Mountains, Good Food & Chocolate

What could be better?  

I am so happy to live in Colorado.  Lately I have been wanting to visit more parts of Colorado that I have never been to before.  A little while back I got to go visit Montrose with my parents for a super quick weekend trip.  I thought it was so beautiful there and I really wanted James to see it.  This past weekend we made the 5 hour drive down to Montrose.  On the drive there we stopped in a little tiny town in the middle of nowhere and got some Chewy Praline South Park Fudge.  It is to die for.  My Aunt and Uncle, Paul and Holly so kindly let us stay with them - we really enjoyed spending time with them and are so grateful that they were able to show us around.  My brother Nic also came along for the trip and we had some much needed sibling bonding time. :)

We stopped at the Black Canyon on our way into town, but most of the roads around the rim were closed, so sadly we only got the views from the Visitor's Center...which were still great.  And that gave us a good reason to watch the awesome 20 minute video about the canyon and how it took millions and millions of years to be what it is today.  I love that kind of stuff!

The next day, Holly graciously drove us to the beautiful mountain town of Ouray.  She promised we would love it and we did.  The weekend we were up there marked the beginning of the ice climbing season.  We missed the climbers but we did see some amazing icy cliffs.  We did a little snow hike up to see the famous Box Canyon Falls.  It was breathtakingly beautiful there.  I desperately want to go back in the summer and do some more hiking, climbing, jeeping, driving, sight seeing, you name it.

The ice climbing we missed.  How cool is that slack-liner?!  Stole this picture from another blog.

Sneak peak of the San Juan Mountain Range on the drive from Montrose to Ouray.

Nic

Bridge along the top of the falls.  And a secret (not really secret but it sounds cool) tunnel.

Inside the tunnel.

  

At the bottom of the falls.

Wouldn't want to fall in there!  Burrr.

The falls are so loud, you can hear them rushing down inside the rocks, but you can barely see it through the cracks and where it comes out at the bottom.  Mucho coolo.  Holly said that in the spring when there is more run-off, you can't even stand where we were standing without getting wet.

After our visit to the falls, we walked down the little old-towny main st. of Ouray.  We had a delicious lunch at a little burger joint and visited some fun shops.  My favorite shop was Mouse's Chocolates.  It was so wonderful.  

Caprese Burger.  Roma tomatoes, mozzarella and basil pesto.  Scrumptious. 

One thing that was so neat about this little chocolate shop is that they have windows where you can look into the little factory and see people making all the chocolate.  I want to open a chocolate factory.  I dream about it.

I am still talking about the salted dark chocolate caramel...

 Thanks again Paul and Holly!  We will most likely be calling you in a few months so we can come back!! :)