And after the flood

So there was some serious flooding two years ago in Lyons, CO and one of our favorite hikes - heck, it's our favorite hike - is just up the road at Button Rock Reservoir. We took the kids there today and enjoyed the Sleepy Lion trail. Trail starts out kinda rocky with lots of switchbacks and a pretty good "straight up" incline.

Then it breaks into a high meadow with lots of beautiful, small flowers and grasses. Yes, that's Wendy lying on her back. Think she wanted to see what prairie dogs see, or something like that.

After the meadow, it gets pretty boulder rocky with lots of gnarled trees as well. The interesting part is that this trail buts right up against Hall Ranch. Can't imagine ranching up that high but I'm sure someone does.

The views were pretty spectacular.

Afterwards, we descended to Lyons and my old workplace and home of one of my favorite breweries, Oskar Blues, for a well-deserved lunch.

As we drove out of the town we found this new retailer and figured we had to stop by.

Odd thing is that their whisky won't be sold until the end of the month and they've been open for 2 years. That didn't stop us from trying the offerings at Spirit Dog Distillers. Lucky for us, one of the owners offered the kids some iced cream since they couldn't sample the wares. Then he brought Wendy a cup of salted caramel ice cream with their homemade coffee liquer drizzled on top. Believe it or not, there was a nap in our future.