Yes Programme: Taking Colorado into our hearts
A foreign exchange programme student takes a trip in the US with her host family
It was a chilly afternoon when we landed in Denver. As we started heading to our hotel in Estes Park, a range of colours with the setting sun displayed pale orange, pink, and purple.
Those warm hues gave us a soft, comforting welcome in Colorado when the day was about to end.
We started our journey and reached the Boise Airport at noon with little carry-ons all packed up for our wholesome three-day trip. Before starting for Colorado, I sensed that the whole week was going to be just wonderful, away from the chaos. It took two hours to fly to Denver from Boise, Idaho. After landing, when we got all together from our seats and got all of our bags back, we jumped on a subway at the airport until we reached the place where the car Dad [host family] rented which we named Pumpkin Spice.
The mini ride on the subway to our car was really fun and we spotted an iconic sculpture in Denver called the "Blue Horse" which has an interesting story behind it. After about 15 minutes, we found our car in a pile of millions of others.
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Then after an hour-long drive from the airport, we reached our hotel with all the groceries for the next couple of days. The condominium in Estes Park was a two-storey apartment, giving a reflection of a wooden bungalow. The inside of it was perfectly cozy and beautifully decorated with frames of some iconic animals and birds in Colorado, as well as books, sculptures of elks, moose, snow leopards and what not. Overall, the theme was unbelievably soothing.
It got late so after dinner that we settled down and went straight to bed, outstandingly excited to take Colorado into our hearts.
As we were there in the last week of October, it wasn't really that cold and there was still a flick of fall. After waking up the next morning, we filled ourselves up with crunchy honey flakes, cereal, fruits and were ready to start our "Level 1" of hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park. We also visited places such as Sprague Lake, Dream Lake, Bear Lake and Bierstadt Lake Trail.
On the first day on our way to the Rocky Mountain National Park, we stopped at the big sign to take pictures. Then the first place we visited was Sprague Lake. It's a shallow lake with tiny colourful fish swimming. For lunch, we had Bob and Tony's Pizza, an Estes Park fall special. After that, I tried taffy for the first time which was a bit chewy for my taste. Dad never stopped spoiling us with ice-creams. So every single day, there was ice-cream for dessert with various flavours, including cookie-cream oreo, Colorado snow storm, caramel, butterscotch and what not.
The shops in the Estes Park were typically small and full of classic souvenirs for tourists. I got some postcards and my host family gifted me the super cool Rocky Mountain National Park merchandise and then we were all matching.
Walking down the streets at Estes Park, all those American TV shows I have watched, the beautiful scenarios, everything was flashing before my eyes and I pinched myself. Am I actually living that dream out loud?
It was very hard to pass by the Christmas decoration shops even though the occasion was about 64 days away. There are some parts of Estes Park where the stream flows down, giant rocks sitting on the way and those ethereal corners of the park, the serene lakes with enchanting birds flying above and the lush trees swaying with the light breeze – some green, some yellow and some orange – are one of the most admirable things there.
Dream Lake was the place where I saw snow for the first time and it was on the second day of our trip. Fall wasn't over yet but it already started snowing a little bit. So while hiking, I got to see a whole pile of snow and it was definitely overwhelming for me.
Dream Lake is not chaotic at all, almost like the most peaceful chaos in the world where the chaos was in the leaves rustling, wind blowing, river raging, water blinking by the sunshine, small pikas and chipmunks running around and birds chirping. That was it.
While I was hiking, I had to stop a couple of times to catch my breath and grasp the breathtaking views from the top of the mountains, though we can skip the part of snacking on granola bars. After we were done with our "Level 2" of hiking, we crashed in a Thai restaurant, Estes Thai, where I had fried shrimp and a delicious dish with rice and Massamun chicken curry.
Colorado is my host mom's hometown. So it was the perfect opportunity for me to learn more about her, her surroundings and all of her favorite spots as she enjoyed talking about the place she holds precious. After lunch, we visited her high school and then ended our day by walking through the streets of Estes Park.
The wildlife in Colorado is absolutely magical. I felt like it had animals straight out of movies like Frozen 2. On the third day, my host family and I got to explore a new adventist church. After that, we started for Bierstadt Lake Trail and Bear Lake. Going through the woods in Bierstadt Lake Trail, the trees were all verdant, standing up high while hovering over me. We hiked till we reached our goal, Bear Lake and headed back. Goodness gracious, was that hiking rocky! I probably tripped over a couple of times and had to stop a number of times, which let me discover the world's most naturally comforting toilet in the middle of nowhere.
The river which flows down Bear Lake, integrating with another river, was oddly pristine and magnificent to look at. For the blessing of sunshine, the water was flickering as there were billions of little stars overhead and with that, we accomplished the "Level 3" of hiking. As Dad said, "There will be different levels of hiking and each day, it will get harder." So it was.
On the first day, I did a pretty good job hiking and walking by the Sprague Lake. Then the second day was actually a bit tough with the wind and everything but all I can tell you is, it's a blessing in disguise. While you hike, you capture those exquisite views of the mountains you thought you would only see in your dreams. You stand for a while catching your breath, take some pictures for memories and you let the moments dive into your soul and then you continue till you reach your goal, till you reach that peak of the mountain you wanted to climb up on.
That day after dinner, we planned to go stargazing. I have never seen that many stars at once before. So, stargazing at Sheep Lakes late at night was one of the highlights of the trip.
Then came the fourth day when we woke up before the crack of the dawn to watch the sunrise in Sprague Lake. The view of the sun shining on top of the mountains, creating an orange hue, isn't something you can describe in words. It looked like the sun was pouring its light on the mountains. On the fourth and last day of the trip, before heading to the airport, we roamed around Denver city and visited the State Capitol Hill. Walking down the streets, there was a lineup of buildings with vintage architecture. Denver pavilions also let us discover the 'Cheesecake Factory' where we had lunch and the world's best cheesecake.
For more delight, we made a stop at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory where I had white chocolate crackers. We drove around on our Pumpkin Spice.
For all these blessings, I just can't thank my host family enough. Now here I am, back in Idaho, but before I can finish reminiscing about this experience, I want to give a huge shoutout to my host family who have been making my days in the United States so cherishable every single day as a foreign exchange student. Thank you, Mom and Dad!
