May 20-23 Mountain Trip - COLORADO

[pseudoswede]

Bummer that the weather didn't cooperate. This has been a very wacky spring. Keystone River Course opened this past Friday, but I imagine they are back to being buried under snow. To find anything remotely playable tomorrow, you would probably have to drive south of Colorado Springs.

[gmetcalf18]

> @pseudoswede said:

> Bummer that the weather didn't cooperate. This has been a very wacky spring. Keystone River Course opened this past Friday, but I imagine they are back to being buried under snow. To find anything remotely playable tomorrow, you would probably have to drive south of Colorado Springs.

 

Contemplating the drive down to Canon City I hear Four Mile Ranch is awesome and we've got unlimited miles on the Tahoe road trip after a plane trip why not!

[pseudoswede]

> @gmetcalf18 said:

>

> Contemplating the drive down to Canon City I hear Four Mile Ranch is awesome and we've got unlimited miles on the Tahoe road trip after a plane trip why not!

 

I've never played it, but it does look nice. Based on reports from people in the ColoradoWRX thread, it's also in great shape right now. Actually, I think some forum members played it yesterday.

[pseudoswede]

Oh man... I was not expecting THAT much snow last night.

[irvtrain]

Hopefully you found a course or two to play. This has been the worst/best (depending on your viewpoint) snow I can remember.

[gmetcalf18]

 

We made lemonade out of lemons, this trip went sideways before we even left Detroit but we did the best we could with what we were dealt, while waiting to board our flight out of Detroit our Airbnb host allowed us to cancel the first night and we planned on heading to Colorado Springs for the night from the airport to avoid the snow based on the forecast, we booked a house in Colorado Springs and planned on playing Patty Jewett the morning of 5/21. We landed in Denver at 10PM on 5/20 and found out rental car under 3 inches of snow, pulled up the GPS and saw an estimated trip time of 3.5 hours from DIA to Colorado Springs.... that's not going to work! Called the original host and let her know what was going on, she encouraged us that we would be able to take I70 west to Idaho Springs and stay at the first house we booked, I flipped the Yukon to 4x4 and off we went. We made it to Evergreen after about 90 minutes, white knuckled and sweating bullets, after watching more than a few cars slide off the road and or flip onto their roof we decided it was time to call it quits and get a hotel in Evergreen. We slept for a few hours and we were determined to get some some golf in, we stupidly drove down to Patty Jewett to make our tee time we booked the night before to find the course covered in a few inches of snow and no employees to be found. I drove my buddy through Garden of the Gods as we decided if we were going to go down to Canon City and make our ride home to Idaho Springs 3 or so hours or retreat with our tails between our legs. We decided to retreat, got back to Idaho Springs ate at BeauJos for lunch and then headed up to Black Hawk for the day, we finished the night off at Tommyknockers and headed back to the house in Idaho Springs for the night. The next day 5/22 we booked Fossil Trace for 10 AM and finally got out, it was cold and windy and cart path only but we were golfing and we were pumped, it was my first round of the year and I shot an 81, for me that is awesome so I couldn't have been happier. On 18 the skies opened up and started raining pretty good, we again retreated back to Idaho Springs and watched the rain turn to snow, we decided to get out of the mountains and have lunch back in Golden at Woodys and then stay in Denver for our last night. We stayed in the Highlands area and explored Lodo for the night, had a great time at Occidental and wished we listened to you guys and stayed in this area the entire trip, would have been a perfect home base just like you guys suggested! On take off day we played Green Valley Ranch in what felt like 30 degrees and a steady mist mixed in with light showers, course wasn't as picturesque as the others we had in mind but I did really like Green Valley Ranch and will probably play it again just based on proximity to DIA. This won't be my last trip to Colorado, but I won't be as stubborn next time, I tried to plan accordingly but I'm not as smart as people who live in the area and I feel dumb for going against your suggestions, we did have a great time and had a successful trip but maybe a bit later in the year next time!

 

[irvtrain]

Good to hear you got out. Hopefully you guys make another trip back another time! Unfortunately, this has been the worst weather for golf, we've had as long as I can remember. It has been great for skiing and will be for white water rafting.

[PepsiDuck]

> @irvtrain said:

> Good to hear you got out. Hopefully you guys make another trip back another time! Unfortunately, this has been the worst weather for golf, we've had as long as I can remember. It has been great for skiing and will be for white water rafting.

 

Do you expect weather to improve at all in the next week and a half? I will likely be driving through Denver on June 10 and wasn’t expecting weather to be such as issue...

[pseudoswede]

> @PepsiDuck said:

>

> Do you expect weather to improve at all in the next week and a half? I will likely be driving through Denver on June 10 and wasn’t expecting weather to be such as issue...

 

Golfing in the mountains will be iffy; literally probably have to call the day before to see if they're actually open. In the metro area, long-range forecast shows warmer weather. It also shows higher than normal precipitation.

[irvtrain]

> @pseudoswede said:

> > @PepsiDuck said:

> >

> > Do you expect weather to improve at all in the next week and a half? I will likely be driving through Denver on June 10 and wasn’t expecting weather to be such as issue...

>

> Golfing in the mountains will be iffy; literally probably have to call the day before to see if they're actually open. In the metro area, long-range forecast shows warmer weather. It also shows higher than normal precipitation.

 

Denver will be fine. A lot of courses are in good shape. It looks like the weather is starting to "normalize" a little in June. Hopefully the craziness will end with the end of May lol. If you're concerned about the roads, they're fine.

[ryder2015]

> @PepsiDuck said:

> Do you expect weather to improve at all in the next week and a half? I will likely be driving through Denver on June 10 and wasn’t expecting weather to be such as issue...

I was in the mountains for memorial day and I would say the golf courses on the West side of Vail pass have way less snow than the east side like keystone and Breck, We played in Eagle and it was fine Saturday and Monday. Snowed on Tuesday but I'm sure it melted in a day

 

[RobotDoctor]

> @gmetcalf18 said:

>

>

> We made lemonade out of lemons, this trip went sideways before we even left Detroit but we did the best we could with what we were dealt, while waiting to board our flight out of Detroit our Airbnb host allowed us to cancel the first night and we planned on heading to Colorado Springs for the night from the airport to avoid the snow based on the forecast, we booked a house in Colorado Springs and planned on playing Patty Jewett the morning of 5/21. We landed in Denver at 10PM on 5/20 and found out rental car under 3 inches of snow, pulled up the GPS and saw an estimated trip time of 3.5 hours from DIA to Colorado Springs.... that's not going to work! Called the original host and let her know what was going on, she encouraged us that we would be able to take I70 west to Idaho Springs and stay at the first house we booked, I flipped the Yukon to 4x4 and off we went. We made it to Evergreen after about 90 minutes, white knuckled and sweating bullets, after watching more than a few cars slide off the road and or flip onto their roof we decided it was time to call it quits and get a hotel in Evergreen. We slept for a few hours and we were determined to get some some golf in, we stupidly drove down to Patty Jewett to make our tee time we booked the night before to find the course covered in a few inches of snow and no employees to be found. I drove my buddy through Garden of the Gods as we decided if we were going to go down to Canon City and make our ride home to Idaho Springs 3 or so hours or retreat with our tails between our legs. We decided to retreat, got back to Idaho Springs ate at BeauJos for lunch and then headed up to Black Hawk for the day, we finished the night off at Tommyknockers and headed back to the house in Idaho Springs for the night. The next day 5/22 we booked Fossil Trace for 10 AM and finally got out, it was cold and windy and cart path only but we were golfing and we were pumped, it was my first round of the year and I shot an 81, for me that is awesome so I couldn't have been happier. On 18 the skies opened up and started raining pretty good, we again retreated back to Idaho Springs and watched the rain turn to snow, we decided to get out of the mountains and have lunch back in Golden at Woodys and then stay in Denver for our last night. We stayed in the Highlands area and explored Lodo for the night, had a great time at Occidental and wished we listened to you guys and stayed in this area the entire trip, would have been a perfect home base just like you guys suggested! On take off day we played Green Valley Ranch in what felt like 30 degrees and a steady mist mixed in with light showers, course wasn't as picturesque as the others we had in mind but I did really like Green Valley Ranch and will probably play it again just based on proximity to DIA. This won't be my last trip to Colorado, but I won't be as stubborn next time, I tried to plan accordingly but I'm not as smart as people who live in the area and I feel dumb for going against your suggestions, we did have a great time and had a successful trip but maybe a bit later in the year next time!

>

 

Glad you made Lemonade out of your trip. You're not going to like to hear this but temperatures this week are in the upper 70s to low 80s. Come back soon!