After a long week full of midterms, my friend and I decided to go for a last-minute drive up Flagstaff Road to Gross Reservoir to enjoy a sunset and the 70-degree weather in February.
If you've never been to Boulder or haven't seen much of it, I would highly recommend driving up Flagstaff Road. I have always loved steep roads with crazy turns, or as my family has dubbed them, "drunken indian roads", so going straight up the foothills while passing lookouts of Boulder and rock-climbers did not fail to disappoint.
Gross Reservoir is about 45 minutes up the road and in its own little oasis. Embedded in the foothills, it is technically Denver-owned land and supplies the city with much of their drinking water. My friend and I hiked down to the water to find emerging beaches that have been underwater for decades. The reservoir seemed half-empty and the dam was covered in construction equipment. We assumed that there was being work done on the dam in light of the close-to-catastrophe at the Oroville Dam in California recently. Not a bad idea.
We continued to explore the new shores that were covered in ice and snow and marveled at the melting reservoir and winter sunset.