#ponderosalodge

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🕳🌬✍🏾Pearl BlackPearlz YOUniverse🕳🌬✍🏾 Pearl Is Trippin🚘 #PonderosaLodge Anyone remember Ponderosa restaurant? They're still around apparently. Ponderosa used to be the talk of the town in the 80s. It's fascinating growing older and having memories of things once cultural prominent become contextually extinct. This is why your story/stories are important. Tell it! His story will changes narratives and succeeding generations will learn and believe that the story they're learning is the way it's always been. Ponderosa - A tall slender pine tree, the most widespread conifer of western North America, planted for timber and as an ornamental. The ponderosa pine, also known as the yellow pine, is one of the most widely distributed tree species in the West, growing from southern Canada into Mexico, and from Nebraska and Oklahoma all the way to the Pacific Coast. #WestVirginia #WestVirginiaWildAndWonderful #GrownWomanTravelingChronicles Pearl BlackPearlz YOUniverse #TruthSleuth 💢SUBSCRIBE TO VIBE💢 Follow my breathtaking #InstaVlog @Pearlofgr8price 📸 @PearlzTinyHome🏡 @BlackPearlzYouNiVerse🎭 www.blackpearlzyouniverse.com #PearlIsTrippin #CreateHer #Writer #ContentCreator #WorldTraveler #PerformingArtist #LifeLiver #SoulHealer #BreatheBabyBreathe https://www.instagram.com/p/CPr8ptStX89/?utm_medium=tumblr

[since--1999]

Colorado 2018

I started working back in July of 2017 with a goal to save up enough money to travel. I worked hard and saved money. After months of going to school while working, my coworker and I talked about traveling somewhere, and we were both interested in Colorado. Just a few weeks before spring break, we started planning that trip.

After my coworker assured me she was all in to go, we started researching and planning everything. The destination we decided to go to was a town in Northern Colorado called Estes Park. This town caught my attention for 2 main reasons: Rocky Mountain National Park and The Stanley Hotel. If you don’t know by now, Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) is an amazing park and was referenced in that John Denver song, and The Stanley Hotel is where Stephen King stayed, which inspired his book, The Shining. I was so excited to see these attractions that I made sure the whole trip went well. Keeping a budget in mind, I found the best flights, hotels, and activities to do. When everything was planned, we talked over our work schedules with our boss. We knew we couldn’t take off a whole lot of time from work, so we went with 3 days. It wasn’t a lot of days, but we were happy with that and ready to kick off our spring break.

Suddenly, weeks before the trip turned into a day before the trip. Then, the night before our early flight came. We had everything packed in each of our own backpacks. We arrived at the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Airport 2 hours prior our flight departure. Just printing our boarding passes, going through security, and waiting at our gate was exciting. I was happy that we were following through with our plans and traveling to a different state. Once we boarded our flight and departed, we said goodbye to the sun rising over Dallas.

After the 2 hour flight, we landed in Denver, Colorado. The Denver International Airport was a very impressive and huge airport. We were supposed to wait for an hour until our shuttle bus came to pick us up and take us to Estes Park. Luckily, the driver called right when we got to the airport and said he was ready to pick us up early because we were the only ones scheduled on that morning ride. As we drove out the airport and away from Denver, we instantly saw mountains in the distance. I was becoming even more excited and couldn’t believe we made it and were close to our destination. After about an hour and a half, we were just entering Estes Park and were in awe of a brand new scenery of snow, mountains, and hills.

We were dropped off at our lodge, which was near town and RMNP. It was a very cozy and decent lodge. We walked out to our balcony and had a view of the street filled with trees and a lake running through below us. We didn’t want to waste time, so we immediately ordered a taxi to The Stanley Hotel to have lunch and tour the hotel. The hotel looked just like how I had imagined it. We walked through the quiet hallways and it felt very spooky. 

Afterwards, we decided to walk to town and look for lunch there. Not too far a walk away, we were introduced to a very cute little town with souvenir shops and restaurants. We had a relaxing lunch with a beautiful view. After lunch, we walked through some shops. 

Some ladies working there suggested we hike to Gem Lake. We took their suggestion, ordered a taxi there, and started hiking. We were told it was a short hike, but it took us a very, very long time to get to Gem Lake. We accidentally went on a longer trail and the elevation was kicking us in the butt. We did, however, make it to the top. The Lake was frozen and it became very cold and windy up there. It felt amazing, though. Since we weren’t there during peak season, it was very calming because there was no one there except a couple. They were very friendly and took our picture. It was getting super cold, so we headed back down. We started to rush because the sun was setting soon. I went too fast and slipped on an icy rock. My knee was bleeding and the blood was bright red in the snow. We were finally out of the trail, but our taxi wasn’t answering and we had no other transportation. We began to worry, until that couple we met at the top came out. They offered us a ride back to our place, and were glad to accept it. They truly seemed like nice folks, so we weren’t worried that we’d be in danger. Later that night, we were exhausted and went to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up early right before sunrise. I sat outside on the balcony, eating breakfast. Our plans for the next day were to go to RMNP. It was one of the main reasons why we came here. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, but there was still much to do. We walked to a trail near the town that was high up. At the top, there were views of the whole town and a some ruins. We saw a view of The Stanley Hotel, too. We had some snacks and enjoyed our time up there. We grabbed some lunch nearby, which also had a beautiful view. We walked through some more shops, looking for souvenirs. On our way back to the lodge, we saw a small park. We walked through the gates and  the ground was covered with snow. There were huge steps in the snow, like a bear’s footprint. Then, we walked back to our lodge and took a nap. We woke up hungry and walked to a restaurant nearby. After getting back, we decided to take advantage of our lodge’s hot tub. It was very cold out, but being inside the hot tub felt very relaxing.

On our last day, we wanted to watch the sunrise at the trail that with views of the whole town. So, we woke up in the morning, when it was still dark, and started walking to that trail. It was pitch dark, but we had flashlights on us. As we were walking, we were caught off guard by an animal running just to the left side of me, as if it was chasing us. We instantly stopped and turned off our flashlights. I whispered to my coworker to not move at all. We waited and slowly moved to the opposite side of the road. Then, we heard it growling and I swore it was coming right at us. I was shaken and felt like this was how we were going to get severely hurt or die. We saw a car coming and stood in the middle of the road trying to get its attention. We were desperate for any help, but it drove around us, leaving us alone in the dark. I saw a house just off the road and whispered to my coworker to walk towards it. We slowly moved, but my steps were loud from the gravel on the ground. When we made it to the house, we waited on the steps on the porch in the cold until the sun rose. I was afraid something would come out and attack us, but we were safe. We walked back to our hotel lodge and decided to stay there until our shuttle came to take us back to Denver. As we left Estes Park, we saw our last glances of the beautiful town. After an hour and a half drive, we were dropped off at the Denver International Airport. We got some food then ordered a lyft to the Denver Aquarium. The 30 minute drive downtown seemed long as we noticed how different it looked from Estes Park. After the aquarium, we walked around 16th Street Mall with our heavy backpacks and sweaters in hand. As the afternoon was coming to an end, we decided to head back to the airport a little early for our flight back to Dallas. For some reason, we almost forgot to go through security. We had enough time, though and waited at our gate to board our flight. This time, we had bigger seats together at the front of the plane. It was the same airline, too.

We were sad to leave Colorado and have to get back to work the next day, but it was a successful adventure. I’m grateful to have been able to go with my best friend and have everything go right plans-wise. Besides the bear scare, it was very safe and fun to be able to travel outside of our home state on our own.