Mountains and Proposals

This trip to the mountains is a return to a place I belong, but also to a place that I've never been. It's the start of a lifetime of joy. As you probably know by now, I'm obsessed with Colorado. It's my favorite place in the world and it tugs on my heartstrings like almost nothing else. So, what a better way to solidify my life with the one person who does tug on my heartstrings like nothing else? It's a perfect plan and no one ever saw it coming!

By this time, I've been dating my girlfriend Kelly for over 5 years. I met her at a dance class during my last semester of college and the rest, as they say, is history. We hit it off and have been in a serious, committed relationship since. 5 years might sound like a long time to be dating someone before tying the knot, but it felt right for us. I concocted an elaborate plan to propose to her, and I would like to say she didn't know that's what that trip was about, but she told me she doesn't like surprises. The other reason she needed to know what this trip was for was because she also wanted to propose to me! So I guess we both concocted plans. It's ingenious!

The Stake Out `Mon, June 24`¶

Sadly for Kelly, a lifelong commitment to me doesn't come cheap. I make 'em work for it. My plan was to set up a long-distance scavenger hunt that involved three hidden secret boxes spread around Teller County, CO. Each box had a riddle in it that contained clues on where to find the next box. The very last box was gonna contain a super extra special secret, wink wink.

I drove to Woodland Park by myself and the plan was for Kelly to join me via aeroplane later on. The week where she wasn't here was dedicated to setting up my proposal. I didn't know exactly where I wanted the hidden boxes to be, so I spent a week driving to various locations in the area.

I went off-roading, I went to various parks in the area, I looked at a lot of maps and scoped out the area like a true adventurer should. I even discovered shelf-road for the first time!

I hiked up a REALLY steep trail that terminates at this beautiful mountain stream. Oh yeah and I also came across this creepy, abandoned, certainly haunted secret tunnel.

Horsethief Trail `Sat, June 29`¶

Kelly flew into Colorado Springs on the 28th. We both knew that the main purpose of this goal was for us to get engaged, and even better, we were both going to propose to each other! We're kind of non-traditional like that but sometimes tradition is wrong (or maybe not wrong, but not as fun). Like, why wouldn't both parties want to put effort into officially asking their partner to live the rest of their lives with them?

Neither of us knew when or where the proposal would happen, but I did have to tell Kelly that I have to propose to her this weekend due to the timing of everything so let's not waste any time! Let's get this shindig going!

Unbeknownst to me, today was my day to be proposed to. Kelly desparately wanted to go on a hike (for what reason, I could not fathom). I decided to take Kelly on this really cool hiking trail I went on the day before that terminates in this small but pretty mountain waterfall. In fact, I actually have the exact trail data from AllTrails here:

It's a pretty steep hike for a ways but it's not too difficult. I took her to the waterfall I found and once we got there, I sat down on a tree that fell across the stream to take a rest. Kelly shouted to me "Landon, what's that in the water?" I look behind me and there's this little bottle flowing down the stream and I think to myself "what! Why is there litter?" She told me to pick it up, so I did and upon closer inspection, it was a message in a bottle! I uncorked that bad boy and tried pulling the paper out of it. During its short journey down the stream, it appeared that some water got in the bottle and made the parchment paper stick very strongly to the side of the bottle. Seriously, it was like it was glued! I couldn't get it out, so Kelly helped me and we were able to wiggle the secret message out of the bottle.

In it was a beautiful poem she wrote where she asked me to marry her, and OF COURSE I said yes! Put a ring on it!

Mueller State Park `Sun, June 30`¶

Alright, now it was my turn. This proposal consisted of FOUR clues, not three like I mentioned earlier. Although, the first clue wasn't really hard to find because I just gave it to her. In it were GPS coordinates for the approximate location of the next clue, which happened to be 38.8807905° Lat, -105.1733855° Lon.

This clue was hidden in one of Kelly's favorite spots from last year, the dragonfly pond at Mueller State Park. This clue led her to the next location at 38.97393° Lat, -105.17028° Lon.

Also, can we just appreciate how fashionable Kelly looks in these pictures? Something about the Columbia jacket and the sunglasses make her look like a real adventurer.

Crazy Gulch Trail `Sun, June 30`¶

Next on the proposal adventure was this random trail called Grazy Culch. I don't know what's so crazy about it, it's not like it was a difficult hike. In fact I actually wanted it to be easy, because the last clue was going to be a real lung-buster.

Kelly traded her Columbia jacket for a sun hat because she realized that all this hiking is a real workout.

This clue led her to the last location, the infamous and dangerous trek up to GPS coordinates 39.05835° Lat, -105.22304° Lon.

Signal Butte `Sun, June 30`¶

Signal Butte is this prominent hill that juts out in the valley that is abutted by the foothills to the east, Pike's Peak to the south, and Hackett Mountain to the west. It's a strange formation because rises up out of nowhere from the ground and is surrounded on all sides by valley. To give you an idea of what this looks like, here are some pictures from our 2023 trip where we hiked up the hill:

Coming back to the year 2024, this is the trail I took to get to Signal Butte to drop off the secret package a few days before:

To give even more context, the path to Signal Butte is a rugged OHV trail that requires a decent (although not top-of-the-line) 4x4 off-road capable vehicle. That's where my SUPER COOL Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk comes in handy. Anyway, we get to the bottom of Signal Butte and start making the arduous trek up the hill/mountain/butte thing. And what a trek it was! While I had already been in Colorado for a number of weeks before Kelly got here, I failed to make the calculation that Kelly will arrive only a couple days prior to this adventure and absolutely won't be acclimated to the altitude. And worse, I was asking her to hike up a very steep butte/hill thing so that I could propose to her and spend the rest of our lives together. Needless to say, she was struggling and I was worried I made a huge mistake in putting the last clue up on this hill. I was worried we were gonna have to turn around! Yikes! Nonetheless, Kelly was a trooper and she pushed through the thin air. At the top was awaiting her last clue, a ring!

At the top of this butte/hill thing, I asked Kelly to be my wife. The 5 years we had been dating at this point solidified the truth that she is the woman for me. She is an amazing partner. She is a kind, thoughtful, loving, affectionate, passionate, caring, generous soul and has always strived to be the best partner that she can be in our relationship. All of the obstacles we encountered were overcome because of her willingness to work together (and my willingness too of course, but this section is about her dammit!). In fact, all successfull relationships require that. Relationships need both parties to set aside ego, to admit mistakes, to take measurable action towards correcting wrongs, and most importantly to give all the love one can muster to the other person, because they deserve it. That's what I feel has been the story of our relationship, a story of overcoming our personal demons and together nurturing a prosperous, loving, respectful, and FUN relationship.

It's because of Kelly's fighting spirit that I have no question in my mind that she is a lifelong partner. She's cares deeply about doing the right thing and living authentically with those around her. It turns out that Kelly was so happy that she started dancing! And boy does she have some moves.

Grand Lake `Mon, July 1`¶

The reason why the proposal had to be on-schedule and on-time is because we had an awesome adventure planned to the north. We made our way over to Grand Lake, CO which is on the western side of the famous Rocky Mountain National Park. The drive itself there was of course amazing:

The route took us through this area called Berthoud Pass. The pictures above are on Hwy 40 just before the pass, but sadly I couldn't take pictures of this area because it's an intense drive up an extremely steep, winding mountain road, and needless to say, I had to stay focused. Here's some street photos from Google:

Of course these pictures don't really do it justice how steep and how high it felt to be on that road. Kelly's fear of heights was kicking in again

We arrived at our campsite which was situated about 5 minutes away from the Grand Lake Entrance Station. The reason why this is important is because Rocky Mountain National Park can get very busy. So busy in fact that the park service implemented limited timed entry permits. Folks wishing to enter have to either buy timed entry tickets a month in advance of the reservation date, or the night before. They release only a limited number each time, so you have to be on your computer the very moment that the tickets are released.

We didn't get them in advance so I had to log onto their website at 7PM and scramble to buy tickets. It was difficult because I would refresh the site and immediately select the ticket I wanted, but it kept saying "sold out". I would then try selecting tickets for the next time slot, and again, immediately sold out. I tried doing this for the 3 or 4 time slots they had available, and NONE of them could be reserved even though I was on the site at the exact moment they were released! Ugh! And it didn't help that their website seemed to be crashing from all the traffic.

This was a pretty bad experience and I hated having to fight to get these dang tickets. I understand why the NPS does this and I don't fault them for it, they are just trying to stem the onslaught of tourists like us from flooding the park. Fortunately, timed tickets are only necessary after 9am, so you're allowed to enter the park before 9am. That's what we ended up doing, and surprisingly, there was no line and it was not an issue at all. No tickets needed after all!

One REALLY interesting fact about this campground is that it sits right next to a tiny little creek. "Aw, that's not that interesting ." No no no, this is not just any tiny little creek. This is the Colorado River! This area is not far away from the Colorado River headwaters, so at this point it's only a tiny little stream, unassuming and nondescript.

Kelly's highlights from this campsite were the duckies and chickens they had in this cage. Chickens are one of her favorite animals so she was enthralled with them.