Leaving Aspen

We checked out of our condo and left Aspen today.  First we went to church at Snowmass Chapel, visiting the JD memorial (right) before attending the service.  We attended their traditional service (as opposed to their contemporary service) but it sure seemed rather contemporary to me.  

After church we headed over Independence Pass on our way to Colorado Springs. The scenery as we headed to the pass was beautiful.  Of course, we had to take the classic photo by the sign.   There was very little snow for it bring late in the year, although we heard there was a small snowfall last Wednesday.

As we approached Colorado Springs,  we headed to the Garden of the Gods which was beautiful with the clear blue sky as a background.  We saw Balanced Rock (left) as we entered the park.  As we drove on, we caught this view of the central formations.  

We settled into a Fairfield Inn for the night and are looking forward to visiting the Air Force Academy to observe their noon meal formation before heading onto our Denver airport hotel. 

Aspen Day 4

Our day started quietly with a walk to the John Denver Sanctuary.  Once again, we had a clear sky and lots of sun.  On our way there, we spotted the Aspen Farmers market.  There were a few potential farmers there, but it was mostly crafts and jewelry with a selling baked goods.   We also came across these guys outside a hotel, watching the passerbys.  

The Sanctuary itself was pretty empty which made for good photography. It's amazing to think back to when we first started coming, when the pine tree in the middle was barely 15' tall; it's now probably over 40'. 

The picture on the bottom right is a close-up of two of the stones with words from John Denver's songs embedded in them.  

About 10 years ago, the city decided to expand the Sanctuary to have it pretreat the rain water from the storm drains. They have a LOT of very large stones and carved sayings from many famous people in several of them.  Once again, pictures cannot truly describe what it looks like and I encourage any readers who come to Aspen to check it out for themselves.

After lunch we went to the Dave Stratford concert.  Dave sang many songs, both his own and a few John Denver songs.  His wife joined him on the cello, which made for some very nice harmonies.  Dave's brother, Ron Matthews, joined in on a few songs along with flautist Karen Savarese.   It made for the very enjoyable concert. 

The evening concert featured Chris Collins and the Boulder Canyon Band.  It was an enjoyable concert, and a nice way to cap off the weekend. 

Tomorrow we are off to Colorado Springs, with a possible stop at the Garden of the Gods.  

Aspen Day 3

 

We had some extra time this morning so, as we do nearly every year, we headed up to the Grottos.   It was a pretty 20 minute drive past Kevin Costner's ranch (which is still up for sale).  Again, we had a clear blue sky, and the color of the aspen trees was fabulous.  

The highlight of the day was lunch with Mack Bailey.  We had a great visit as we caught up with news about his family, his Music Therapy of the Rockies non-profit and more.   He even gave us a heads up about two Christmas concerts he'll be doing with Chris Nole.   

Another JD fan was in the restaurant when we arrived so when Mack came in and Mary introduced him to her, it was a very cute moment since she did not recognize him at first. 

This afternoon we enjoyed a very interesting folk concert by Ellen Stapenhorst and her brother, Steve. They sang a wide range of their own songs which turned out to be very enjoyable!   Little known to us, Steve was very active in the music community in Los Angeles.  In 1964 his band was playing at the famous Troubadour Club in LA when a new artist came on the scene and opened for them - John Denver! Steve had an on and off acquaintance with John over the years and he told a few tales of their interactions. 

All I can say is "WOW! What a Concert!"  Mack and Chris put on a great show at the Wheeler Opera House!  You could clearly see they were having fun on stage.  Of course, Mack sang most of the songs, with Chris at his usual spot at the piano, but Chris did sing 3 of them.  As always, the concert went way too fast.  For the encores, they sang Calypso, then Chris brought out Mack's son, Hayden, so Mack brought his wife, Rachel, on stage along with musician Chris Collins to sing "Country Roads". 

Tomorrow we have a concert in the afternoon, then back to the Wheeler for Chris Collins' concert. 

Aspen Day 2

Today we had reservations to go to the Maroon Bells.  When we looked out this morning, the sky was covered with clouds - not a good sign. We got ready and headed to the Maroon Bells Shuttle to arrive by 9am.  The sky was starting to clear which was a good sign.  By the time we arrived at the Bells, the sky was solid blue!   The wind was calm and the temperature quite moderate. 

The one disappointment was the water level in the lake.  With the the rain and snowfall last winter I hoped it would have recovered, but it seemed to be lower than ever.   The old beaver lodge is now high and dry, but the industrious creatures have built a new one well out into the lake. Mary and I walked around past the old beaver lodge, then back to the log jam where we took a break to enjoy the sunshine and the view.  As we waited for the bus, I took the bottom right photo, our last view this year of these magnificent mountains.

This evening we had a Ron Matthews concert. Ron opened with a lengthy medley of at least seven John Denver songs strung together, starting and ending with Mary's favorite Heart to Heart, which he has sung for her every year.  The medly was very impressive.  Ron was accompanied by Paul Swanton.  Ron did a full 1 1/2 hour first set. Near the end of that set he had his brother Dave come up and play; first Dave and his wife, Sarah, gave a quick preview of their Saturday guitar and cello concert, then Dave sang a song with Ron.  Ron sang all of John Denver's Alaska songs and included many from some of John's specials that had not been performed before at Aspen.  

Tomorrow we have a concert by Ellen Stapenhorst in the afternoon and a Mack Bailey/Chris Nole concert in the evening at the Wheeler Opera House. 

Aspen Day 1

We had a very lovely day today.  Sunny and blue sky, but a bit chilly.  The 1 hour drive to Aspen went well.  Mary got a great picture of Mt Sopris.  We got to Aspen and our AirBnB condo OK, and moved our luggage in before heading to the Meet and Greet.  

The Meet and Greet was pretty well attended, with one big surprise - close to half the crowd were first time attendees!   Mary visited with many friends and acquaintances.  Even Jim Horn came this year!  I got my picture taken with Jim next to the rock with his favorite JD song and we had a nice chat about his career and experience with John Denver. 

After that we walked back to our condo and got unpacked.  We then headed out to the campfire cookout on the road to the Maroon Bells.  We roasted hot dogs over an open fire and visited with a lot of people, some old acquaintances and quite a few new ones.

So tonight we are getting caught up and preparing for visiting the Maroon Bells tomorrow morning, with a concert in the evening. 

Traveling to Aspen

We are on our way to Aspen for the 26th memorial celebration of the passing of John Denver.  Mary counted that this is her 16th time and it's my 12th.  Our trip began with a flight to Denver, pickup a rental car, then drive to Glenwood Springs for dinner at the Glenwood Canyon Brewpub. I loved coming here because they had a reasonably priced menu and my favorite beer, Hanging Lake Honey Ale; make that had my favorite beer.   They changed the name of the beer to Hanging Lake Light Lager and it was a disappointment, lacking that sweet kick from the honey, so they just lost a customer.  

On our way we here we headed west on I-70, driving through the Rockies, and in one snowstorm, plus Glenwood Canyon, to reach our destination.   You can see the snow in the picture on the left.  Glenwood Canyon was as impressive as always. I recall hearing that the road was closed for a while over the summer due to rock slides.  You can see evidence of that in the picture on the right.

Not much else to say.  Tomorrow we head to Aspen to move into our AirBnB and go to Meet and Greet.  

Heading Home

Today started with packing and straightening up our condo, and then we headed to Goodbye Again at the JD Sanctuary.  The event was quite nostalgic, as the group gathered and talked about the activities of the week and a little about the possible future.  The traditional three songs (Rocky Mountain High, Goodbye Again, and Friends with You) were sung.  Afterward, we exchanged hugs with several friends before heading out of Aspen toward Glenwood Canyon.

It was different traversing the canyon from west to east as we nearly always go east to west. As always, the canyon was stunning. You could see many burnt trees from the 2020 Grizzly Creek fire that swept through the canyon, but it was hard to get them to show up in a picture.

The rest of the ride to Denver went smooth, except for two single lane construction zones, but even those did not delay us very much.  Lots of scenery like the above picture of snow capped mountains. 

Tomorrow we head to the airport for our flight home, so not much to report.  It's been a very good trip, less active than some of the past AIO's, but still with plenty of great music.  

Sunday in Aspen

The morning started with a visit to the Aspen Chapel since Mack Bailey was going to provide the music.  We were very pleasantly surprised to see that Chris Nole was joining him!  As expected the church was at full capacity, mainly with John Denver fans.  Chris performed one song by himself and the two of them played three more during the service.  We even met a couple from Northville Michigan after the service!  It was their first time to Aspen in October.

Next up was the Cookhouse event.  This is an annual luncheon and benefit concert which is always sold out. They serve the best trout there, and this year was no exception!  We did not know any of the people at our table, but some were facebook friends with Mary. Chris Nole played with Chris Collins and Jeff Pine.   All in all, a great meal with very nice music. 

The scenery at the Cookhouse was spectacular!  There are always snow capped mountains in the distance.  I'm pretty sure I take these same pictures every time, but the view is too tantalizing to resist!

(click on a picture for a larger version)

Good-Bye Again is the final event tomorrow after which we head for Denver and our Tuesday flight home. 

Saturday in Aspen

We had a quiet morning, then watched the University of Michigan game before heading out to see the Grottos, a place we visit each year. The drive there had some beautiful scenery as you can see from these pictures.  It is so cool to see the aspen trees in full color mode!

Being a Saturday, it was quite busy, but we were able to get a parking spot in the lot.  There were a LOT of people crawling over the rocks, so I got a chance to use a new feature of my Pixel 6a phone called Magic Erasure!

Check the picture on the left vs the one on the right! Pretty cool!

Note: you can click on them to make them larger. 

The evening event was the Chris Collins and Boulder Canyon Band concert at the Wheeler Opera House.  This was a very good show, but seemed to lack the energy of last night's performance.  Chris did some funny things, like singing the opening phrase of Annie's Song in a number of famous singers' voices before singing the entire first verse in his Kermit voice.  He also had some very nice sentimental touches embedded in the show.  One of which was to give flowers to Mrs Melville, the original owner of the Mountain Chalet (a hotel where most people stay) and to thank her for 25 years of hosting the Aspen in October festivities. at her place. He had Jim Conner (composer of the song Grandma's Feather Bed) on stage and had him tell a (lengthy!) story about meeting John Denver, before leading the singing of the Feather Bed song. Jim accompanied the band on his banjo for the rest of the show, but I'm not sure his microphone was turned on very loud as I never heard it. 

As an encore, They played "Friends, I will Remember You" and showed pictures that people had sent in.  Two of Mary's submission made it - her with John Denver friend Gail in Aspen last yer, and one of daughter Katie.

Tomorrow we plan to hear Mack Bailey sing at Aspen Chapel, then on to the Cookhouse Event for lunch and another concert.