Idaho Springs and Echo Lake

 We took a drive on this day...up to Idaho Springs.  There is a pizza place that was our destination.  Along the way, we were driving along this river...beautiful with all the snow.  We stopped to take some photos...

 

 There were tunnels, and then there were some more tunnels.  They had some incredible names:

Tunnel #1

followed by Tunnel #2

and Tunnel #3.

 We got pretty good at predicting the names of the upcoming tunnels!

 This town is really cute.  I would love to have more time to just roam around.  This day it was a bit chilly...and with the snow, Mom wouldn't have really enjoyed walking around.  Actually, with the wind and the snow, I'm not sure anyone would have enjoyed walking around too much!

 Here's the bar in the pizza place..

Beau Joe's..or something like that was the name of it.

 

John David & Becky

Ron & I

Mom

Addison, Soo and Remy all went.

 Look at my brother!  What a good driver...he's keeping his eyes on the road even with his favorite sister in the backseat being a bit distracting with her Nikon.

 After we finished eating, we had quite a time driving up to Echo Lake.  We planned to walk around the lake.  

First, we had to find it.

There were many wrong turns taken...Addison was never on the wrong path, just us older folks!  We stopped back in Idaho Springs (for the 3rd time, probably) and my guy ran into a store to ask directions.  He almost stayed awhile since he figured out it was a pot dispensary!  Rats...I would have loved to have taken some pictures!

After Addison coming to the rescue, we were on our way.  Heading up to Echo Lake, we stopped here at Ponder Point to

ponder over a few things...mostly, we pondered why in the world we were standing out in the freezing, windy, cold weather!

Back in the car and we continued to climb...

 Addison and his Jetta :)

We had reached Echo Lake..

and almost missed it.

It was frozen...and I thought it was just a big field!

Nope, a frozen lake.

 Addison, Soo, and Remy decided to take off and continue on...but my sister-in-law instructed my favorite brother to turn around and head back DOWN the hill.  We were at a bit over 11,000' in elevation here.  You can see the roads weren't completely clear.

 Before we took off, I hopped out to take a few pictures...and my sweet husband and favorite brother braved the elements with me...

 A closed lodge...

 The rest of the road to Echo lake that was closed...

a bit of snow blocked the way...

 Just in case you couldn't tell, there were signs up letting us know it was closed due to snow.

 THIS is Echo Lake...

 Ok, we saw the lake, saw that walking around it probably would be better in April or July...but definitely not February!

 Addison, Soo, and Remy made it safe and sound...

The boys were ready for bed and got to play for a few minutes.

Brody was content to be held by his Saddie, but Remy was going for one of the balls to play with.

We definitely saw some beautiful country today...and had some delicious pizza and beer in Idaho Springs!