Colorado 2019 - Vail

View of the ski mountain from Ford Park

Sunday morning after breakfast with the BeadforLife group, we checked out of the lodge and spent the day exploring Vail.  We began with Ford Park which was adjacent to the lodge.  Named after President Ford and Betty, this park contains playing fields, playground, picnic areas, and an ampitheater name for the President.  But the jewel is an alpine garden named for Betty.  The Betty Ford Alpine Gardens " is an internationally acclaimed botanic gardens known for its alpine horticulture, education and conservation....[It] is the highest...botanical garden in the world situated at 8,200’ (2,700 m) in the central Rocky Mountains." (Quotation from website)  Spring is usually the best time to visit a garden and this one is particuarly beautiful at that time of year.  However, we were there in late fall (for the maountains.)  The aspen on the hillsides were mostly bare and the alpine plants had generally tucked themselves in for the winter.  Nevertheless, we found small splashes of color as well as soe interesting shapes.  I processed one in black and white and Ithink it gives an idea of the structure of the garden.  This tree is undoubtedly dead but its stark profile stands out and would even more with a colorful spring or fall background.

Patrick Dougherty's stick sculpture: HodgePodge

Gore Creek

We were surprised and pleased to discover that Patrick Douherty had created some of his wonderful stick sculpture in the largest open area in the garden.  We have seen and experienced some of this other installations.  Created entirely of willow branches,they remain in place so that the forces of nature eventually tear them dwn.  I am not sure when these were installed but they were still in good shape.  We enjoyed moving in and out of them.  Later some children showed up to play among these scuptures that made me think of a group of Native Americans.  The park runs along he north of Gore Creek and is tucked bewteen the creek and I70.  It is an effective use of what might otherwise be just a buffer space.

Pepi"s on the left and Gore Range in distance

German mac and
cheese

We then took the short walk into Vail Village and had lunch at Pepi’s Bar & Restaurant in Hotel Gasthof Gramshammer.  This was the same restaurant where we had dinner two years ago with Brendan and Maria White.  More about them in a bit.  We learned that Pepi, a famout Autrian ski racer had just died in September.  Well into his eighties, he was a constant presence in the restaurant although not in any working capacity.  We did get to see him in 2017.  We had a lunch that featured
homemade spaetzle, shredded Gruyere cheese and crispy fried onions, the German version of mac and cheese.  Delicious as one might imagine.

Click here to view photos of Vail.

After lunch we drove up the hills north of Vail and were rewarded with a view of the entire ski mountian, or at least the portion visible from Vail.  The backside is probably four times larger than what we were able to see.  We drove "down valley" to our hotel in Eagle, on the banks of the Eagle River.  Our friend Brendan and Maria met us there and we drove to Edwards where we dined at The Gashouse, a local favorite.  Marilyn had a surf and turf while I continued my Colorado groove and had an 8 ounce elk tenderloin, prepared rare.  Wonderful, very lean and tender since hardly cooked at all.  We all decided that we would spend the next day together exploring Aspen and indeed we did but that is for the next post.