Indications are this summer could be a scorcher, the kind of summer that drives folks to drink in cooler temperatures and rarified mountain air. Lowland dwellers have been seeking higher ground for centuries – and it’s no different this summer.
A couple of suggestions:
Some of this reporter’s earliest watercolor memories are of Estes Park, Colorado, getting up early in the morning to find my father outside our mountainside cabin cooking pancakes, a tin of Log Cabin syrup on the picnic table, the smell of sizzling sausage mingling with scented mountain air. It was magic. The air’s still there, and so’s the magic.
Case-in-point: McGregor Mountain Lodge. Its cabins, rooms and suites border Rocky Mountain National Park. Cozy up on a cool Colorado night around the fireplace with your significant other. Bring along your dog if you’d like.
Venture out after your own pancake breakfast and hike the high alpine tundra of Estes Park. Revel in the summer shadows of awesome peaks. There, not far away, sunshine glints off a pristine mountain lake. Tell me you’d rather be back in Texas in the summertime.
If you live on the East Coast, consider Nantahala River Gorge. Nestled high in North Carolina’s serene slice of the southern Appalachians, the name is taken from the Cherokee word “nondayeli,” which means noonday sun. See that sun reflect off frothy white water as you raft down the clear, cold Nantahala River in pursuit of the perfect rush.
Rough it during the day. Pamper yourself when the sun goes away. Stay at the classic Nantahala Village Resort and Spa. The ambiance is royally rustic, the amenities ample.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: anoldent)
