy spots.

It was an excellent weekend, and fun to get away for a bit. But now it's time to start getting serious about training on the bike. Right?

Hopefully, the next set of blogs will be about intense intervals, focused hill climbs, and aero-position time trials. Unless I see a cute cat video or something. Thanks for dropping by, and have a great day!

PS. The legs are pretty much recovered from the marathon. The ego? Well, not so much. As for the promised rant about western-slope town names, well, I guess I'll have to get to that tomorrow. Sorry.