Betrayal at House on the Hill – A Review

It is the classic Halloween story, a group of misfits find themselves outside of a haunted house, and for some odd reason they want to investigate. Like all great Halloween stories, there is a twist in this one. While they are investigating, one of them turns on all of the others, and it turns into a crazy attempt to escape from the clutches of the haunted house. Will this band of misfits make it to safety, or will the betrayer have his or her way with the group and bring them into the lonely confines of the house on the hill?

This is the premise that players will find themselves in when they pull Avalon Hill’s Betrayal at House on the Hill from the shelf and play a round of the game designed by Bruce Glassco with help in development by Rob Daviau, Bill McQuillan, Mike Selinker, and Teeuwynn Woodruff.

THEME

Betrayal at House on the Hill is the perfect game to play during the month of October. One session that lasts anywhere between one and two hours will tell a horror story that will make you one of the characters of that tale. It has a little bit of a Scooby Doo feel during the first part of the game where you explore the haunted house. Each tile flipped over adds more to the house, and creates more of a mystery. It also forces the players to make the biggest mistake that a group of explorers can make in any horror movie, go off on their own to discover what they can find. The game also comes with set of cards that have flavor text to them that when added to the various characters creates a great horror story full of all of the tropes that you would hope that a game like this would have. After a few game plays, the flavor text becomes predicable and it is hard to make a different story with it. On the other hand, if there is enough time between game sessions, the flavor text gets forgotten and you are able to create your own story.

The real adventure begins with the second part of the game when the betrayer is revealed. This is when the real horror story starts. There are fifty different scenarios that comes with the base game, and each one introduces different game play as the players try to solve the mystery of escape the house. It is also a mystery as to which scenario will be played as there is a great system in place to make sure that the mystery is unknown until a certain thing happens and unlocks the game play from that moment on. Some of the scenarios are more fun than other ones, but if you hit on one of the fun ones, the theme really shines and you feel like you are a part of a horror movie. All of the flavor text that you discovered before combined with the final events play out in a way that tells a complete story that will have you wrapping yourself in the moment of the game.

On the other hand, when it does not work, the story becomes a slog to work through, and you are trying to figure out a way to make it end. I have had this happen a couple of times, and I no longer cared about winning the game. I only cared about the way to make the story end as fast as I possibly could.

Rating – 7

GAMEPLAY

The game is broken up into two phases. The first phase is the exploration stage. During this phase, the characters start in the entry way of a haunted house. Each character is unique in their abilities. Some are faster and stronger; whereas, others are smarter and have a stronger resolve. Each of these abilities can grow stronger as the characters explore the house. On each of their turns, they flip over a tile to add to the map and then follow whatever is triggered by the room they enter. Sometimes this is a trap that will have them fall down to another level, or a mysterious room that will transport them to another part of the house. Most of the time involves finding an item, encountering an event, or experiencing an omen. The omen and event cards cause the character to try out their luck against the situation by looking at their abilities on their cards and rolling the amount of six sided dice that is indicated by their number. The dice only have zeroes, ones, and twos on them. After they roll, they add up the points, reference the card with the amount they rolled, and see what happens.

If an omen is revealed, the character has to roll again with six dice, and based on how many omens have been revealed, if they roll lower than that, the second part of the game is set in motion, the betrayal. They players look at which room and which omen triggered the betrayal. Then, they look in a book that came with the game, and based on the matrix, it will describe which scenario they will play, and who will be the betrayer. The betrayer takes control of the real threat of the haunted house, whether that is zombies, vampires, or deadly clown, and the two opposing sides have certain win conditions that they have to meet in order for the story to be complete.

The game is surprisingly easy to teach. There are intricacies to the game which can be brought up while the game is being played, but for the most part, I usually just go over the key rules, and hop into the game. When one of the rules needs to be discussed, I will bring it up, but that is a rare occurrence, and most of the time, I go right to having fun.

The game also works better with larger numbers as it fun to put all the individual stories together to create one overall narrative, but a lot hinges on the ability of the betrayer to guide everybody through the story. Considering that nobody knows who the betrayer is going to be at the start of the game, it means that anybody will have to be willing to take on this role and do it justice. Inevitably what happens is someone who is not great at running a game is the one who becomes the betrayer, and the second part of the game does not work the way that it is supposed to. This game works best with people who play role-playing games and are capable of taking on the Game Master role which means that this game is not for everybody. When everybody invests into the absurdity of the situation and helps tell the story, it becomes a blast to play. When more people who are not willing to help the story plays the game, the whole matrix falls apart and the game is not as fun. This makes it hard to get this game to the table. In other words, it is a hit or miss kind of game. When it is on, there is no game that is better. When it is off, it is painful trying to get through a whole game.

Rating – 6

ARTWORK

The artwork in essential to bringing to life any role-playing game. It helps to immerse players into the story. A real good game will consider not only the characters that are being used while playing, as well as the environment. The team of Justine Mara Anderson, Christopher Moeller, and Peter Whitley put all of this into consideration when putting together the feel of the third edition of the game.

The house that is created throughout the course of a game is created by tiles that give the perfect bird’s eye view of what each room would look like. It helps to feel like you are in a haunted house while you play the game.

The minis that are created are great if you are one of the characters. They look pretty good, but with the intricacies that are found with minis today, they are not as detailed compared with other games coming out today. They did a good job of giving them different solid colors so that can easily be found on the board and associated with character boards. Each character board is double sided with two different characters giving the game twelve different characters that you can play. Each character is given their own little quirks that helps players find a way to become a part of the role.

After the betrayal, there are a series of monsters than appear on the board. There are a lot of different creatures that can come into the story, and the designers understood that if they made a mini for each one, it would make the box massive, and the price of the game would have gone up. To combat this, they made little cardboard tokens. It does help with the space and what they can keep in the box, but the monsters are tiny pictures and do not help with the immersion of the game.

Some of the components do not work the way that they are intended. There are little tabs to keep track of the different stats of each character. They are hard to attach to the character boards, and they do not move once they are on there even though that is what they are designed to do. Considering this is an important part of the gameplay, it is annoying that they do not work well. They do sell other character cards that have dials for each of the stats that would work better, but why not put them in the game in the first place instead of supplying the game with a poor design. The game is not that expensive to begin with, and raising the price just a little bit to have better components would not take away from people buying the game.

Rating – 6

INTERACTIVITY

The first phase of the game has the potential for being a great moment for people to interact with each other, but once again, it depends on the people playing the game. It all comes down to how much the group wants to tell a story together. The flavor text that comes with each card that is flipped over, combined with the different characters, the rooms, and the imagination of all present, it can create an original story every time you play. The horror tropes might be the same, but the way that they are tweaked for each retelling will allow the story to unfold in fun ways. It requires the players to add those missing holes to make the story really come alive when you play the game.

On the other hand, if the players just flip over the cards, read the flavor text, and expect the story to be told through just that alone, the story will never come together. It requires that extra interactivity to make the game work on all cylinders, but it also takes players who feel comfortable with this kind of storytelling experience.

The second phase works better forcing people to interact with each other, and the story unfolds more naturally. Both the betrayer, and the party that is left behind are given clear goals to achieve. The party is actually given some time to discuss what they want to do with that goal, and can look over the map that they have created in order to make a plan of attack. The betrayer will not have an opportunity to interact with the group during this planning stage, but they will be the one in charge of the game and will have plenty of opportunity to interact as the game continues. However, the same problem occurs in the second phase of the game that exists in the first phase, the people playing the game have to feel comfortable playing this kind of game to really have it work the way it is supposed to. This becomes more important when the decision of who is the betrayer comes into play. If the person who is the betrayer is not comfortable in this role, then the whole game falls apart. They need to be that extrovert that will help the game come alive, allowing everybody else to find that extroverted side of themselves, and allow the story to play out with all of the little details that were collected in the first phase of the game.

Overall, the game allows for many opportunities for interactivity, and can create a memorable night for those willing to stretch themselves to make the game really come alive.

Rating – 6

EXPANSIONS

There are a couple of different versions of the game that are basically a re-skinning of the original version that is designed for different audiences. One, Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate, is designed for people who would like a Dungeons and Dragons experience with the same kind of mechanics. It would be the perfect edition for a group of role players that find a night of adventuring falling apart, but they still have enough of the group together to still play a game. The other is Betrayal at Mystery Mansion that plays the game with the Scooby Doo characters. This is the perfect setting for this game because even in the original version of the game, it feels as if you are a part of a Scooby Doo story.

There is also a legacy version of the game that takes place over decades. Players don’t just play one character, but they play families instead depending on whether a certain character survived or not. I have not played this legacy version of this game, but it appears to play with the same mechanics as the base game, and extend the story. I would consider it like your favorite horror franchise with each game being a new installment.

All of these are stand alone games, and there is really only one expansion out at this time, The Widow’s Walk. The base game is needed in order to add this expansion, and it adds another floor to the adventure, the roof. It also comes with fifty more encounters, new monsters, and new items. Though it does add more elements to an already full game, it is mainly for those that have played the game so many times that they are starting to repeat some of the scenarios. It helps to breathe life into a game that some love so much that they need that little extra.

Rating – 7

OVERALL

I will start this overview by saying that the best experience I have had playing board games over the last couple of years has come from playing this game. We were so immersed in the story and all the pieces fit together so well that I still talk about it with the people I played it with. On the other hand, one of the worst experiences I have had playing games has been playing this game. The people I was playing with were not into the story, and we even had to switch the betrayer because they were struggling with running the game. It through these experiences that I realized that this is not a game for everyone. If you like your Euro games, and puzzles that have a theme but that is not central to the game play, then this is not a game for you. If you like your storytelling games and love the opportunity to help guide the storytelling, then you will love this game. You will just need to make sure that the people you play it with feel the same way; otherwise, it will not play out the way that you would hope everytime.

Overall Rating – 3.2 out of 5 stars

Fauntleroy Park, The Lower Half – Seattle, Washington

Seattle is a city with limited space. It cannot sprawl out like other cities in the United States. Because of this, the sky slowly disappears as house, and towers grow taller and taller. More and more people crowd on the streets, and it is only until you get to the coast that you are able to find space to maneuver about. Still, they have made sure to protect certain parts of the landscape so the people of Seattle can get away from it all and get a feel of what it was like to live on the Puget Sound before it became so overrun with people. One of these places is outside of West Seattle called Fauntleroy Park.

There are really two parts of this park. The upper half is a thick forest with paths that run through it. It has easy access because of a lot of parking lots by it, and if you wander through these forests, you will run into people walking their dogs. It also allows for access to picnic benches, and a public pool that is open during the summer months. But if you take the road down to the shore, you will find access to a path that will lead to a rocky beach that is not as crowded as the other paths are.

Many people use it as a launching point for their kayaks, and paddle boards. There are quite a few of them here, but it is quieter than other places where people usually put in such as Alki Beach or the University of Washington. It is far enough away from the city and rush of people that most people that come out here for these activities have enough space to make it feel like they have it to themselves.

Staying on the coast is just as rewarding. Even though it is pretty packed with people out walking their dogs after work hours, and others come to hang out on a beach that is not as crowded as some of the more sandy ones in town, but it is not enough where you can’t find your own private spot on the expanse of shoreline. A walk down the beach will reveal a lot of little surprises as well from shelters made from the driftwood to carvings that will remind you that you are in the Pacific Northwest.

It is one of those hidden little gems in a city that continues to grow bigger and bigger every year. It is a little bit of a hike from the hustle and bustle of the main parts of the city, but it is worth the trek because it will feel like what the city used to be in it infancy. I hope that they make sure to keep this so that feeling never leaves this part of the country. It is something that is important to hold on to in this busy age.

Ekkstacy – A Night Reliving My Youth

What do you do if your nephew invites you to go see a band you have never heard of in a small club in the downtown part of the city you find yourself in? Well, if you have been following this blog, you would know that the answer to that question is, go. I don’t know what I am about to see. It could be great, or it could be a disaster, but either way it will be an adventure.

So I went down to the Larimer Lounge in Downtown Denver with my brother and his son to see a Canadian singer named Ekkstacy. We actually listened to his music on the way down so I could see what I was getting myself into. It was mellow with a little bit of an emo vibe to it. The music wasn’t what I usually listen to, but I liked it enough that I thought it was worth the price of admission.

What I saw brought me back to my college days. The performance had a lot more energy to it than the tracks we listened to while driving down to the show. The show happened in a cinder block room with poor acoustics, and filled with a younger crowd that knew the words to the songs, and jumped around while loosing themselves to the music. There were pits that formed for these short songs that burst into the room and left before they overstayed their welcome. In other words, I found myself at a punk rock show.

It wasn’t something that I had been to in quite a long time, and I did not rush into the madness like I would have in my youth, but it was fun to be back at a show like this. I do not go to many shows anymore, partly because I live in a country where bands don’t come through as much, and partly because the bands I would love to see cost way too much anymore. So it was fun to go and see a show in the raw and be exposed to a new band that I probably would have never listened to if it wasn’t for my nephew. Oddly enough, the scene had not changed that much since my time as a college student when I would go see bands like this more often.

So the next time somebody suggests you go out and try something new that might take you to a place where you have not been for a long time, say yes. It might transport you back to a time you had forgotten about, and present you with a new experience that you will never forget about.

The Alki Art Fair – Seattle, Washington

There is a rule of thumb in Seattle – when the sun comes out, you go outside. It is strictly followed during the winter months when the sky is usually shrouded in a cloud, but things are a little different during the summer months. There might be some clouds in the early morning, but they usually burn off before the afternoon, and the day delivers the perfect weather to enjoy. This is why many people come to visit this city during the summer, and certain places crowd in with people.

The city knows this as well, and uses the opportunity to have their festivals and fairs. They find the most iconic places in the area and gather artists, food, and music to give the people something to do while the weather is so beautiful. One of these celebrations has been coming year after year in late July on Alki Beach near West Seattle.

The Alki Art Fair is a chance for artists from the Pacific Northwest to come together to show off their latest creations. It is a great place to find paintings, photographs, woodworking, clothing and jewelry directly from the artists who created it. Many people gather here to find that next perfect thing for their house while being able to talk to the artists at the same time. Most of the work has the feel from this part of the world, and helps to support the arts in just Seattle, but all of Washington and Oregon as well.

The best part of coming to this art fair as opposed to others across the country is that afterwards, I found myself still on Alki Beach. It is one of the hidden treasures of Seattle. Yes, it does bring out many tourists who want to have a great view of downtown Seattle and hand out on beach right on the sound, but it is not as many as are found in Queen Anne or Pike’s Place Market area. It is the place where you can find more of the local population, especially on a great summer day as they look for the perfect place where they can come out and enjoy it.

Alki Beach is far enough away from the Seattle’s city center that tourists rarely find it, but it is a great location to hang out on the beach all day, enjoy kayaking or paddle boarding, and there are plenty of shops and restaurants on the other side of the street from the beach to entertain you as well. The art fair is just a great excuse to make it out to this part of Seattle and adds more flavor to an already great spot. If you were unable to make you way to it this year, don’t worry, there will be another chance to make it there next year. It will help you to make it out to this spot of Seattle and see something that many people miss out on during their visits here. It won’t take you long to figure out why when you come.

The First Time I Can Call the Platte a River – Denver, Colorado

When you grow up in the Denver Metro area, the Platte River is the river that you base all other rivers off of. At first, I thought it was huge, and I could not imagine another river that could compete with it, but that was before I took a road trip back east. My family drove over a bridge that demonstrated the might of the Mississippi River, and for the first time in my life, I had seen a real river. I have since come across other powerful waterways in other parts of the world, and when I come back to Colorado and look at the Platte River, I am embarrassed to think that at one time I could consider this river as something worthy of note. At times, it is nothing more than a trickle that pushes water over a muddy terrain as it winds its way through Denver and beyond.

The weather, like in many places in the world, has been quite unusual in Colorado this year. They have experienced more rain than they ever have in their recorded history. It was the third rainiest May, and the rainiest June. There are have been a couple of hailstorms during this period, and even a tornado. After a really wet winter, there is a lot of water that is filtering its way to the rivers of Colorado.

Luckily, the rivers have not overrun their banks, and the upcoming weather looks like that this will be the height of the rivers. Denver should not experience the problems that are occurring because of the rain in the New England area of the country. On the other hand, it has turned Denver into a city bursting with green, and rivers that could be used as an escape from the heat. This is something that Denver cannot boast about on a regular basis, but they are taking advantage of it.

The paths that follow the rivers throughout the city have turned into a recreation place during this summer. I have walked these paths many times throughout my time living there, and they are great places to ride your bike or go for a walk, but they have been transformed even more since I have been on them. The businesses that back up to the path use it as another way to attract more customers to come and visit them. There are many coffee shops, and bars that offer a spot to stop for a drink while watching people enjoy the river. The river itself is being used for fishing, and tubing. It had never been deep enough to let people participate in these activities, especially tubing. If you had tried it in the past, you would have beached yourself on any of the many sandbars that jut out from the water. Now, you can see a steady stream of people renting tubes from the Breckenridge Brewery, and walking along Santa Fe as they make their way further up the river so they can spend some time riding down it. It had become a central part of the city, and I have found myself a part of the people who are their ways to the river to enjoy what it has to offer this summer.

It still does not feel right to say that about the Platte, but I am going to enjoy it while I can.

The New Way of Kayaking – An Oru Kayak

One of the things that I have found a love for over my years of travel is kayaking. It is fun being able to see certain places in the world from the perspective of these tiny boats as I go places where many people never see. Most of the time, I find a company that rents out their boats, show up, hop in a kayak, and spend the rest of the day floating on a lake or ocean. It might cost a little bit of money, but it is always worth the experience.

Though this experience is great, there is a certain amount of freedom to having access to your own kayak that changes what can happen while kayaking. When renting from a company, you are limited in the amount of time you can use the kayak, or you have a guide that will take you to the places where they want to go. There have been times when I have been to some amazing places, but steered away from places I wanted to see, and this can only happen if I have the freedom to go where I want to.

But there is a dark side to this that many people who own kayaks know about. These boats are not easy to get from one place to another. It always takes a considerable amount of time to load them on to a vehicle to take them to those far away places that would be fun to explore. There is also the stress of transporting them as well. Though I know I have always strapped them tightly to the car, I still worry about a gust of wind, or a lost strap, to see the kayak flopping about on the road causing an accident. It always forces me to keep one eye on the top of the car when I transport them.

This brings me to the Oru Kayak that I have been showing it being opened up to get ready for an afternoon of kayaking on Sparks Lake in Central Oregon. This is a new type of kayak that does not require all of the trouble that comes with the traditional types of kayaks. It is a kayak that folds up to a portable size roughly around the size of a large briefcase. It weighs less than 15 pounds, and can easily be thrown into the back of a car to be taken to your favorite spot to go kayaking. It only took me 15 minutes to put it together as well, and this was the first time that I did it while using the instructions to to get it seaworthy. I am sure that the more I put it together that I will get quicker at the process.

But here is the big question that I am sure many of you are asking right now: how well does it work? I will be honest that I was very skeptical of the capabilities of this kayak when I was putting it together. The material was sturdy enough, but I did not know how secure it would be when I put it out in the water. Surprisingly, it was a great boat. It worked just as well as any other kayak that I have used throughout the years I have been kayaking, and the lightweight of it made it even easier to get it in and out of the water. Now, I wouldn’t take it to any location where the water would be choppy like the ocean or a river, but for a nice relaxing row on a mountain lake, it worked perfectly. The only other complaint I would have would be the exposure my legs had to the sun, but this can be easily fixed with a towel over the bow.

Overall, it was a great experience, and I loved the fact that it took care of all of the grunt work that makes kayaking more of a chore than a fun experience. An Oru Kayak is a game changer in the world of kayaking, and I suspect to see more of them on the mountain lakes in the upcoming years.

Happy Independence Day in the Hood

It took me until later in life before I realized how lucky I was growing up. My family had a decent sized house that did well handling the seven of us: my parents, four siblings, and me. At times it felt cramped, and going back to it, it looks smaller than I remember it being. But what my childhood so great was the neighborhood that I grew up in. All up and down the block, there were families with other kids my age, and we would venture out of our homes all of the time to hang out and have fun. There were many events during the year where we would get together, and the neighborhood became an extension of an already large family.

As I grew up, and moved to my own places, the spirit of that neighborhood was something that I constantly would look for, but it eluded me. Of course, I had neighbor or two over the years who were great, and I have made some great friendships along the way, but the neighborhoods I found myself in had more closed doors and people keeping to themselves. They would not have the same atmosphere that could be found in my neighborhood as child.

I have found some things like this with becoming an international teacher. There was an instant group of people that had a common experience and they would form a quick community. But the international scene also has a revolving door of employees coming and going, looking for their next adventure. I do run into some of those people during the breaks I have, and in my travels, and I enjoy it. Still, it misses that history that is created by living in a neighborhood for a long time when I get to watch people grow up and this feeling of family that is created.

The other night, I got to experience that feeling from my childhood again. I went to an early Fourth of July celebration at my brother’s neighborhood. Families from all up and down the street came together to join in the festivities. There was a shared history among the people, and as they created new memories, they talked about old ones. They welcomed me in as one of the group, and I felt like I was in my childhood again. It made me excited to know that neighborhoods like this still exist in the world, and those who find themselves in such places need to recognize how lucky they are to be living in them. Not every neighborhood is like that, and if they do exist, it could be a short time before they fall apart as people come and go. I hope that they embrace the experience while it happens because they could spend the rest of their lives finding that same feeling again when they have realized what they have lost. I was lucky enough to embrace it for one more night this summer, and for that I am grateful.

Reverend’s Ridge Campground – Golden Gate State Park, Colorado

It has been a family tradition for the last fifteen years. My siblings and their families pick a campsite somewhere in the state of Colorado, and we go camping over the weekend. Sometimes we are all able to attend, and on other occasions, only a few of us are able to go. It has led to some memorable moments over the last fifteen years as we have endured violent rain storms, wandering moose, hot sunny days, and strange neighbors. No matter what stories are created during these trips, it is always worth going on.

I was able to go this year, and the place we went was one that I had been to a couple of times, Reverend’s Ridge Campgrounds. It is a popular campground because it is less than an hour away from the western part of the Denver Metro Area, and its quick location to both Black Hawk, and Central City, two small mountain towns which offer casinos for people to play in. The campground is also an attraction to this area.

Other than the regular setting up a tent, and cooking meals, Reverend’s Ridge Campgrounds offers campers many other things that they can do while they are there. The campground’s center schedules many different people to come in to talk about the wildlife, flora, and night skies that can be seen around the sites. A little ways away are a couple of ponds that are always well stocked with fish offering a chance for anybody with a license to catch one. Also, a series of trails wind themselves through the wilderness that offers many levels of hikes. The most common one, Panorama Point, offers beautiful views of the surrounding Rocky Mountains, and it is common to see both hikers and mountain bikers on the trail.

Another trail, the coyote trail, hooks up with the Panorama Point trail, but it is better to take a short drive to hook up with it a little further down the mountain. It is the one that I enjoyed the most, and I would describe it as a moderate trek. Despite the challenge, it boasts two locations that are worth seeing. The first is an old cabin where bootleggers used to make what they called skunk whiskey during Prohibition. The other place is not as preserved as well. It is a homestead that was developed by a man named John Frazer, but was left to fall apart when he passed away.

It is a great place to go camping, but like any sites in Colorado, the campsites fill up quickly. If you are interested in coming here or any campsite in the state, you need to reserve your spot early. The spots usually open up for the next year in December, and I have applied to reserve spots the day they opened on Reserve America. They are usually gone within that first week especially for the weekends or the holiday periods. I know that means that you have to be on top of things during a busy holiday season, but it is worth the five minutes to make the reservation. It just means that you will have a perfect spot waiting for you when the summer months roll around.

Thank you for reading, and keep getting out there to have those adventures. Until next time.

Mount Falcon Park – Morrison, Colorado

It has been a while since I have gotten to walk around the mountains of Colorado. It is not like I had forgotten about the, but I could say I had taken them for granted. All of the time I spent stuck in a foreign country during the pandemic, unable to return home, I had thought about them. When I was able to make it back to Colorado and enjoy them again, my priority went over to visiting with family and friends I had not seen for a long time, and visiting the mountains had taken a back seat. So when my sister suggested that we go on a hike one morning to a place in the mountains, and not far from her home, I was once again acquainted with the majesty that is the Rocky Mountains.

The trailhead she took me to was for Mount Falcon which is perched close enough to the world famous Red Rocks Amphitheater that there were many spots along the way where I was able to look over the Front Range. In fact to get to the trailhead, we had to drive through rural areas, dotted with numerous houses, barns, and fields of grazing horses. Still, it was far enough away that when we arrived and started hiking the trail, we put any semblance of society behind us. I was once agin out in the middle of nature, breathing in the fresh air and listening to the sounds of the forests outside of Denver.

There are two trailheads for the Mount Falcon trail. There is the east path and the west path. The east path is a more arduous hike as it takes people up the mountain; whereas, the west path is relatively flat and the easier choice. They both lead to the same spot, so it really depends on the hiker as to how much of a challenge they are up for. I elected to take the easier path, so we drove to the west trailhead.

The places where the paths take you are the real reason for finding these trailheads. John Brisben Walker owned much of the mountain in the early part of the twentieth century. He had two locations that any traveler can get to if they come out here. The first one is his homestead, a large sprawling estate where he used to live with his family and servants. Only the ruins to this building remain as it was struck by lightning in 1918 and burned to the ground. Because John Brisben Walker had endured the tragic death of his wife two years earlier, he abandoned the homestead and left the ruins for us to enjoy over a century later.

The other site is not as interesting to look at, but it has a more interesting story behind it. There is a stone wall that would have been the foundation to a majestic building out in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. On top of it, there is one marble brick that hints at the material that would have been used to eventually make this building. John Brisben Walker wanted to make a palace for the presidents of the United States that would have called the White House of the West. He was able to put in that one marble brick, and the rest of the project was abandoned. Though it is not as exciting as the ruins, it was still an interesting place to visit.

It was fun to be able to venture off into the mountains of Colorado again, even if it was just in the foothills. I hope it opens the floodgates for me to explore more of these mountains in the future, and not to take so long between visits. I was raised by going into these mountains, and I need to return to those moments of my youth to remember how much is offered by the Rocky Mountains.

Lowry Beer Garden

Beer Gardens are places where you can go and meet your friends while sitting outside on a nice summer evening. Instead of having a waiter that comes around to help you with food and drink selections, you need to go up to the bar or the counter to get service. It is a nice time in a fun atmosphere.

It seems to be the trend in America to have more of these types of places pop up. I have been to places like this now in Oregon, and Minnesota so far, and I recently found one in Denver, the Lowry Beer Garden.

A long time ago in Denver, there was a place called the Lowry Air Force Base. It was eventually shut down as the city grew, but the hangers have remained in place. Some of them have been turned into museums and other businesses, but one of them was turned into a beer garden. It has turned into the go to place in this gentrified neighborhood in Denver. People can walk there, or ride their bikes on the large streets to enjoy the evening out with their neighbors. The place even has entertainment to keep bringing people in. The night that I was there, they were playing bar trivia, but we were sitting in the outside area and could not really hear the questions or participate in the game.

The beer is also really good. They do not brew their own beer, but they are in Colorado where great beer can be found everywhere. The establishment partners with the local breweries to rotate beers in and out, and there will always be one that you can find that adheres to your tastes.

The food was decent too. It was all made there; whereas, a lot of the other places like this just have food trucks come out to take care of this part of the experience. They really didn’t serve anything fancy, your basic pub fare of burgers, brats, and fried appetizers. They were reasonably priced, and it did not take that long to get the food.

Overall, I love this trend that is happening in America. It is a unique experience that I have not come across in many other places in the world. I do believe that it works better during the summer time, and I wonder how well these places do when things get colder outside, but I am out here during those hot months right so I will continue to seek these places out.

The Lowry Beer Garden was a good place to start.