Conser Run Report: Business trip to Colorado!

Good morning everyone! I am back home now from a Business trip to Colorado for the PLANET Student Career Days at Colorado State University in Fort Collins Colorado. It was an awesome trip and I took around 400 pictures. I picked a few of those to show you some of what I saw and did.

I was lucky enough to get my favorite seat on the way there and the way back, right by the wing. I get motion sickness if I am not careful. I am learning to control it but I still get it. By being able to see the wing and surroundings I am able to control it. Plus, I get to see some pretty cool views of the ground if it is not cloudy.

Window Seat on Southwest Airlines

We got in pretty late the first day so we ate and went to bed. The first full day was beautiful. Perfectly sunny and a warm 65 degrees. We decided to head to Golden Colorado to tour the brewery that makes my favorite beer, Coors Original. This is the view from the parking lot!

View of mountain from Coors parking lot, Golden Colorado

Here is where the tour starts. You get a free tour of the town of Golden and the brewery itself. I think they need to repaint their sign though, it is getting a little dull!

Here is a picture of the large copper pots where they brew the beer. The tour is informative but you are limited on what you are allowed to see, most likely due to safety concerns and proprietary processes.

Large copper pots at Coors brewery Golden Colorado

Next stop on the tour was the Quality Control Lab....I want that job!

Quality Control Lab at Coors Brewery Golden Colorado

The best part of the tour was the free samples at the end!!! I had the Colorado Native. It was awesome! Only problem, you can only get at the brewery in Golden, no where else. If I could get this at home I would have a full keg.....I gotta find a way to get this. May need to give the Bandit a call and have him make a run with me!

Sample of Colorado Native at Coors Brewery Golden Colorado

And who could leave without a picture by the large copper pot at the end of the tour!

The main purpose for our trip was for recruiting some great talent from the competition! There were almost 60 schools with almost 800 participants. Much bigger than when I competed back in College. Some of the competitions are the same and others have changed and there are some new ones and others have been discontinued.

There is a huge Job fair at the beginning of the entire event. Even when I was in competitions it was great to come home with some cool "Swag" and nothing has changed since then. So, we took some cool handouts with us to get their attention and draw them in. We also had some great info about the company and what we do and what we stand for. I was a great feeling to get to meet a lot of great talent and hopefully get to have some of them as coworkers.

Enviroscapes Job Fair Booth at 2014 PLANET Student Career Days

After the job fair the Students all had briefings and training meetings so we had about 6 hours before the sun set to go visit some where. My coworker and I both wanted to see the Rocky Mountain National park even if we didn't have time to walk around. I really have no words to accurately describe the views. Breathtaking, mouth gaping awesome is as close as I can get. What is even more amazing is that on September 11 & 12 of 2013 this area experienced a 1000 year flood. That means a flood that happens at most once in 1000 years. Most of the road we were travelling was washed away and access to a lot of people and places was lost. They just opened the road back up officially a month or so ago and there is still a huge amount of work left to do. If you want to learn more about the flooding and the aftermath Google search Big Thompson Flood and you will understand the extreme scale of what happened.

Entering into Big Thompson Canyon in Colorado

Along the way there are many pull offs for you to take pictures. I stopped more times than I can count. There is still not a picture anywhere that will do the scenery justice. It is hard to believe this is even real until you experience it in person and can touch it.

Big Thompson Canyon Rocky Mountains, Colorado

We made our goal!! We reached Rocky Mountain National Park and headed on into Estes Park from there. I have always dreamed about getting to see this in person but never though I would actually get to do it.

Entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park on Rt. 34 in Colorado

Along our way we saw some wildlife. Here was one of many elk we saw along the road on the side of the mountain. We also saw mountain goats as well.

Elk in Rocky Mountains

Something else that I new existed but have never gotten to see till now was trees growing in nothing but cracks in solid rock. I would estimate that some of these trees were extremely old as they are very slow to grow due to the limited nutrients available to them.

Tree growing in solid rock, Rocky Mountains, Colorado

There were many many many stops to take pictures. This is one of those showing just how extreme some of the rock faces are. So amazing!

Big Thompson Canyon Rocky Mountains, Colorado

Another thing that was mind blowing is all the stuff I didn't see on the way in because I was looking from a different angle! I also stopped to get a picture of some of the boulders that were washed down the river in the floods. In the first two pics the boulders look big but not that big.

Boulders in Big Thompson River Rocky Mountains, Colorado

Here is a perfect example. These boulders looked big from the road but looked like they might be the size of a very small car. So I took a picture and then climbed down to stand on them for a size reference.

Boulders in Big Thompson River Rocky Mountains, Colorado

Here is me standing on the same boulder. The boulder was half the size of my house. Literally, if put the three large boulder in my house it would fill it from end to end and top to bottom. Unbelievable!!! These rocks were also not here originally, they were washed down from upstream during the flood. Imagine the force it took to move a boulder that probably weighs 100 tons! Not to mention the grinding effect of all the debris in the water just sand blasting away at everything it touched.

Boulders in Big Thompson River Rocky Mountains, Colorado

A couple more pics on the way back down the canyon.

Big Thompson Canyon Rocky Mountains, Colorado

Here is another size reference. If you pull up the picture to full size you will see a very large excavator sitting down by the river that they are using to clean up and rebuild everything. During the flood the water was so deep that it was over the top of the road and in a lot of places the road was completely washed out and carried out of the canyon. That is a massive amount of water!

Big Thompson Canyon Rocky Mountains, Colorado

This was a picture after leaving the canyon showing some of the Foothills.

Big Thompson Canyon Foothills Rocky Mountains, Colorado

Saturday the weather decided to be very very cruel! Unlike the sunny 65 degree weather we had the first two days Saturday was 25 and snowy. I wanted to show some pictures of the competitions. It was quite different to be on the outside looking in. A lot of times I wanted to jump in and help but all you can do is watch and hope they figure it out!

Hard-scape installation is a staple to any landscape competition. The cold just makes it more realistic!