The optional tour that's not really optional.

It seemed quite strange to us that only 10 of the 34 in our group wanted to go up into the Rockies. Denver is nice, but a day was long enough so a second day in Denver or the Rockies trip at $68 each seemed like no choice to be made, and we were right, we've had an incredible day. 

We started in unusual fashion by going here for breakfast. 

 And getting this for breakfast. 

As usual it was incredibly tasty and made freshly for us. The server was very friendly and she was jealous of our holiday. 

We also bought the biggest sandwich I have ever seen for today's lunch. I put the coffee mug in the picture to try to give a scale. 

 That will last us a while. 

Finally off in two SUVs. Me in the front, Alison in the back with Heather and two more in the boot seats. 

First visit was to Red Rocks. 

This is a rock tower tht the Indians worshipped as a god. 

 

Then we saw the theatre that holds all the concerts. 

The next rock is called The Ship as it is meant to look like Titanic sinking. 

After Red Rocks, Frank our driver took us to see the continental divide, the watershed of North America. 

After this we went to the mining town of Idaho Springs. 

Frank had heard all about our brew pub adventures of yesterday and suggested we went for lunch to another brew pub, Tommy Knockers in Idaho Springs. We did not need any convincing to relegate the huge sandwich to tea and gleefully went to Tommy Knockers. 

This is Frank and the brewery. 

Here they do a sampler where you get a third of a pint of all these beers. 

What this doesn't say is that they are between 5 and 10% and we are at 7500 feet altitude. 

Well, when in Idaho Springs....

We had Buffalo burger each for lunch. Another wonderfully tasty first. I hope we don't have to pay for all the extra weight on the plane on the way back. 

After lunch Frank took us to Echo Lake which is at an altitude of 12000 feet. 

It was stunning, as were the views. 

On the way back it started to rain. 

The next picture shows the skyscrapers of Denver in the distant rain. 

We stopped to visit Buffalo Bill's grave on the way back. 

 

And then we set off to drive back to Denver via this large complex. 

We had to go through 

 

and over this stream which the one pictured earlier flowed into. 

The importance of this stream is that the water from it is used here 

which is Coors, the biggest brewery in the world. 

We finally made it back to 5280 feet and our hotel at about 5:00. 

Tomorrow we have to catch the train before 8:00 so probably an early night but we might just visit another Denver brew pub this evening.