My Great American Road Trip – part 2 – Colorado

June 3, 2024

I was home for five days before jumping on another plane, this time for a long planned trip to Colorado. The trip came about when I realized that Sweet Baby James was performing at Red Rocks Amphitheater as part of his summer tour. The photos of Red Rocks make it seem like such a special place and I can generally get my hands on JT tickets, I figured why not. Especially since one of my college dearests, Laura lives in Denver, and while I had just seen her – she came to Cleveland in April to watch the eclipse with me – the last time we were together before that was when we joined the millions of women marching on Washington in 2017.

And of course it would give me a chance to eat a rack of Colorado lamb, the thing I cooked when I was cooking across the country.

I arrived in Denver on Friday afternoon. With the afternoon free, I went to the immersive art installation Meow Wolf. Something I’ve wanted to see since its first iteration launched in Sante Fe in 2008. It was overwhelmingly beautiful and chaotic and creative. But I’m not sure it was art. At least not for me. But I am so glad I’ve now experienced it.

ON Saturday, I ventured out to the mountains. We headed up Pike’s Peak, the mountain that inspired the song American the Beautiful and one of the “Fourteeners”, mountains higher than 14,000 feet. Pike’s Peak is one of the few that has a roadway that allows you to drive all the way to the top, which we needed becuase I’m not sure I have it in my to climb 14,000 feet at the moment. I am very good in thin air, however, so I wanted to stay up there far longer than my travel companions. We did explore some of the high altitude trails and reveled in the deep snow. The universe provided and we saw a spectacular lightning show on our treacherous drive down. The whole thing was just amazing.

And then it was time for dinner! I had to find a place that served Colorado rack of lamb. One would think that would be relatively easy, but one would be wrong. Google researching all the high end eateries in town, I found a few that served lamb, but no indication of whether it was Colorado or not. I was resistant to go to Buckhorn Exchange, Denver’s oldest restaurant, because it felt really touristy, but in the end, it was the only place I could be assured of getting close to what I wanted. While I didn’t get a rack of lamb (and honestly thank goodness, because that one I cooked, I ate for three days), I got 2 of the most delicious lamb chops and a fantastic old fashioned. I was proud of how I’d done cooking mine, but that’s cause I hadn’t had theirs. Buckhorn Exchange is quite an experience. Every wall is covered with animal heads, including one that they insist was felled by Teddy Roosevelt (whose stone visage I’d just seen last week). I do not actually believe that he was involved, but it is a nice story. Also on the wall is a framed credit card reciept from when Jimmy Carter ate there in 1988, which feels a bit like a violation, but of course, I immediately compared my spending to his.

Sunday arrived and I spent the day with Laura, her husband Robert, and another friend. We wandered Denver, got a picnic and headed to Red Rocks. My first Red Rock experience and my gazillionth JT experience was so, so worth it.