This past week we stayed in a yurt for the first time. Here's a video I made with music soundtrack.
From Wikipedia:
A yurt (üi or kiz üi in Kazakh, ger in Mongolian) is a portable, felt-covered, wood lattice-framed dwelling structure traditionally used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. A yurt is more home-like than a tent in shape and build, with thicker walls. They are popular amongst nomads.
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Ours was not as primitive and it was constructed with more modern materials. There were three layers on the walls consisting of heavy plastic inside and out with something else in between - couldn't see that. It was built on a concrete pad, was very sturdy and probably not useful for the typical nomad as it was all put together with hardware and such. It did have three big windows. They unzipped on the outside and had screens. We opened them all after it warmed up outside. Our day weather was perfect, sunny and a high of 65F.
The rest of the time, the propane stove kept the inside very cozy. When we woke each morning there was frost on everything outside, but we were just fine inside. Cooking was done on our little Coleman propane grill/stove outside on the picnic table. Each morning, after the sun came up over the hill and warmed things up a bit, we made a crackling fire in the sturdy fire pit outside of the yurt and sat beside it wrapped in blankets with our coffee.
The yurts were in Sylvan Lake State Park southish from Eagle, Colorado. I made the reservations online. Cost was $60/night and a maximum of two nights.
What a beautiful area. Although we visited a little late to see the aspen in their full glory, there were still many that were still shimmering with their golden leafy disks. Aspen leaves in the wind are delightful. They dangle and the slightest breeze sets them dancing to and fro.
We hiked a little. We drove to a old mining town called Fulford that was a mishmash of old, ratty shacks and brand new cabins. We had a little trouble understanding why anyone would want to build a new cabin there, but as we all know, there are all kinds of lifestyles and all sorts of different tastes.
As I was driving us down the mountain road on our return trip from Fulford, my eye caught a movement at the right edge of the road. I slowed. Merle opened his window and looked down. Right next to our Jeep was a little weasel with a big mouse (deceased, thank goodness) in it's mouth. Our little weasel was quite cute, even with a mouthful of mouse. It couldn't decide where to go with it's meal, so it loped down the road in front of us for about 20 feet before veering off to the left into the brush. I had the camera, but was so fascinated by this first time viewing of a live, in the wild weasel, that I didn't think to capture it digitally (I almost wrote "capture it on film" - not). Here are pictures of long tailed weasels that I think are the same as the one we saw. I got them off of Google Images. It had a black tip on it's tail. It was very small, about 10 inches long including the tail. Teddy bear ears. The mouse was so big that the little guy had a hard time seeing over it.
I'm so cute!
Sylvan Lake itself was around the mountain about 10 miles away. We went there both evenings of our stay to take showers at their well kept campground. We sleep so much better if we can get cleaned up before bed. The lake was small, but lovely. Cabins around the lake were very intriguing and I imagine that we will go back sometime and stay in one of those overlooking the lake. This time of year, there were very few people around.
There are all sorts of beautiful places in Colorado that we have yet to discover and we've lived here a long time.....
