Recently my wife and I went on a trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was quite the drive for us to get there so we decided to make a pit stop just about four hours away from our destination. This led us to Stratton, Colorado. We rented an airBNB for the evening and let me just say, it was one of the prettiest nights I’ve ever experienced.
I’d like to share some of that experience with you here, on HykLyt. Just in case any of you are interested in renting out the same airBNB. If, after reading, you do want to try it out, email me at hyklyt@hyklyt.com and I will send you the Airbnb link.
Is It Kansas Or Is It Colorado?
Nobody can tell you when you crossed the line from Kansas into Colorado because the “line” would have to be a very specific blade of grass. Stratton, CO, in and of itself, looks no different than the flat farmlands of Kansas that I had driven through for the past seven hours. But, at last, we were reaching out rental cabin. We were in Stratton, at the cabin.
We were happy to get out of the car for a bit to stretch our legs, soak up sunlight and feel the breeze blowing over the flat farmland. There were no mountains in view to speak of and so it was very much different than what I had expected to see when driving into Colorado. But I guess with every reverb, there has to be surfaces for the sound waves to reflect off of.
Which brings me to the beauty of Stratton, CO. It was tough to see at first because when we drove up it was nothing more than a tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere! (Courage The Cowardly Dog, Anyone?) Which, by the way, my spouse and I loved that part! Getting away from it all (day to day rat race) made the trip worth it. So that was beautiful in its own way.
Let’s Talk About Finding Beauty In The Middle Of Nowhere
When my wife booked this cabin for us, she probably didn’t know that we were going to get the show of a lifetime that evening. Thunderstorms formed and we were able to sit on the porch while watching lightning light up the sky. Comulus clouds gathered that electricity up and created one of the coolest cloud formations I’d ever seen. We watched the sky for hours out there, on that little porch, just talking and resting.
The Perfect Setting
And so, I find myself in Stratton, CO.
I’m with my beautiful wife.
There’s no one else around for miles.
The cabin is located on 265 acres and there no city in sight, either.
A Hidden Gem
As for the inside of the cabin. It was cozy, and old. Older than just old. It was “original family on a farmland that had been passed down for generations old”. But everything worked. And that was all we needed.
Inside of the living room, a recliner and a small loveseat faced the television setup with a few DVD’s generously placed out for guests to enjoy. I watched “Little Miss Sunshine” that night. It was a great film.
The kitchen was a makeshift foyer kitchen but it had everything you needed to make simple meals and sit at the small table next to a window for a sunrise breakfast.
The bedroom was upstairs and, if you weren’t careful, you’d knock yourself out climbing those stairs because the stair set was built with sharp (and short) turns.
The greatest part of the house was the porch. The type of porch you can sit in the two wooden rockers (provided by the hosts) and gaze out over 260 acres of grain lands, complete with wildlife dancing their way through the meadows.
The Lay Of The Land
Directly next to the house there was a line of pine trees that had been planted in a v-stack formation. This allowed the whistling of the pines to be heard well when the wind would blow through. What a pleasant sound that whistling was. It was incredibly peaceful.
Because the pine trees were lined there near the cabin, birds were fluttering about. While sitting on the porch watching the sky, every now and then a songbird would swoop past you and give you some tunes to listen to as it did.
I could see birdwatching becoming a thing for me.
From that porch we watched the clouds form as if they were putting on the show of their lifetimes.
When it became dark out. The moonlight was the only real source of light on the 265 acres. This is a huge space and you’d think, “it must have been pitch black out there”. You’d be wrong, though. It was actually brightened by the moon so well that we could still see for miles. We could even still see the rabbits playing tag around the hay bales near an old barn.
Oh, right! There was that old barn, but we didn’t go in there. At night it seemed quite ominous. But that’s just us letting our imaginations go. We jokingly talked about what might be inside. Like telling scary stories around a campfire as kids.
The Bed Was Small
But, we slept great. This might have also been because we were so tired from the drive.
And when we woke up, we cooked eggs in the little kitchen (my wife is a chef around our campsites and she’s quick to whip something up for us, making me quite the lucky man). We cleaned up our mess, and head out for the last 3 1/2 hours of our drive to enter the Rocky Mountain National Park.
This Was An AirBNB
And if any of you are interested in staying a night in Stratton, CO. Let me know in the comments section below or email me at hyklyt@hyklyt.com and I can send you the link to the Airbnb. It’s the perfect romantic getaway!
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Thanks for reading, hiker!
HykLyt 