Friday we were needing to be out in Corona to see a friend’s new brewery, and being princesses about traffic we headed out waaay early!

I saw a cute little hike out in Riverside – Mt Rubidoux, just a 3 mile loop to a giant cross and a peace tower!

We thought it would be easy and fun – it was, but it was also an 80 degree day out in the inland empire, but we were very surprised that we had not found this before and sad that we had live there and had missed this cute little hike that was right in town!

Up up up we go!

We made it!

Here i am!! At the peace tower!

Beautiful sunlight in the trees!

Riverside from the path

It was a relaxing, fun time with the hubby! (if only we had remembered to bring water… oy, being from Colorado and always carrying water with me was weird i didn’t have any)

Definitely pretty sad that when i have to make a run to the Walmart down the road that the hubby can text me the status of our campsite or that we need bug spray!

But hey, you can’t beat the view

It just bring me inner peace, or maybe it’s fresh air or lack of oxygen to my brain at 9K feet??

This camping trip we remembered the boys clothes, their bed, and extra blankets – so we were ready for high altitude!  (40-50 degree nights)

The boys started shivering before the sun even went down. So i had to hold Winston and swaddle him all up.

The hubby says I baby them. I say, whatever. He was cold!

Paco was being a tough man and sitting as far as his little dog run would take him from us, shivering, but still being cool.

The hubby has some adorable pictures of him in all white flowers. Very manly and super cute!

They did pretty good over night and with the camp fire and with the 2 dog runs. They only tied themselves up a bit. Yeah!

The next morning the boys woke us up, and i did the first outing to the rest room – mostly for me, but Paco ponied up too. Then we got back in the room and they were super restless so dad took them back out and started the fire while I went back to sleep (super weird – the only place i can sleep in – is when we camp…  not sure what it is, but i love it and can sleep forever)

After breakfast and enjoying the view we decided to do a hike (a 7 mile death march) and then head home!

The boys did mostly ok. About a mile from the top Winston gave us the f-u and laid down, I carried him for a bit, and then i think he felt embarrassed by all the other dogs so he finished on his own 4 feet!

The alpine lake at the top was fabulous – Mohawk Lake.

It was wonderful day – camping, hiking, eating on the fire!

Canyon Loop Trail – Betasso Preserve

I’ve been wanting to do this hike, but it is only “hikers only” on Saturday’s!

The boys were excited to be heading out into the wilderness and couldn’t wait to get out of the car.

There was not as much shade as i would have liked for a 90 degree day, but we did ok.

We took the clockwise direction, the scenery was great, trail was well groomed, into the woods and out! I think it would be a nice hike in the fall as well, possibly add on the second 3 mile loop and get in an almost 7 mile hike!

We’ll see if the pups think it is as great idea as i do!

We took a lazy morning and headed up through Boulder stopping at one of our favorite sandwhich shops (thanks mom and entertainment book) Cheba Hut for an early lunch!  (Jumping Jack Flash – turkey and pesto with veggies on garlic bread….!)

We cruised through Este Park on our way and saw a pretty big herd of Elk just hanging on the front lawns. Lots of stupid tourits getting pretty close to them – didn’t see any ambulances, so i am guessing no-one was speered by an antler or kicked with a hoof – too bad…

We took the north route to get into the Park, stopped at the ranger station to get the low down on what routes were open – pretty much 1 – Bear Lake – Since I was here with Kim this summer I knew there was a cool hike to a waterfall. Figured it would be cool to see it frozen or near frozen… The ranger said it would be pretty hard packed so off we went!

It was cool to see all the layers of snow on the side of the road – all the snow storms layer by layer!

We did the hike up to the waterfall, it was beautiful! The altitude felt much different than last time. I was huffing quite a bit!

Saturday I made it to my first farmers market of the season – woohoo!
I got summer squash, giant green onions, a red pepper and a yellow pepper, a pound of tomatillos, and bunch of cilantro – all for under 8 dollars! Woohoo!
I was tricked on the summer squash, they molded by today – sigh…
I’ll be more diligent next time!

I got the tomatillos to make something i had been holding the recipe on for over 2 years! Every time i went to make it the tomatillos were $1 a piece and i needed 8 for the recipe… so it was put on the back burner! But now was the time!

Shortly after I returned home my friend L asked if I wanted to go for a hike. I debated for a smidge (we had friend coming over at 4pm for a BBQ).
I decided to give hubby a list and head off to the mountains!

We did a 3.2 mile loop and I didn’t read the description in my book as well as i should have and started to the right, which meant it was a giant stair climber…  Reminded me of Mt Monadnoc in New Hampshire. Love that hike. Anyway – it felt good to drag my body up the mountain.

The climbing of the steps were a great workout! The views were great, and some of the houses up there were amazing! Great workout!